13.   The Passion: the historical events

The conflict between the Roman and the Parthian Empires was the historical background

of the death of Jesus. In the Armenia crisis of 35/36 CE the conflict was held on the territory of the client/buffer states from Armenia to Palestine.

 In the beginning of the year 35 CE the situation in Palestine was instable because of the death of the tetrarch Philip in 34 CE and the dismissal of the governor Jesus some years before.

The Jewish and Oriental section of the populace was waiting for a sign of Roman weakness to appoint a king independent of Rome and to flee beneath the hegemony of the Parthian Empire – like two generations before, when Herod the Great had been forced to flee to Rome.

The Annals of Tacitus and the Antiquities of Josephus inform us about international affairs and regional conflict. Seeing Jesus as the governor of Galilee and identifying him with the Samaritan prophet we can understand the conditions and the series of events which led to the death of Jesus.