Pilot Ask Jesus Dont You Know I Hold Your Life in My Hands

In the Gospel of John, Pontius Pilate poses a question to Jesus of Nazareth: "What is truth?"

It's a question that could also exist asked virtually Pilate's own history. From the perspective of the New Testament of the Christian Bible, the Roman governor of Judea was a wavering guess who initially exonerated Jesus before bending to the will of the crowd and condemning him to death. By dissimilarity, not-Biblical sources portray him as a roughshod leader who willfully defied the traditions of the Jewish people he oversaw. Which was the truth?

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Jesus before Pilate earlier his decease.

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Pilate'south early life is a mystery.

History says little near Pilate before he served equally the Roman prefect of Judea between 26 and 36 A.D. It is idea he was born into an equestrian family in Italy, only some legends claim Scotland was the state of his nativity.

One of the earliest—and near scathing—accounts of Pilate comes from the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. Writing around 50 A.D., he castigated the prefect for his "briberies, insults, robberies, outrages and wanton injuries, executions without trial, constantly repeated, ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty."

"Philo summarizes Pilate's dominion as corrupt and full of bribery," says Stephen J. Patterson, an early Christianity historian at Willamette University and the author of several books including The Forgotten Creed: Christianity's Original Struggle Against Discrimination, Slavery, and Sexism . That sort of behavior wouldn't accept been all that boggling for a Roman ruler, just Pilate apparently did it more than ruthlessly than most."

Problem is, information technology'southward not piece of cake to know how historical Philo's account actually was, says Helen Bail, head of the University of Edinburgh's Schoolhouse of Divinity and author of Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation. "Philo is a hugely dramatic writer," she notes, and ane with very clear biases: "People who uphold Jewish laws are recorded in highly positive ways, while people who practise not are described in highly negative terms."

Given Pilate'due south opposition to Jewish law, Philo describes him "very harshly."

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The scourging of Jesus, who was tortured prior to his crucifixion.

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Pilate clashed with the Jewish population in Jerusalem.

Philo also wrote that Pilate permitted a pair of golden shields inscribed with the proper name of the Roman Emperor Tiberius into King Herod'due south former palace in Jerusalem, in violation of Jewish customs. Writing a half-century subsequently, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus told a like tale that Pilate permitted troops carrying armed services standards bearing the likeness of the emperor into Jerusalem, although Jewish law forbade images in the city. A great crowd traveled to the Judean majuscule of Caesarea in protest and lay prostrate around Pilate's palace for five days until he relented.

"Josephus was born in Jerusalem the yr Pilate left office and and so would have had reasonably good information," Bail says. "The story has the ring of a new governor seeing what he can go away with and completely underestimating the strength of local stance when information technology came to graven images." At the same time, Bond notes, the story shows his willingness to dorsum down and respect public opinion.

In another incident—with a bloodier ending—Josephus recounted that Pilate used funds from the Temple treasury to build an aqueduct to Jerusalem. This time when protesters clustered, Pilate dispatched manifestly-clothed soldiers to infiltrate the crowd. On his signal, they removed clubs hidden in their garments and beat many of the protesters to death.

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The Gospels portray an indecisive Pilate.

Josephus also mentioned Pilate'south notorious role in agreeing to the execution of Jesus. According to the Gospels, the Sanhedrin, an elite council of priestly and lay elders, arrested Jesus during the Jewish festival of Passover, deeply threatened past his teachings. They dragged him before Pilate to be tried for blasphemy—for challenge, they said, to be King of the Jews. And they pressured Pilate, the only one with power to impose a death sentence, to phone call for his crucifixion.

Contrary to the depiction of Pilate every bit a merciless ruler by Philo and Josephus, all iv Gospels portray him equally a vacillating gauge. According to the Gospel of Mark, Pilate came to the defence force of Jesus before yielding to the desire of the crowd.

But Mark had an ulterior agenda, notes Patterson, since he wrote the Gospel in the midst of the failed Jewish Revolt against Roman rule between 66 and 70 A.D., while the Christian sect was undergoing a biting break with Judaism and seeking to attract Roman converts.

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"Mark's purpose is non actually historical," Patterson says. "It'south to cast the Jewish War in a particular light. Marker blamed the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem for its destruction [during the rebellion] considering the high priests and officials rejected Jesus when he had come to the urban center. Mark's telling of the story of the trial of Jesus is less about Pilate and more about shifting the blame to the Jewish leaders."

Pilate washing his hands, claiming Jesus' ultimate death would not be from his doing.

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According to the Gospel of Matthew, Pilate done his hands in front of the oversupply before announcing, "I am innocent of this man'due south blood; run across to it yourselves." The Jewish people shouted in response, "His claret be on us and our children." It's a passage that would be used for millennia to persecute the Jewish people.

"Matthew says that while the Romans actually carried out the deed, the Jews were responsible—a line of argument that has of grade had disastrous consequences e'er since," Bond says. "If Jesus was causing trouble at a gathering similar Passover, when the city was crowded to bursting, I don't remember Pilate would have spent much time worrying about what to do with him. Information technology was entirely upward to the governor equally to how he dealt with the case, and afterwards hearing the prove he no doubt thought that getting rid of Jesus was the best grade of activeness."

Another element of the New Attestation story still unsupported past historical evidence is Pilate'south offer to commute the death sentence of a criminal by popular vote—which according to the Gospel writers was an annual Passover tradition. In the Gospels, the crowd chose the criminal Barabbas over Jesus. "Scholars accept looked for evidence," Patterson says, then far "accept never institute anything in reference to the so-called custom of releasing a prisoner on Passover."

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Pilate disappears from history subsequently his rule.

According to Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus, Pilate was removed from office and sent back to Rome after using excessive force to disperse a suspected Samaritan insurrection. One time in Rome, Pilate vanished from the historical tape. Co-ordinate to some traditions, he was executed by the Emperor Caligula or committed suicide, with his body thrown into the Tiber River. The early on Christian author Tertullian even claimed that Pilate became a follower of Jesus and tried to convert the emperor to Christianity.

In 1961, archaeologists in Caesarea discovered hard bear witness of Pilate's existence. A fragment of a carved stone with Pilate'south name and title inscribed in Latin was found face downwardly, being used as a step in an aboriginal theater. It'southward likely the "Pilate Rock" originally served every bit a dedication plaque for some other structure. A November 2018 article in State of israel Exploration Journal appear a further discovery as advanced photography revealed Pilate's proper name inscribed in Greek on a 2,000-year-old copper alloy band excavated from Herodium.

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Source: https://www.history.com/news/why-pontius-pilate-executed-jesus

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