Pilate’s Role in Jesus’s Death by Thomas H. Goodman

The harbor at Caesarea Maritima. Herod the Great acquired this region from Augustus Caesar in 30 BC and constructed a massive harbor and accompanying modern city, replete with opulent Hellenistic architecture. In AD 6, Caesarea be- came the capital of the province of Judea and the official home for those serving as governors.

ilate’s encounter with Jewish five incidents Third, Pilate used money from the P leadership at Jesus’s trial was Five incidents reported in biblical temple treasury to construct an aq- not the Roman governor’s fi rst and extrabiblical sources set the ueduct. The Jews objected to what experience navigating the complex- context for the accounts of Pilate’s they regarded as sacrilege of the ities of Judean politics. Extrabiblical involvement with Jesus’s crucifi xion.2 temple off erings, and Pilate had the references to Pilate reveal a leader The fi rst incident took place immedi- protestors beaten into subjection. who became vulnerable to the ately a! er his being appointed gov- Fourth, according to the Jewish emperor’s criticism as Pilate proved ernor. The Jewish historian Josephus philosopher Philo, Pilate had votive himself increasingly incapable of reports that Pilate’s soldiers posted shields hung in Herod’s Jerusalem providing regional stability. This standards bearing the emperor’s palace. Some believe the shields vulnerability was a factor in how he image within sight of the temple bore the name of the emperor as a handled Jesus’s trial. Pilate should in Jerusalem. Regarding the act as deity. Regardless, the Jews found the have upheld Roman justice and idolatrous, the Jews demanded the shields to be off ensive and appealed released Jesus. In the end, however, standards be removed. When Pilate directly to Tiberius Caesar when Pilate did what was best for Pilate. threatened them with execution, Pilate refused to respond to their ob- In Jesus’s day, Judea was under the protestors bared their necks in jections. Tiberius ordered that Pilate the governance of Roman procu- defi ant willingness to die rather than remove the shields to Caesarea Mari- rators, a role in which Pilate served back down. Pilate was the one to tima and reprimanded his procurator from AD 26 to 36. A procurator was back down. He removed the stan- for the unnecessary controversy. a governor whom the emperor ap- dards to Caesarea Maritima. Fi! h, Josephus reports that Pilate pointed directly; he was to manage In the second incident, Pilate ordered the execution of a number the military, fi nancial, and judicial killed some Galileans who were of Samaritan villagers who had fol- operations of strategically sensitive off ering sacrifi ces (Lk 13:1). We have lowed a rebellious leader to Mount regions of the Roman Empire.1 The no explanation about what pro- Gerizim. Hearing of this, Tiberius Roman government established a voked the killing, but the incident recalled Pilate to Rome in AD 36 and procurator’s residence at the harbor illustrates the occasionally tumultu- replaced him with Marcellus. city of Caesarea Maritima, located ous relationship between Pilate and These fi ve incidents provide a on the Mediterranean coast. his subjects. helpful context for understanding Pilate’s role in Jesus’s death. Three leadership pa! erns that Pilate displayed in these historical records also show up in the records of Jesus’s trial: general incompetence, vacillation, and vulnerability to imperial criticism. three leadership patterns First, Pilate was out of his depth trying to introduce Roman rule into the politically volatile province of Judea. He “displayed a general lack of sensitivity, tact, and knowledge” with the strange subjects he ruled.3 In Jesus’s trial, Pilate sought to maintain standards of Roman juris- prudence, yet he could not under- stand why his eff orts to release the innocent man ended up raising the threat of revolt in Jerusalem. A# er his a! empt to shi# the decision to Herod (Lk 23:5–15), to satisfy the bloodlust by a fl ogging (Lk 23:16), and then to off er the crowd Jesus for Barabbas (Mt 27:15–21), he still faced an unruly mob. Unable to up- hold Roman judicial standards and maintain order at the same time, he yielded to the easiest course to stability and gave Jesus up. Second, Pilate tended toward vacillation. He posted the military The “Ecce Homo” arch spans the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. It marks the tradi- standards and later the votive tional spot where Pilate presented Jesus to the crowds and said, “Here is the shields in an apparent declaration man!” (Ecce homo in Latin; Jn 19:5). of his intent to exert Roman rule, only to waver quickly when things got complicated. This vacillating was vulnerable to the waning favor doing so meant losing the peace— too showed up in Jesus’s trial. Seven of the emperor. In the incident with and his job. Pilate’s motivation for times in John 18:28–19:16, Pilate the votive shields, Philo reports his decision was simple: he wanted alternately went out to speak with that when the Jews complained “to satisfy the crowd” (Mk 15:15). the crowd and went in to speak to Tiberius, the emperor wrote with Jesus. That physical back and Pilate, “reproaching and reviling 1 forth parallels what must have been him in the most bi! er manner for David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville: Holman, 1992), 628. his mental back and forth. On the his act of unprecedented audacity 2 The ancient Jewish writers Josephus and one hand, a# er investigating Jesus, and wickedness, and commanding Philo are the sources for the extrabiblical he knew that to kill him would be him immediately to take down the stories about Pilate. The fi rst account is found in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.3.1, an abdication of the justice he was shields.” In Jesus’s trial, the Jewish and Josephus, Jewish War 2.9.2–4. The third responsible to uphold. On the other leadership played on this vulner- appears in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities hand, he knew that to release Jesus ability, saying, “If you release this 18.3.2. The fourth in Philo, On the Embassy to Gaius 38.299–305. The fi # h, Josephus, would so upset the turbulent crowd man, you are not Caesar’s friend” Jewish Antiquities 18.4.1–2. 3 Brian C. that the region could erupt in revolt. (Jn 19:12). A# er receiving previous McGing, “Pontius Pilate and the Sources,” Third, the extrabiblical and bibli- imperial reprimands, Pilate had no Catholic Biblical Quarterly (CBQ) 53.3 (1991): 438. cal sources display a procurator who motivation for defending Jesus if