On Pontius Pilate
Pilate was an extremely powerful man. He answered to the Legate of Syria, who in turn answered to Emperor Tiberius, so was far, far up the chain of command. He was in charge of a region that encompassed, butwas larger than, the Jewish kingdom of Judah. He even issued his own coins.
He was a long way from being merely a petty Roman official.
But what was he like?
Josephus mentions him in both Antiquities of the Jews and The Jewish War. He recounts the same events in both works, and we read of a man who did not care about Jewish sensibilities and had no qualms about killing Jews who stood against him.
1. But now Pilate, the procurator of Judea, removed the army from Cesarea to Jerusalem: to take their winter quarters there; in order to abolish the Jewish laws. So he introduced Cesar’s effigies, which were upon the ensigns, and brought them into the city: whereas our law forbids us the very making of images.6 On which account the former procurators were wont to make their entry into the city with such ensigns as had not those ornaments. Pilate was the first who brought those images to Jerusalem, and set them up there. Which was done without the knowledge of the people; because it was done in the night time. But as soon as they knew it, they came in multitudes to Cesarea, and interceded with Pilate many days, that he would remove the images. And when he would not grant their requests, because this would tend to the injury of Cesar; while yet they persevered in their request; on the sixth day he ordered his soldiers to have their weapons privately; while he came and sat upon his judgment seat. Which seat was so prepared, in the open place of the city, that it concealed the army that lay ready to oppress them. And when the Jews petitioned him again, he gave a signal to the soldiers to encompass them round; and threatened that their punishment should be no less than immediate death, unless they would leave off disturbing him, and go their ways home. But they threw themselves upon the ground, and laid their necks bare, and said they would take their death very willingly, rather than the wisdom of their laws should be transgressed. Upon which Pilate was deeply affected with their firm resolution to keep their laws inviolable: and presently commanded the images to be carried back from Jerusalem to Cesarea.
2. But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem; and did it with the sacred money: and derived the origin of the stream from the distance of two hundred furlongs. However, the Jews (7) were not pleased with what had been done about this water: and many ten thousands of the people got together, and made a clamour against him; and insisted that he should leave off that design. Some of them also used reproaches, and abused the man; as crowds of such people usually do. So he habited a great number of his soldiers in their habit; who carried daggers under their garments; and sent them to a place where they might surround them. So he bid the Jews himself go away. But they boldly casting reproaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed on. Who laid upon them much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them; and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that were not. Nor did they spare them in the least. And since the people were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about, they were a great number of them slain by this means: and others of them ran away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition.
- Antiquities of the Jews (18.3)
2. Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius, sent by night those images of Cæsar that are called ensigns, into Jerusalem. This excited a very among great tumult among the Jews when it was day; for those that were near them were astonished at the sight of them, as indications that their laws were trodden under foot; for those laws do not permit any sort of image to be brought into the city. Nay, besides the indignation which the citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast number of people came running out of the country. These came zealously to Pilate to Cesarea, and besought him to carry those ensigns out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable; but upon Pilate’s denial of their request, they fell down prostrate upon the ground, and continued immoveable in that posture for five days, and as many nights.
3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal, in the open market place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to give them an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers, that they should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews with their weapons; so the band of soldiers stood round about the Jews in three ranks. The Jews were under the utmost consternation at that unexpected sight: Pilate also said to them, that they should be cut in pieces, unless they would admit of Cæsar’s images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their naked swords. Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down in vast numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried out that they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their law should be transgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surprised at their prodigious superstition, and gave order that the ensigns should be presently carried out of Jerusalem.
4. After this he raised another disturbance, by expending that sacred treasure which is called Corban (10) upon aqueducts, whereby he brought water from the distance of four hundred furlongs. At this the multitude had indignation; and when Pilate was come to Jerusalem, they came about his tribunal, and made a clamour at it. Now when he was apprized aforehand of this disturbance, he mixed his own soldiers in their armour with the multitude, and ordered them to conceal themselves under the habits of private men, and not indeed to use their swords, but with their staves to beat those that made the clamour. He then gave the signal from his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them]. Now the Jews were so sadly beaten, that many of them perished by the stripes they received, and many of them perished as trodden to death by themselves; by which means the multitude was astonished at the calamity of those that were slain, and held their peace.
- The Jewish War (2.9)
Josephus was writing about when the gospels were written; War of the Jews ca. 75, and Antiquities about 20 years later.
Philo of Alexandria also describes Pilate, possibly the same events, writing as early as AD 41.
XXXVIII. (299) "Moreover, I have it in my power to relate one act of ambition on his part, though I suffered an infinite number of evils when he was alive; but nevertheless the truth is considered dear, and much to be honoured by you. Pilate was one of the emperor's lieutenants, having been appointed governor of Judaea. He, not more with the object of doing honour to Tiberius than with that of vexing the multitude, dedicated some gilt shields in the palace of Herod, in the holy city; which had no form nor any other forbidden thing represented on them except some necessary inscription, which mentioned these two facts, the name of the person who had placed them there, and the person in whose honour they were so placed there. (300) But when the multitude heard what had been done, and when the circumstance became notorious, then the people, putting forward the four sons of the king, who were in no respect inferior to the kings themselves, in fortune or in rank, and his other descendants, and those magistrates who were among them at the time, entreated him to alter and to rectify the innovation which he had committed in respect of the shields; and not to make any alteration in their national customs, which had hitherto been preserved without any interruption, without being in the least degree changed by any king of emperor. (301) "But when he steadfastly refused this petition (for he was a man of a very inflexible disposition, and very merciless as well as very obstinate), they cried out: 'Do not cause a sedition; do not make war upon us; do not destroy the peace which exists. The honour of the emperor is not identical with dishonour to the ancient laws; let it not be to you a pretence for heaping insult on our nation. Tiberius is not desirous that any of our laws or customs shall be destroyed. And if you yourself say that he is, show us either some command from him, or some letter, or something of the kind, that we, who have been sent to you as ambassadors, may cease to trouble you, and may address our supplications to your master.' (302) "But this last sentence exasperated him in the greatest possible degree, as he feared least they might in reality go on an embassy to the emperor, and might impeach him with respect to other particulars of his government, in respect of 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. (303) Therefore, being exceedingly angry, and being at all times a man of most ferocious passions, he was in great perplexity, neither venturing to take down what he had once set up, nor wishing to do any thing which could be acceptable to his subjects, and at the same time being sufficiently acquainted with the firmness of Tiberius on these points. And those who were in power in our nation, seeing this, and perceiving that he was inclined to change his mind as to what he had done, but that he was not willing to be thought to do so, wrote a most supplicatory letter to Tiberius. (304) And he, when he had read it, what did he say of Pilate, and what threats did he utter against him! But it is beside our purpose at present to relate to you how very angry he was, although he was not very liable to sudden anger; since the facts speak for themselves; (305) for immediately, without putting any thing off till the next day, he wrote a letter, reproaching and reviling him in the most bitter manner for his act of unprecedented audacity and wickedness, and commanding him immediately to take down the shields and to convey them away from the metropolis of Judaea to Caesarea, on the sea which had been named Caesarea Augusta, after his grandfather, in order that they might be set up in the temple of Augustus. And accordingly, they were set up in that edifice. And in this way he provided for two matters: both for the honour due to the emperor, and for the preservation of the ancient customs of the city.
The gospels, however, paint quite a different picture of Pilate. They portray him as a man forced by the Jewish people to do their bidding. Why the discrepencies between these two versions of the same man?
The simple answer is that the early Christians wanted to sell their religion to the Romans, and it was expediate to play down Pilate's role in the execution.
That said, there are still verses that tell us what Pilate was really like. For example:
Luke 13:1 At this time some people came to Jesus. They told Him that Pilate had killed some people from the country of Galilee. It was while they were giving gifts of animals on the altar in worship to God. 2 Pilate put their blood together with the blood of the animals. Jesus said to them, “What about these people from Galilee? Were they worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee because they suffered these things?
So even in Luke we can read about Pilate killing Jews, and further more showing his disdain for their religion by mixing the blood of the sacrifices with the blood of his victims.
That is not the work of a man easily cowered by the Jews. That is the work of a cruel tyrant, as described by Josephus and Philo.
Why Jesus Was Executed
There is a theological reason and a historical reason, and while the theological reason is arguably more important, this is about the historical reason. Was Jesus executed by the Jews or the Romans? And on what charge?
The exact charge will be impossible to determine, but a few possibilities must be considered. These are blasphemy, sedition and causing trouble.
Blasphemy can be rejected immediately. The Jews may have convicted him of blasphemy, but Jesus was crucified; it was the Roman's who did the did, therefore he necessarily must have been found guilty of breaking Roman law, and the Romans would not care one jot if he blasphemied gainst the Jewish religion - Pilate did that himself!
That is not to say the priests did not find him guilty of blasphemy, and then frame him for sedition; that is a possibility. But he was not executed by the Jews and he was not executed for blasphemy.
Note that the Bible tells us the Jews were allowed to execute blasphemers; if Jesus was accused of blasphemy, they had no need to hand him over to Pilate, they could deal with it on there own, just as they did with Stephen.
Acts 7:59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
So was he executed for sedition or just being a trouble-maker?
A word about sedition. This has some nuance, and scholars have debated exactly what the exact charge would have been.
"Because Ulpian mentions maiestas as a possible exception to burial of individuals condemned to death, it is necessary to discuss that as a possible charge against Jesus. Although Raymond Brown and others have argued that maiestas was the charge against Jesus, it is more probable that Pilate executed him for sedition or troublemaking, especially because Jesus was a peregrinus (not a Roman citizen). Since Jesus was a peregrinus, it is difficult to see that a formal charge like maiestas (or perduellio [high treason]) would be relevant. I have not found any records of Roman trials in which a peregrinus was explicitly accused of maiestas by a magistrate. A. N. Sherwin-White, a meticulous classical scholar, thinks that Pilate executed Jesus on the charge of sedition. The bibliography is endless, and it is not necessary to rehearse it here". (Cook, J. (2011). 'Crucifixion and Burial'. New Testament Studies, 57(2)
Maiestas was the crime of treason, so the above is considering whether Jesus was charged with sedition or treason. What is the difference? Either way Jesus was considered a rebel against Roman rule.
One difference appears to be how the accused was executed. Those accused of maiestas were generally beheaded, but as the above says this applied to Roman citizens, so would not be the case for Jesus. That said, definitions changed over time, so it cannot be ruled out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_majestas
Was Jesus executed as a rebel against Roman, whether the charge was maiestas or sedition?
The Jews Hailed Jesus as the messiah, the man sent by God to deliver them from the Roman oppressors
The Jews understood the messiah to be the man sent by God to deliver them from their oppressors.
Micah 5:6 They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
The land of Nimrod at its entrances;
And He will rescue us from the Assyrian
When he invades our land,
And when he tramples our territory.
So when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he was hailed as the man who would restore the coming holy nation of our father David, i.e., the kingdom of Judah.
Mark 11:8 Many people put their clothes down on the road. Others cut branches off the trees and put them down on the road. 9 Those who went in front and those who followed spoke with loud voices, “Greatest One! Great and honored is He Who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Great is the coming holy nation of our father David. It will come in the name of the Lord, Greatest One in the highest heaven.”
The Saduccees supported the Romans, and the high priest had been appointed by Pilate. They were against Jesus because they did not want a rebel, which would only lead to the destruction of their nation (and indeed in AD 70 just that happened). Hence we read:
John 11:47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council meeting, and they were saying, “What are we [o]doing in regard to the fact that this man is performing many [p]signs? 48 If we let Him go on like this, all the people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take over both our [q]place and our nation.”
If Jesus had a message of love and peace why would they be worried? A message of love and peace will calm people down, and reduce civil disturbances.
The Saducees were worried because they knew the people were hailing Jesus as the messiah, and hence potentially sparking a revolt.
Some other verses where Jesus was hailed as the new king.
John 1:49
Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel!”
John 6:15 So Jesus, aware that they intended to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself, alone.
John 12:13
they took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, indeed, the King of Israel!”
John 12:15
“Do not fear, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
Clearly the disciples expected Jesus to deliver them from the Roman oppressors too.
The disciples expected this too
Luke 24:21 But we [i]were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel....
Acts 1:6 So, when they had come together, they began asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
What did Pilate believe?
Was Pilate aware that the Jews were hailing Jesus as their new king? That is exactly what the gospels tell us.
Mark 15:2 Pilate questioned Him: “So You are the King of the Jews?” And He answered him, “It is as you say.”
Mark 15:9 Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”
Matthew 2:2
“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
John 18:33
Therefore Pilate entered the Praetorium again, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “You are the King of the Jews?”
19:1 So Pilate then took Jesus and [a]had Him flogged. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, and put a purple [b]cloak on Him; 3 and they repeatedly came up to Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapped Him in the face again and again.
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12 As a result of this, Pilate [g]made efforts to release Him; but the Jews shouted, saying, “If you release this Man, you are not a friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king [h]opposes Caesar!”
13 Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called [i]The Pavement—but in [j]Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the [k]sixth hour. And he *said to the Jews, “Look, your King!” 15 So they shouted, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate *said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”
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19 Now Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written: “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 20 Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in [n]Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek.
https://www.history.com/news/why-pontius-pilate-executed-jesus
https://www.israel365news.com/352567/this-good-friday-may-the-false-claim-the-jews-killed-jesus-be-cancelled-opinion/
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