Facing the Mob

Book excerpt: Whether you are reading the story of Pilate's encounter with angry crowds during the trial of Jesus or reading one of the numerous accounts of mob violence in the book of Acts, you will find that the threat of crowd violence is a common theme in the New Testament, particularly in the Gospels and Acts. In Facing the Mob, Benjamin Browning provides a thorough examination of how government officials in the early Roman Empire responded to civil unrest. He then uses these insights from the ancient world to provide readers of the New Testament with tools that will help them to interpret civil unrest passages more effectively.