The trial of Jesus has influenced the religious, political, social, and economic lives of people and nations throughout the world. It has proved to be fraught with complexities. It combines the subjective claims of divinity with the objective dynamics of human reality. The major assumption has been that the Romans, not the Jews, were responsible for the death of Jesus.

This book challenges that assumption and makes the claim that the Sanhedrin court had the power to impose and execute capital punishment at the trial of Jesus. The chapter on Martin Luther is included to suggest that Luther's failure to explain that a single verse of scripture resulting from the trial could not be used as a valid authority to condemn succeeding generations of Jews as "Christ killers." This failure gave impetus, if not license, to the National Socialist Party in 20th century Germany. Luther's influence on the religious and political life of the German people facilitated Adolph Hitler's rise to power and his "final solution" which resulted in the horrors of the Holocaust.

The German people and the National Socialist government appealed to Luther's historic prestige as justification for the vicious and inhumane policies and actions of the Third Reich.