Pontius pilate short biography
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PILATE, PONTIUS (Πόντιος Πειλάτος). Pontius Pilatus is the Lat. form of the name. The meaning is uncertain: Pontius may be connected with “bridge” or “fifth”; Pilatus may mean “armed with a javelin,” or it may refer to the pilus, or felt cap, emblem of a freed slave. Pilate was the Rom. procurator of Judea who sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion (Matt 27:2ff.).
1. Sources of information. All four gospels say something about Pilate; the fourth gospel yields additional insight of his character and philosophy. Outside of the NT, nearly all information comes from two sources: (1) Josephus (Antiq. and War) and (2) Philo of Alexandria (Legatio ad Gaium). Of these, Josephus is by far the fuller and more reliable, Philo being strongly prejudiced against Pilate, and therefore unable to write of him with sufficient objectivity. Besides these, in 1961, a stone tablet was discovered at Caesarea, bearing the Latin names Pontius Pilatus and Tiberius, thus affording archeological proof of Pilate’s historical reality.
2. Summary of Pilate’s life. Pilate was a Rom. citizen, born prob. in Italy, but the date and place of his birth are unknown; it is unlikely that he was born later than the year 1 b.c. He was married, and his wife is mentioned (Matt 27:19); whether he
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In the Gospel of John, Pontius Pilate poses a question to Jesus of Nazareth: “What is truth?”
It’s a question that could also be asked about Pilate’s own history. From the perspective of the New Testament of the Christian Bible, the Roman governor of Judea was a wavering judge who initially exonerated Jesus before bending to the will of the crowd and condemning him to death. By contrast, non-Biblical sources portray him as a barbarous leader who willfully defied the traditions of the Jewish people he oversaw. Which was the truth?
Pilate’s early life is a mystery.
History says little about Pilate before he served as the Roman prefect of Judea between A.D. 26 and 36. It is thought he was born into an equestrian family in Italy, but some legends claim Scotland was the land of his birth.
One of the earliest—and most scathing—accounts of Pilate comes from the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. Writing around A.D. 50, he castigated the prefect for his “briberies, insults, robberies, outrages and wanton injuries, executions without trial, constantly repeated, ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty.”
Jesus before Pilate before his death.
“Philo summarizes Pilate’s rule as corrupt and full of bribery,” says Stephen J. Patterson, an early Christianity historian at
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Pontius Pilate
Who Was Pontius Pilate?
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Prefect conduct operations Judea
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