It is virtually impossible to disentangle religion and politics when studying ancient sources:, they were not separate entities but tightly interwoven aspects of the same entity, involving questions of authority, who wields it, how they should wield it, and how these “authorities” are “authorized.”  Kings could be gods, and vice versa.  Priests were governmental officials and vice versa.   Laws were divinely sanctioned.  Opposition to the state meant opposition to the gods who supported it and opposition to the state gods meant opposition to the state.

That’s why Jesus’s “religious” views that God was soon to bring in a new kingdom and appoint him its ruler was seen as a “political” offense leading to his execution for insurrection.

It is also why his so-called “Cleansing of the Temple” was not only a religious statement but also

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