Pontius Pilate Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Trial and execution of Jesus=== {{see also|Pilate's court|Crucifixion of Jesus}} [[File:Christus bij Pilatus.jpg|thumb|Print of Christus with Pontius Pilate. Made in the 16th century.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Christus bij Pilatus|url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:32226244-A6A8-11E6-B1A4-293ED43445F2#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1651,-232,6212,4626|access-date=2020-10-02|website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref>]] At the [[Passover]] of most likely 30 or 33, Pontius Pilate condemned [[Jesus]] of Nazareth to death by [[crucifixion]] in Jerusalem.{{sfn|Bond|1998|p=201}} The main sources on the crucifixion are the four canonical Christian [[Gospel]]s, the accounts of which vary.{{sfn|Hourihane|2009|pp=22–23}} Helen Bond argues that <blockquote>the evangelists' portrayals of Pilate have been shaped to a great extent by their own particular theological and apologetic concerns. [...] Legendary or theological additions have also been made to the narrative [...] Despite extensive differences, however, there is a certain agreement amongst the evangelists regarding the basic facts, an agreement which may well go beyond literary dependency and reflect actual historical events.{{sfn|Bond|1998|pp=196–167}}</blockquote> Pilate's role in condemning Jesus to death is also attested by the Roman historian [[Tacitus on Christ|Tacitus]], who, when explaining [[Nero]]'s persecution of the Christians, explains: "Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate, and the pernicious [[superstition]] was checked for a moment..." (Tacitus, ''Annals'' 15.44).{{sfn|Carter|2003|p=12}}{{sfn|Bond|1998|p=xi}} Josephus also [[Josephus on Jesus|mentioned Jesus]]'s execution by Pilate at the request of prominent Jews (''Antiquities of the Jews'' 18.3.3); the text may have been altered by [[Christian interpolation]], but the reference to the execution is generally considered authentic.<ref name="autogenerated145">{{cite book|last=Crossan|first=John Dominic|title=Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography|publisher=HarperOne|year=1995|isbn=978-0-06-061662-5|page=145|quote=That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus ... agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact.}}</ref> Discussing the paucity of extra-biblical mentions of the crucifixion, Alexander Demandt argues that the execution of Jesus was probably not seen as a particularly important event by the Romans, as many other people were crucified at the time and forgotten.{{sfn|Demandt|2012|pp=44–45}} In [[Ignatius of Antioch|Ignatius]]'s epistles [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians|to the Trallians]] (9.1) and [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans|to the Smyrnaeans]] (1.2), the author attributes Jesus's persecution under Pilate's governorship. Ignatius further dates Jesus's birth, passion, and resurrection during Pilate's governorship in his [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians|epistle to the Magnesians]] (11.1). Ignatius stresses all these events in his epistles as historical facts.{{sfn|Bayes|2010|p=79}} Bond argues that Jesus's arrest was made with Pilate's prior knowledge and involvement, based on the presence of a 500-strong Roman cohort among the party that arrests Jesus in John 18:3.{{sfn|Bond|1998|p=197}} Demandt dismisses the notion that Pilate was involved.{{sfn|Demandt|2012|pp=70–71}} It is generally assumed, based on the unanimous testimony of the gospels, that the crime for which Jesus was brought to Pilate and executed was sedition, founded on his claim to be [[Kings of Israel and Judah|king of the Jews]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bond|1y=1998|1pp=197–198|2a1=Lémonon|2y=2007|2p=172|3a1=Demandt|3y=2012|3p=74}} Pilate may have judged Jesus according to the ''[[Roman litigation#Cognitio|cognitio]]'' {{lang|la|extra ordinem|italics=yes}}, a form of trial for [[capital punishment]] used in the Roman provinces and applied to [[Roman citizenship|non-Roman citizens]] that provided the prefect with greater flexibility in handling the case.{{sfn|Bond|1998|p=198}}{{sfn|Lémonon|2007|pp=172–173}} All four gospels also mention that Pilate had the custom of releasing one captive in honor of the [[Passover]] festival; this custom is not attested in any other source. Historians disagree on whether or not such a custom is a fictional element of the gospels, reflects historical reality, or perhaps represents a single [[amnesty]] in the year of Jesus's crucifixion.{{sfnm|1a1=Bond|1y=1998|1pp=199|2a1=Lémonon|2y=2007|2pp=173–176|3a1=Demandt|3y=2012|3pp=75–76}} [[File:Munkacsy - Christ in front of Pilate.jpg|thumb|left|''Christ before Pilate'', [[Mihály Munkácsy]], 1881]] The Gospels' portrayal of Pilate is "widely assumed" to diverge greatly from that found in Josephus and Philo,{{sfn|McGing|1991|p=417}} as Pilate is portrayed as reluctant to execute Jesus and pressured to do so by the crowd and Jewish authorities. [[John P. Meier]] notes that in Josephus, by contrast, "Pilate alone [...] is said to condemn Jesus to the cross."{{sfn|Meier|1990|p=95}} Some scholars believe that the Gospel accounts are completely untrustworthy: [[S. G. F. Brandon]] argued that in reality, rather than vacillating on condemning Jesus, Pilate unhesitatingly executed him as a rebel.{{sfn|McGing|1991|pp=417–418}} [[Paul Winter (author)|Paul Winter]] explained the discrepancy between Pilate in other sources and Pilate in the gospels by arguing that Christians became more and more eager to portray Pontius Pilate as a witness to Jesus' innocence, as persecution of Christians by the Roman authorities increased.{{sfn|Winter|1974|pp=85–86}} [[Bart Ehrman]] argues that the [[Gospel of Mark]], the earliest one, shows the Jews and Pilate to be in agreement about executing Jesus (Mark 15:15), while the later gospels progressively reduce Pilate's culpability, culminating in Pilate allowing the Jews to crucify Jesus in John (John 19:16). He connects this change to increased "anti-Judaism."{{sfn|Ehrman|2003|pp=20–21}} [[Raymond E. Brown]] argued that the Gospels' portrayal of Pilate cannot be considered historical, since Pilate is always described in other sources (''[[The Jewish War]]'' and ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'' of [[Josephus]] and ''Embassy to Gaius'' of [[Philo]]) as a cruel and obstinate man. Brown also rejects the historicity of Pilate washing his hands and of the [[blood curse]], arguing that these narratives, which only appear in the [[Gospel of Matthew]], reflect later contrasts between the [[Jews]] and [[Jewish Christian]]s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Raymond E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3-oNIgAACAAJ|title=The Death of the Messiah|date=2008|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-14009-5|pages=753, 833|language=en}}</ref> Others have tried to explain Pilate's behavior in the Gospels as motivated by a change of circumstances from that shown in Josephus and Philo, usually presupposing a connection between Pilate's caution and the death of Sejanus.{{sfn|McGing|1991|p=417}} Yet other scholars, such as [[Brian McGing]] and Bond, have argued that there is no real discrepancy between Pilate's behavior in Josephus and Philo and that in the Gospels.{{sfn|Bond|1998|p=201}}{{sfn|McGing|1991|pp=435–436}} [[Warren Carter]] argues that Pilate is portrayed as skillful, competent, and manipulative of the crowd in Mark, Matthew, and John, only finding Jesus innocent and executing him under pressure in Luke.{{sfn|Carter|2003|pp=153–154}} [[N. T. Wright]] and [[Craig A. Evans]] argue that Pilate's hesitation was due to the fear of causing a revolt during [[Passover]], when large numbers of pilgrims were in [[Jerusalem]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Evans|first1=Craig A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q12p2RgwWUYC&q=pilate|title=Jesus, the Final Days: What Really Happened|last2=Wright|first2=Nicholas Thomas|date=2009-01-01|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-23359-4|pages=20|language=en}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page