Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

CHAPTER 17
Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato
From very early days the Apostles' Creed jumped at once from Jesus' birth to
his suffering and death — natus ex Maria virgine, passus sub Pontio Pilato,
crucifixus, mortuus et sepultus ('born from the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried'). Whatever the richer theological
reasoning behind the huge gap between Jesus' birth and death, the gap itself
reflected the difficulty of pinning down hard historical data to times and
places within that gap. The same difficulty has meant that the last five chapters
have been little concerned to locate and sequence Jesus' doings and teachings.
For the same reason I had to leave open the question whether Jesus visited
Jerusalem during the years of his Galilean mission, and if so how often
(§9.9g).
But with the last few days of Jesus' mission we begin to feel firmer ground
under foot. For the sources which deal with the subject are in complete agreement:
the climax of Jesus' mission was a (final) visit to Jerusalem, and he was executed
there, probably at Passover 30 CE. 1
17.1. The Tradition of Jesus' Last Week
A glance at a Synopsis is sufficient to show that the Gospels all work with a common
framework for that final period, starting with the entry into Jerusalem (Mark
11.1-10 pars.) and building through various teachings and a final meal together,
to Jesus' arrest, trial, and execution (Mark 14-15 pars.). The most obvious explanation
of this feature is that the framework was early on fixed within the
traditioning process and remained so throughout the transition to written Gos-
1. On the chronology of Jesus' mission see above, §9.9a.
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