Alan Watkins: Pilate is a safe pair of hands and will go far

The execution on Friday of the Palestinian terrorist, Jesus ("Son of God") Christ, has aroused a surprising amount of interest outside the Middle East, where he was little known, even in his native Judea. It may be useful to set out the ascertainable facts of his life and death.

It may seem excessive to describe him as a "terrorist". He was, after all, famous – if only among his adherents – for his advocacy of turning the other cheek. As he told his friend and disciple Matthew: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.''

This, however, is to give an incomplete version of his admittedly complicated and, sometimes, apparently contradictory views; for he also said to Matthew: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." The context in which this is placed is that of family disunity, brought about by the attachment of one member to his cause, while the others express their disapproval.

Even so, he did not spurn the use of force in circumstances where it might secure his ends. For example, it required some violence on his part successfully to expel the stockbrokers from the floor of the Exchange. His friend and disciple John tells us that he "had made a scourge of small cords" to accomplish this purpose. But it may well be doubted whether a light whip alone would have proved sufficient to produce the result which he had in mind: not least because a large number, perhaps a majority, of those whom he was expelling into the City streets were Old Judeans, the less intelligent former members of the most expensive school in Jerusalem, and as such accustomed to physical chastisement in one form or another; while the rest were Jews from north Jerusalem, well used to preserving their own financial interests when these were under threat.

In those days, before the "Big Bang", the floor of the Exchange was largely devoted to improper stories and to the removal of other people's trousers; while the three or more hours allocated to the luncheon interval were dedicated to the heroic consumption of prodigious quantities of beer, wine and strong spirits, in this respect exceeded only by Fleet Street to the west of the Old City.

It was clear that with this incident, and in other ways, Christ had offended powerful interests in the land, which were sure to take their revenge sooner or later. It is in his capacity to cause offence – to upset the existing economic and financial order – that we must look in trying to explain his eventual demise. In comparison to this, his claim to being the son of God or the Messiah himself was an exercise in speculative theology, as such perfectly tolerable (though not perhaps wholly welcome) both to the imperial power and to its subjects.

Christ proved equally threatening through his ability to perform miracles. Whether these events ever happened precisely as his friends and disciples related is perhaps open to question. The political point is, however, that the man with the donkey (and very little else in life) was firmly convinced they had indeed occurred. At various times Christ claimed, or had it claimed on his behalf, that he had produced loaves and fishes where none had been present before; fed many thousands of people; and turned water into wine.

These stories alarmed the great supermarket chains which, with the full approval of the imperial government, were largely in Jewish hands. For if there was a man who could produce food and drink at, so to speak, the drop of a headscarf, of what further use were they? What use indeed! The transforming of water into wine caused particular alarm. Though the wine which he produced was depreciated by connoisseurs and even by normal social drinkers as poor, sour stuff, it would clearly have held considerable appeal to the man by the roadside who would normally have invested in a six-pack of Carlsberg Special.

The execution was not, however, desired by the imperial power whose local representative was Pontius Pilate. He was relatively young for the job, an ex-president of the Oxford Union who had read Philosophy at the university. Hence his question: What is truth? Francis Bacon (the essayist, not the painter) wrote that he was trying to be funny at this point. But there is no good reason to accept Bacon's view. Pilate, as far as we know, was being wholly serious.

Certainly he possessed the power to tell the Jews who were demanding Christ's death to stop bothering him and to go away. Alternatively, he could have embraced their cause. In the event he did neither, but gave the Jews their wish, and had Christ crucified. The governor of Britain, Antoninus Blairus ("The Butcher"), has warmly supported this decision as an outstanding example of the Third Way. Pilate had a difficult job to do, which he did to the best of his ability, while taking no pleasure in the outcome. Already, however, it is being said that it was the Jews who crucified Christ. But the Jews did not possess the authority to crucify anybody. It was a punishment reserved to the imperial power. Besides, if there had been no crucifixion, there could in the nature of things have been no resurrection, and consequently no Christianity. So, either way, it seems unfair to blame the Jews.

Whether the resurrection occurred in exactly the form claimed is disputed even at this stage. Christ was a young man, a non-smoker, a moderate drinker and a spare eater, who was used to walking long distances. He may well have managed to survive his ordeal and to escape from the tomb. Those in the imperial capital who have taken a close interest in the case are convinced that he may even now be found in Syria, Persia or, possibly, North Korea.

Christ was born some 32 years ago in Bethlehem in Judea but was brought up in Nazareth, where his father was a carpenter. There is some mystery about the precise circumstances of his birth: but it is known that he had older brothers. Following his father's trade, he was for a time active in the Woodworkers' Union and took a leading part in the campaigns against Visigoth rearmament and the possession by the imperial power of weapons of mass destruction. However, he soon grew weary of conventional politics and took to travelling round the country on foot with his friends. He never married.

The consensus is that Pilate, while no heavy hitter, is clearly a safe pair of hands and will go far, possibly even to Washington. As for the disciples, the inside view is that they will wander the region, posing no real threat to society and increasingly eccentric, until they and Christ are wholly forgotten.