Jesus himself did not proclaim himself directly as the Christ (“Messiah”). Although this statement is certainly somewhat surprising to us, it now emerges with some clarity from the frequently confusing quarrels of the historians; it cannot be eluded even if, indeed, especially if, one confronts with an appropriately critical attitude the hasty process of subtraction current in present-day research into Jesus. So Jesus did not call himself unequivocally the Messiah (Christ); the man who gave him this name was Pilate, who for his part associated himself with the accusation of the Jews by giving
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