Pontius Pilate
- James Collazo
- May 25, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 15
Introduction
Pontius Pilate (Latin: Pontius Pilatus / Greek: Pontios Pilatos) was probably born in Italy around 3 BC. His nomen, Pontius, is associated with the Samnite gens Pontia, suggesting that his family may have originated in Samnium before becoming integrated into Roman society. The Samnites were an ancient people who spoke Oscan, a language that later disappeared. After the Samnite Wars (341–290 BC), many Samnite families, including the Pontii, became part of Roman society. The nomen Pontius was a common Oscan name. Pilate belonged to the Roman equestrian class, a group of mid-level nobles. The emperor Tiberius appointed him prefect of Judea, and he served in that position from about AD 26 to 36.
In 1961, Italian archaeologist Antonio Frova uncovered an important inscription at Caesarea Maritima. It was a limestone block that preserved part of Pontius Pilate's name and title. The reconstructed Latin text reads: [Dis Augustis] Tiberieum [Pon]tius Pilatus [Praef]ectus Iudaeae, which means, "Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, dedicated this Tiberieum to the Divine Augustus." Because the stone is damaged, some words appear in brackets to indicate scholarly reconstruction. The find is unsurprising, since Caesarea Maritima served as the Roman administrative capital of Judea, while Jerusalem remained its religious center. The inscription indicates that Pilate dedicated a Tiberieum, a structure honoring Tiberius.
Pilate in History
Both the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed state that Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate" (see "Confessions of Faith"). By naming Pilate, the early church emphasized that faith in Christ is grounded in real history. Pilate was the Roman governor who oversaw Jesus' trial and approved his crucifixion. Yet his conflicts with the Jewish people began long before that moment, and ancient historians recorded two major incidents that damaged his reputation.
The first incident occurred around AD 26, when Pilate ordered soldiers from Caesarea Maritima to enter Jerusalem for the winter, carrying military standards bearing the image of the emperor Tiberius (Josephus, Ant. 18.3; B.J. 2.9). These images violated Jewish law (Exod. 20:4), and a large group of protesters traveled to Caesarea demanding their removal. Pilate threatened to kill them, but they refused to yield, forcing him to withdraw the standards.
The first-century Jewish writer Philo described Pilate as "inflexible, stubborn, and cruel" and recorded the Jewish leaders' plea not to provoke unrest or dishonor the emperor. Philo noted that Pilate feared an appeal to Rome because it might expose "his corruption, and his acts of insolence, and his rapine, and his habit of insulting people, and his cruelty, and his continual murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never ending, and gratuitous, and most grievous inhumanity" (Philo, Leg. 302).
The second conflict occurred around AD 28, when Pilate used money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct for Jerusalem. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus reported that many Jews protested this as a misuse of funds dedicated to God (cf. Exod. 30:11–16). When crowds gathered at the Praetorium to protest, Pilate sent soldiers disguised as civilians, who attacked the protesters at his signal, killing many (Ant. 18.3; B.J. 2.9). Taken together, these incidents illustrate Pilate's repeated insensitivity to Jewish religious concerns and his willingness to use violence to suppress opposition.
Pilate's downfall followed a few years later. Lucius Vitellius, the Roman governor of Syria from AD 35 to 39, removed him after he brutally crushed a Samaritan gathering on Mount Gerizim. Vitellius sent him to Rome to answer before Tiberius, but the emperor died in AD 37 before Pilate arrived. His removal effectively ended his political career (Ant. 18.4).
Pilate in the Bible
In his gospel, Luke reports an earlier act of violence by Pilate: "the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices" (Luke 13:1). Yet many churchgoers view Pilate more sympathetically in the trial of Jesus. During that trial, Pilate ordered Jesus to be flogged before his crucifixion (Luke 23:16, 22; John 19:1). The Roman soldiers added their own cruelty by mocking Jesus as "King of the Jews," placing a crown of thorns on his head, and dressing him in a purple robe (Matt. 27:29; Mark 15:18; John 19:2–4).
Sometimes readers focus only on the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, for condemning Jesus, but Pilate and his Roman soldiers were equally guilty. In truth, all people—Jew and Gentile alike—share responsibility for Jesus' death, because our sin made his sacrifice necessary (Rom. 3:22–23). Blaming one group misses the greater truth: Jesus willingly gave his life so that all nations could be forgiven and restored to God.
Matthew's description of the crowd has caused deep pain for Jewish communities: "I am innocent of this man's blood . . . It is your responsibility!" and the crowd's reply, "His blood is on us and on our children!" (Matt. 27:24–25). Throughout history, some claiming the name of Jesus—himself a Jew—have used this verse to justify anti-Jewish hatred. When director Mel Gibson filmed The Passion of the Christ (2004), Jewish anti-defamation groups asked him to remove this line; he kept it in the Aramaic dialogue but omitted it from the subtitles.
In its New Testament context, the crowd accepted the national consequences of defying Pilate but did not grasp the spiritual implications of opposing God. About forty years later, in AD 70, the Romans besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple (Matt. 24:1–2; Mark 13:1–2; Luke 21:5–6). Caiaphas expressed a similar idea when he argued that one man should die for the people (John 11:49–50; cf. 18:14). Matthew's point was to contrast the crowd's acceptance of responsibility with Pilate's attempt to refuse it—not to declare a permanent curse on all Jews (see "Auschwitz & Biblical Studies").
Even Roman historians recognized Pilate's role in Jesus' execution. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that "Christ, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate," and that the Christian movement soon spread from Judea to Rome (Ann. 15.44). Pontius Pilate occupies a unique place in Christian history because his name appears not only in the New Testament but also in other first-century sources. These witnesses place Jesus' crucifixion within a specific historical setting under the administration of a known Roman prefect.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Josephus. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Version. Translated by William Whiston. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1987.
Philo. The Works of Philo Judaeus. Translated by C. D. Yonge. London: Bohn, 1890.
Tacitus. Complete Works of Tacitus. Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. New York: Random House, 1942.
Commentaries
Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of John: A Commentary. 2 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003.
Monographs
Bond, Helen K. The First Biography of Jesus: Genre and Meaning in Mark's Gospel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020.
Bond, Helen K. The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed. Guides for the Perplexed. London: T&T Clark, 2012.
Bond, Helen K. Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 100. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Brown, Raymond E. The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. 2 vols. Anchor Bible Reference Library. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
Carter, Warren. Pontius Pilate: Portraits of a Roman Governor. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2003.
Demandt, Alexander. Pontius Pilatus. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2012.
Online Resources
Bates, Stephen, and John Hooper. "Gibson Film Ignores Vow to Remove Blood Libel."↗ The Guardian. February 27, 2004.
Carter, Warren. "Pontius Pilate."↗ Bible Odyssey. Society of Biblical Literature. June 21, 2018.
Jarus, Owen. "Who Was Pontius Pilate?"↗ Live Science. March 25, 2019.
Lendering, Jona. "Lucius Vitellius."↗ Livius. August 5, 2020.
Lendering, Jona. "Pontius Pilate."↗ Livius. April 16, 2020.
Windle, Bryan. "Pontius Pilate: An Archaeological Biography."↗ Bible Archaeology Report (blog). October 11, 2019.