I will say I got carry away with the question of Pilate and his guilt. I was watching documentaries on the trials, death and resurrection of Christ, reading the bible on these chapters and discussing with fellow Christians during the Easter weekend. I receive different views on Pilate. Some saying he had no choice so no guilt, others claiming him more guilty than the High priest since he was in charge and of course everything in between.

You did a good job in the podcast. I can learn a thing or 2 about structuring episodes.

the Romans expelled the Jews from Italy proper multiple times, at least one of which was before Christ was even born. this is to say nothing of the multiple wars they conducted in Palestine.

go tell Masada how much the Romans loved the Jew.

I think it's a leap to say that early Christians were trying to ingratiate themselves to the Romans in the Gospels. As my old pastor said, you have to look at the bible, especially the Gospels and consider who is talking, who is the audience, and what is he trying to tell them. That provides context. I believe John was written last, and the audience was gentiles, greeks mostly, I'm guessing. Not so much Romans, the power structure of which would've neither read, nor cared about the Gospels. You'll see this a lot where John goes into more detail than Matthew. Reason being, Matthews audience would've been Jews, so he took for granted they'd know this or that thing.

i'm supposed to believe a Roman governor would "feel guilt" for executing Christ himself? this is a different question from whether or not he actually did bear guilt, according to God's Law. according to Roman Law, he was innocent.

he was certainly responsible in large part for Christ's death, the Sanhedrin would have had absolutely no authority to command Roman Legions to perform an execution of any sort.

otoh, had the Romans not been there, the Jews would certainly have stoned Jesus to death, as they did Stephen just a short while later.