What Did Pilate Do?

Pontius Pilate was the man who killed Jesus Christ. That’s the only reason this Roman prefect, the military governor who ruled in Judea from 26 to 36 AD, is known at all. I’ve always found Pilate to be a confusing character in the gospel narrative, even disconcerting. Because Pilate, a brutal, callous man who killed Jews without restraint, tried so hard in this one instance—the trial of Jesus—to do the right thing.

Pilate was of the equestrian rank, slightly lower than senatorial, and was married to Emperor Augustus’ granddaughter, Tiberius’ stepdaughter, Claudia Procula. This arrangement helped to land him the job in Judea. Assignments like this were often given as favors to wealthy supporters, much like ambassadorships are now. That accomplished two things: to give the wealthy supporter a plush job and get him far away from Rome, where he might threaten the emperor.

Pilate was extremely religious and zealous for his Roman gods, of which Tiberius was considered one. Therefore, he despised the Jews and their One True God. In general, the Romans allowed their subjects to practice their religion without interference, but Pilate went out of his way to insult and degrade the Jews. The historian Josephus recounts that when the prefect moved his army into Jerusalem, he flew banners with the image of the Emperor on them, knowing the making of images was against Jewish law. When the Jews vigorously protested, Pilate threatened to kill the them, but they threw themselves down and bared their throats, saying they would rather die than submit.

Pilate held back that time. He didn’t the next time. When he took temple funds to build an aqueduct, the protestors came out in force. Pilate had soldiers dressed as Jews armed with clubs in the crowd. They proceeded to incite a riot and club the Jews to death.  

Luke 13 recounts another one of Pilate’s apparent atrocities:

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 

No other details are available, but we can assume that these Galileans were offering their animal sacrifices to God in the temple when Roman soldiers—Gentiles who were not even allowed inside the temple area—barged in and murdered them. 

Pilate was an arrogant, brutal, paranoid, and very bad man.

Which makes his encounter with Jesus all the more curious.

Jesus was a Jew, the poorest of the poor, an itinerant preacher leading a motley crew of disciples, performing miracles and preaching about the kingdom of God. When the Jewish leaders brought Jesus to Pilate with trumped up charges in order to have him killed, Pilate should have done so without batting an eye. What did Pontius Pilate care about Jesus of Nazareth? Moreover, the Jewish leaders wanted him dead. Pilate’s power rested upon the cooperation of the Sanhedrin, particularly the Sadducees, the party that seemed most amenable to Roman rule. It was a no-brainer.

And yet, Pilate seemed to go out of his way to save Jesus’ life.

It bears mentioning that the Jewish leaders broke many of their own rules in dealing with Jesus. They arrested him at night without a formal charge and without a warrant. Illegal. They held the trial at night. Illegal. They held the trial the day before the Passover. Also illegal. They used false witnesses and false testimonies. Illegal. Certain members of the Sanhedrin were excluded from the proceedings. Illegal. Then they used fake charges to bring him before Pilate, since blasphemy wasn’t against Roman law.

After questioning Jesus, Pilate determined he was innocent and refused to charge him. When the Jewish leaders wouldn’t accept that verdict, Pilate tried passing Jesus off to Herod, because he was from Galilee, Herod’s territory. Herod was a client king of Rome, mostly Jewish by wholly dedicated to Caesar.

Herod didn’t condemn Jesus either. He laughed at him. Mocked him. And sent him back to Pilate.

Again, the Jews demanded Jesus be killed.

Pilate hesitated. He searched for a way out. Then, Matthew 27 tells us, 

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

Pilate was rattled. He had Jesus flogged, but still wanted to release him. The Jews demanded his death. Pilate then offered to release one prisoner for Passover. Would it be Jesus? No, the crowd demanded that he release Barabbas instead. A murderer and insurrectionist. Barabbas, incidentally, means “Son of the Father.” Ironic.

Finally, out of options, Pilate washes his hands of the situation. “His blood in on your hands,” he told the crowd. They were fine with that.

Why was Pilate, a man who killed Jews for sport, so reluctant to have Jesus’ blood on his hands?

There seem to be two explanations.

The first, put forth by many Jewish and secular sources like the Washington Post, claim that the gospels got it wrong. The gospel writers, these sources maintain, tried to make it look as though Pilate was forced into killing Jesus against his will in order to lay the blame upon the Jews. What is the evidence for this? There isn’t anything other than Pilate acting so out of character in this situation. Yet three of the gospel writers were Jews. Why would they want to blame their own people, if they were innocent? The Romans were the bad guys to them—they should have had no problem laying the blame on Pilate. 

Besides, Jesus never opposed Roman rule. He never spoke up against Pilate or Caesar. When asked if the Jews should pay taxes to Rome, Jesus said, “Give Caesar what is due Caesar.” Was that some sort of veiled threat? I think not.

All the gospel accounts point to a brewing confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus had a lot of choice words for the Pharisees. “Snakes, blind fools, whitewashed tombs.” No wonder they were mad. It makes more sense to me that the Jewish leaders had the bigger beef with Jesus than Pilate did. 

No, I think there is another explanation. 

Jesus got to Pilate.

I mean, really got to him. In the way that only Jesus can.

Pilate’s conversations with Jesus are illuminating. At first, Pilate is condescending: “Are you the king of the Jews?”

And He replied to him, “It is as you say.” 3 The chief priests began accusing Him of many things. 4 Then Pilate again asked Him, “Have You no answer [to give]? See how many charges they are bringing against You!” But Jesus gave no further answer; so Pilate was perplexed. (Mark 15:2-5)

Pilate was perplexed. Other translations say he was “amazed,”  or he “marveled,” and “wondered.”

In John’s version, Pilate is more curious and even a little disturbed when Jesus answers the question, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:34-38)

What is truth?

Did Pilate, who lived by his own rules and seemed entirely without a moral code, find himself suddenly confronted with the real truth? 

We can only speculate. According to the gospels, Pilate tried again and again to release Jesus, knowing it would cause another riot. He even had Jesus brutally flogged, hoping that would satisfy the bloodthirsty crowd. It didn’t. Finally, he gave up. 

What did Pilate see in Jesus?

Here’s my theory.

Jesus once said, “If you are not with me, you are against me.” 

No one can be neutral about Jesus. When confronted with the truth of Jesus, you have to take a stand. The Pharisees and other Jewish leaders had taken a stand against Jesus despite his numerous miracles and evidence of Who He was. The crowd, once for Him, was now against Him. 

Pilate thought he could sit on the fence, let others do the dirty work required. But in the end, he, too, had to choose a side.

If you are not with me, you are against me.

That holds true for all of us today. Many people think they can be “neutral” about Jesus. There are those who think he was just a good man and great teacher, but not God. But you can’t have it both ways with Jesus. He was either God or a charlatan and a madman.

Choose.

Pilate wrote a sign to be posted on the cross on which Jesus hung. “Here is the King of the Jews.” The priests demanded he change it. They wanted the sign to say, “Here is the man who said he was king of the Jews.” Pilate refused. “What I have written, I have written.”

Did he do that to tweek the Jewish leaders? Or because he might have believed it?

At the moment of Jesus’ death, there was an earthquake and tombs broke open. The sun disappeared. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 

Another Roman—a centurion who was guarding the cross, perhaps one of the soldiers who had mocked Jesus and placed a crown of thorns on his head—witnessed it all.

And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died,[c] he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:39

Would Pilate have agreed?

Gina Detwiler is the author of the FORLORN series and the Ultimate Bible Character Guide. She also co-wrote The Prince Warriors series with Priscilla Shirer. Find out more at www.ginadetwiler.com