was jesus alive in roman times?

[delta733]

Im having a debate with a friend about this can someone telll me if he was alive in roman times

[squarebear]

The end of the Roman Empire is given to be around 476AD which would be 476 years after Jesus was born, so yes, he was alive during Roman times.

[Theland]

Christians believe that Jesus was the first to rise from the dead, so Jesus is alive now.
Regarding His earthly ministry, His birth from approx 4BC to His execution approx 33AD, was during the period when Israel was under Roman occupation.

[chakka35]

Since we don't know for certain whether Jesus existed or not or, if he did, when that was, the question is unanswerable.
Christian tradition has to rely on the gospels, only two of which address the issue. "Luke" gets in a muddle by giving Mary a pregnancy lasting at least ten years. "Matthew" says merely that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod i.e. anytime between 40BC and 4BC. That would certainly have been during the Roman occupation of Israel.

[Octavius]

During Roman times, Jesus was alive. And dead.

[sambro]

Was it not the romans who had Jesus tried before Pilate who was a roman? It was he that washed his hands of Jesus, and left it for the people to decide between him and Barabas. I may be wrong here, but was crucifixion the preferred method of execution for the romans?

[chakka35]

Yes, sambro, if you believe the gospels. But I wouldn't if I were you: neither of the two 'trials' of Jesus could possibly have happened that way.
The Jewish 'trial' before the Sanhedrin broke just about every Jewish law and regulation regarding trials, and the Jews were very strict about such things. The Pilate 'trial' is even more unbelievable. Pilate's method of dealing with unruly Jewish mobs is well-known: he slaughtered them, often planting his own soldiers in plain clothes among them so as to start the killing from within. The idea that he would courteously reason with them and eventually give in to them is laughable.

The early Church had a problem in its efforts to make inroads into the Roman Empire: the fact that the legend stated that it was the Romans who killed Jesus. How can you recruit Romans to your religion while at the same time telling them that they killed the god at the centre of it? The answer was to lay the blame on the Jews in what has been called The Greatest Libel of All Time. Hence the strange idea of a mob which had been greeting Jesus as a hero only hours before suddenly howling for his death. It's a fairy story, sambro. Enjoy it but don't believe it.

[sambro]

Chakka- please don't have a go at me about the gospels and what you think I might believe in. You have misinterpreted my answer. i was just trying to place Jesus as being around at the same time as the romans. I was not trying to blame anybody. Incidentally, I do not believe in the gospels ad verbatum. I do belive there is some truth in them. But I think a lot has been lost in translation. I do beleive that Jesus existed, but apart from that I have my doubts about exactly who or What he was.

[chakka35]

sambro, I wasn't charging you with anything. But your only idea about whether Jesus existed or not, and when that was, comes from Paul (writing AD55-60) and the gospels (written between AD70 and about AD120). Ergo whether you believe the gospels (who don't tell you much about his dates anyway) is the very nub.
Certainly, traditionally, Jesus lived in Roman times, just as Jupiter, Mars, Apollo and Mercury lived in Roman times and Sherlock Holmes lived in Victorian times.