"But I find it noteworthy and strange that Pilate's and the high priests' economic motives aren't at all reflected in the gospels." 

I think this is where the modern reader can go wrong: we risk imposing our worldview on the ancient writer. 

So it'll seem strange that economic motives aren't mentioned only if we presume the authors considered such concepts. But I dont think people thought that way about things back then. Economics as a discipline developed way after the gospel writers...Adam Smith didnt write his wealth of nations stuff until the 1700s I believe.

Im not saying there werent  economic motivations throughout history. Im just saying we only started to recognize them over the past few hundred years, so there is no need to jump to a censorship thesis to explain why they arent reflected explicitly in the bible.

Thanks for the stimulating interaction! 

 Highly relevant points. But I actually think more people had a good understanding of money then than they have today, and the evils of monerary policy were probably widely understood.