Background
Pontius Pilate was born in Italy before AD. Little is known of his origin, other than that he was of equestrian rank and probably succeeded Valerius Gratus as procurator in a. d. 26 and ended his procuratorship early in a. d. 36.
Pontius Pilate was born in Italy before AD. Little is known of his origin, other than that he was of equestrian rank and probably succeeded Valerius Gratus as procurator in a. d. 26 and ended his procuratorship early in a. d. 36.
Pontius Pilate ruled ten years, quarrelled almost continuously with the Jews-whom Sejanus, diverging from the Caesar tradition, is said to have disliked- and in a. d. 36 was recalled.
Eusebius relates but three centuries later and on the authority of earlier writers unnamed-that he was exiled to Gaul and committed suicide at Vienne. Pilate kept the Roman peace in Palestine but with little understanding of the people.
Sometimes he had to yield; as when he had sent the standards, by night, into the Holy City, and was besieged for five days by suppliants who had rushed to Caesarea and again when he hung up inscribed shields in Jerusalem, and was ordered by Tiberius to remove them to the other city (Philo ad Gaium 38).
Sometimes he struck more promptly; as when the mob pjotested against his using the temple treasure to build an aqueduct for Jerusalem, and he disguised his soldiers to disperse them with clubs or when he "mingled the blood " of some unknown Galileans " with their sacrifices " (Luke xiii.
1); or slew the Samaritans who came to Mt Gerizim to dig up sacred vessels hidden by Moses there an incident which led to his recall.
Philo, who tells how any suggestion of appeal by the Jews to Tiberius enraged him, sums up their view of Pilate in Agrippa's words, as a man " inflexible, merciless, obstinate.
"A more discriminating light is thrown upon him by the New Testament narratives of the trial of Jesus.
The result is explained only by the dialogue, recorded exclusively in John, which shows the accused and the Roman meeting on the highest levels of the thought and conscience of the time. "
I am come to bear witness unto the truth .
Pilate answered, What is truth?"
Estimates of Pilate's attitude at this point have varied infinitely, from Tertullian's, that he was " already in conviction a Christian "--jam pro sua conscientia Christianus- to Bacon's " jesting Pilate, " who would not stay for a reply.
"Pilate's place in the Christian tragedy, and perhaps also in the Creed, stimulated legend about him in two directions, equally unhistorical.
The Gospel of Nicodemus, written by a Christian (possibly as early, Tischendorf thought, as the middle of the 2nd century), repeats the trial in a dull and diluted way; but adds not only alleged evidence of the Resurrection, but the splendid vision of the descensus ad inferos-the whole professing to be recorded in the Acta Pilati or official records of the governor.
On the other hand the Mors Pilati tells how when condemned by the emperor he committed suicide; and his body, thrown first into the Tiber and then the Rhone, disturbed both waters, and was driven north into " Losania, " where it was plunged in the gulf near Lucerne and below Mt Pilatus (originally no' doubt Pileatus or cloud-capped), from whence it is raised every Good Friday to sit and wash unavailing hands.
Pontius Pilate was supposedly a ruthless governor, and he was removed at the complaint of Samaritans, among whom he engineered a massacre.
Pontius Pilate married Claudia Procula
