Did Jesus really get crucified for claiming to be God? (Motive for crucifixion)

1. In modern terms, treason or conspiracy to commit treason. From the New Oxford Annotated Bible:
2. [12:21 PM]Luke 23:2: “They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king”” “The charge is phrased to sound like treason.” Mark 15:26: ‘The inscriptions of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” “The inscription indicates the crime: as “King of the Judeans” Jesus threatened to bring about a rebellion against the law and order of the empire” Matthew 27:37: “Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” “The charge suggests that he was considered a political threat.”
3. In the context of the above quotes, Rome. It is the Roman Prefect Pilate who sentences Jesus, not Herod or the Sanhedrin, and it is Roman soldiers who execute him. And yes, at least some of the gospels have an apologetic interest issue in shifting (or at least spreading) the blame for Jesus’ crucifixion from Rome to the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem: “The Gospels’ portrayal of a Jesus who posed no threat to Roman order… [reflects] the situation of apologists for religious groups who had learned how to get along in the Roman Empire” (Richard D. Sullivan, Anchor Bible Dictionary entry for “Pontius Pilate”).
4. As for moving the charge onto the Jewish authorities or Jewish people, per E.P. Sanders in The Historical Jesus: “The Gospels, especially Matthew and John, want Jesus to have been condemned by the Jewish mob, against Pilate’s better judgement… These elements of the story… derive from the desire of the Christians to get along with Rome and to depict the Jews as their real opponents.” (273)
5. The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels. She tracks the changes from “Jesus was a political insurrectionist the Romans found to be dangerous” to “Jesus was a religious rebel the Jewish leadership found to be dangerous so they handed him over to the Romans.” She outlines it as Matthew writing for Christians still living under Roman control. Worshipping a man executed for political insurrection against the active ruling group would have been extremely dangerous for those Christians, so Matthew presented the crucifixion as prompted by Jewish leaders instead of Roman leaders.

1. According to Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity. By PAULA FREDRIKSEN. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999
2. Rome did not really believe that Jesus was an insurrectionist. Nor did the priestly establishment who were involved in Jesus’ death. Nor was Jesus executed because he claimed to be king: he did not regard himself as messiah nor did his closest followers make such claims about him. She argues that Jesus came to Jerusalem especially when the greatest number of people would be there, on the pilgrimage holidays. On such occasions, of course, Rome’s prefect was there too. Jesus preached his message of the coming Kingdom openly, where he could find the largest audience: in the Temple precincts (Jn 2-12 passim; see too 18.20). Accord-ingly, both Pilate and the priests knew perfectly well that his teachings were in no practical way revolutionary. But on what turned out to be his final Passover there, Jesus evidently lost control of his audience. Their growing excitement about the imminent Kingdom as Passover approached, and their noisy conviction that Jesus himself was its special harbinger— perhaps even the messiah- -led directly to his death. This is why Jesus was crucified, but his followers were not.

Why weren’t his followers crucified when Jesus was crucified? “The cross is, first and foremost, mass control. “Despite knowing that Jesus and his immediate followers are harmless, Pontius Pilate crucifies Jesus as ‘king’ to convince this rebellious crowd of their messiah.” (Paula Fredriksen)

“In crucifying criminals, the most frequently used means are chosen where the greatest number of people can see and be frightened.” | Quintilian (AD 35–100), Declamations 274.13

It is generally accepted that the crucifixion was practiced in Rome for serious criminals. Marcus Minucius Felix (d. 250) even mentions the pagan Caecilius Natalis as saying that Christians worshiped “a crucified criminal.” The image of “criminal Jesus” is also used against Christians.

Note: In Rome, slaves usually go to the cross. Spartacus famously said that if they were caught leading his slave army, they would be crucified – and they were. Apart from this, there were also people who were Roman citizens and were unjustly crucified. Cicero defends such a person.

Romans killed Jesus, not ‘Jews’.

Religious disputes between Jews are not something a Roman governor could care about. The cross is a Roman political mass control tool. And Jesus is one of the examples of this mass control tool being applied. Jesus’ death is very Roman. In addition, although Pontius Pilate in the Bible is depicted as a sweet Roman governor for theological reasons, in other sources of his time he is a figure that stands out with his “cruelty” and “execution of innocent people”. Jesus is one of the victims of this figure.

“[Pontius Pilate] was afraid of being reported to the Emperor for his corruption, his arrogance, his habit of insulting people, his cruelty, his constant killing of untried and innocent people, his never-ending, gratuitous and most gross inhumanity.” | Philo, Ad Gaium 302