Well, the Kingdom of Jesus, where he is "King of Kings" must be a real place. When he says, it is not of this world, does he mean the world as it was in the year 33, or does he mean the world as we know it. He is vague, and I believe he meant to say that he did not claim to be King of the Jews, even though he knew that he was entitled to call himself that, because he believed it would be enough to convict him of attempting to overthrow the other King of Judah, King Herod, who had a "legitimate" heir, Herod Antipater (Antipas). Here it becomes complicated, and it is possible that the reason Jesus was executed is because he was imposing a moral standard on teh rulers, which they were reluctant to accept.
Herod (Hebrew: הוֹרְדוֹס, Hordos, Greek: Ἡρῴδης, Hērōdēs), also known as Herod the Great (born 73 or 74 BCE, died 4 BCE in Jericho[1]), was a Roman client king of Judea.[2][3][4] His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis."[5][6][7] He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple) and the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima. Important details of his biography are gleaned from the works of the 1st century CE Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius.
The Romans made Herod's son Herod Archelaus ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea (biblical Edom) from 4 BCE to 6 CE, referred to as the tetrarchy of Judea. Archelaus was judged incompetent by the Roman emperor Augustus who then combined Samaria, Judea proper and Idumea into Iudaea province[8] under rule of a prefect until 41. Herod's other son Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee from 4 BCE – 39 CE.
Herod Antipater (Greek: Ἡρῴδης Ἀντίπατρος, Hērǭdēs Antipatros; born before 20 BCE – died after 39 CE), known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century CE ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch ("ruler of a quarter"). He is best known today for accounts in the New Testament of his role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
Antipas divorced his first wife Phasaelis, the daughter of King Aretas IV of Nabatea, in favour of Herodias, who had formerly been married to his brother Herod Philip I. (Antipas was Herod the Great's son by Malthace, while Herod II was his son by Mariamne II.)[1][2] According to the New Testament Gospels, it was John the Baptist's condemnation of this arrangement that led Antipas to have him arrested; John was subsequently put to death. Besides provoking his conflict with the Baptizer, the tetrarch's divorce added a personal grievance to previous disputes with Aretas over territory on the border of Perea and Nabatea. The result was a war that proved disastrous for Antipas; a Roman counter-offensive was ordered by Tiberius, but abandoned upon that emperor's death in 37 CE. In 39 CE Antipas was accused by his nephew Agrippa I of conspiracy against the new Roman emperor Caligula, who sent him into exile in Gaul. Accompanied there by Herodias, he died at an unknown date.
The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was first brought before Pontius Pilate for trial, since Pilate was the governor of Roman Judea which encompassed Jerusalem where Jesus was arrested. Pilate initially handed him over to Antipas, in whose territory Jesus had been most active, but Antipas sent him back to Pilate's court.
The Gospel of Mark uses the word aulē ("hall", "palace") to identify the praetorium.[1] Outside the praetorium proper there was an area called the Pavement.[Jn. 19:3] There Pilate's judgement seat (Greek: bēma), in which he conversed with the Jews, was located.[1]
As the religions professed by the Jews (Second Temple Judaism) and the Romans (Religion in ancient Rome) were different,[3] and since at the time Jerusalem was part of Roman Judea, the charges of the Sanhedrin against Jesus held no power before Pilate. From the three charges, brought by the Jewish leaders (perverting the nation, forbidding the payment of tribute, and sedition against the Roman Empire) Pilate picks up on the third one, asking "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus replies with "You have said so".[Mt. 27:11][Mk. 15:2][Lk. 23:3] Then the hearing continues[Jn. 18:33-38] and Pilate finally asks Jesus "What is truth?"
Stepping back outside, Pilate publicly declares that he finds Jesus to be innocent of the charges, but the crowd insists on capital punishment. The universal rule of the Roman Empire limited capital punishment strictly to the tribunal of the Roman governor[4] and Pilate decided to publicly wash his hands as not being privy to Jesus' death, leaving open the question of the Responsibility for the death of Jesus.
Herodias (c. 15 BC-after 39 AD) was a Jewish princess of the Herodian Dynasty. Asteroid 546 Herodias is named after her.
- Daughter of Aristobulus IV (one of the two sons of Herod the Great and the Hasmonean princess Mariamne I)
- Daughter of Berenice (a daughter of Herod's sister Salome I, and of Costabarus, governor of Idumea)
- Full sister to Herod V (king of Chalkis), Herod Agrippa (king of Judea), Aristobulus V, and Mariamne III (wife of Crown Prince Antipater and, after his execution by Herod the Great, she was possibly the first wife Herod Archelaus, principal heir of Herod the Great and ethnarch of Judea)
- Daughter-in-law of Herod the Great, twice: once by marriage to his son, Herod II, and again by marriage to another son, Herod Antipas.
Salome
Herod II and Herodias had a daughter named Salome, although some scholars indicate that some Greek texts show that Salome may have also been called Herodias like her mother, but was referred to as Salome in order to avoid confusion.[9] As Josephus reports in Jewish Antiquities (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):
Herodias, [...], was married to Herod, the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne II, the daughter of Simon the High Priest. [Herod II and Herodias] had a daughter, Salome...[5]
Some ancient Greek versions of Mark read "Herod's daughter Herodias" (rather than "daughter of the said Herodias").[9] To scholars using these ancient texts, both mother and daughter had the same name. However, the Latin Vulgate Bible translates the passage as it is above, and western Church Fathers therefore tended to refer to Salome as "Herodias's daughter" or just "the girl".
Christian traditions depict her as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness, for instance depicting as erotic her dance mentioned in the New Testament (in some later transformations further iconised to the dance of the seven veils), or concentrate on her lighthearted and cold foolishness that, according to the gospels, led to John the Baptist's death. (This Salome is not to be confused with Salome the disciple, who was a witness to the Crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15:40.)
So this is all very confusing, and you would expect Jesus to bring some light to it, would you not, but things were happening in those times, which were normal for them, but may not be so commonplace for people today. Perhaps I can shed some light on it, but on the other hand there is no proof that anything I say has any basis of truth, because it is just my story, and therefore I shall make it a work of fiction, not because I believe I am Jesus, but because people are expecting Jesus to return, but it may not be for a very long tomee, or soon. I am not Jesus, I am Malcolm Baker, I was born Malcolm James Lorenzo Baker on 28th July, 1955, and this is truth. It is true that today is the 8th of December 2012, and it is also true that there are twelve months in the year.
Salome (the deciple) in the canonical gospels
In Mark 15:40, Salome is named as one of the women present at the crucifixion: "There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome".[2] The parallel passage of Matthew (27:56) reads thus: "Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children."[3] The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) concludes that the Salome of Mark 15:40 is probably identical with the mother of the sons of Zebedee in Matthew; the latter is also mentioned in Matthew 20:20, in which she petitions Jesus to let her sons sit with him in Paradise.[4]
In John, three or perhaps four women are mentioned at the crucifixion; this time they are named as "his [Jesus'] mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene."[5] A common interpretation is to identify Salome as the sister-in-law of Jesus' mother, thus making her Jesus' aunt. Traditional interpretations associate Mary wife of Clophas (the third woman in the Gospel of John) with Mary the mother of James son of Alphaeus (the third woman in the Gospel of Matthew).
In the Gospel of Mark, Salome is among the women who went to Jesus' tomb to anoint his body with spices.[6] They discovered that the stone had been rolled away, and a figure in white then told them that Jesus had risen, and asked them to tell Jesus' disciples that he would meet them in Galilee. In Matthew, just two women are mentioned in the same story: Mary Magdalene and the "other Mary" - Mary the mother of James son of Alphaeus.
The canonical gospels never go so far as to label Salome a "disciple" ("pupil" mathētēs), and so mainstream Christian writers usually describe her as a "follower" of Jesus per references to the women who "followed" and "ministered" to Jesus (Mk 15:14).