Who was Pontius Pilate?

Procurator of Palestine A.D. 26-35. Unlike former governors he fixed the headquarters of the army at Jerusalem instead of Caesarea. They brought their standards with them, which gave great offence. The Jews went to him in crowds, and on his finding that they would rather suffer death than give way, he ordered the standards to be removed. He also hung up in his palace at Jerusalem some gilt shields on which were the names of heathen gods. These were removed by an order from Tiberius. He proceeded to use the 'Corban or Sacred Fund,' raised by the redemption of vows, to form an aqueduct for the public benefit; but this caused an insurrection, which he crushed in blood. Scripture also records that he had mingled the blood of certain Galileans with their sacrifices. Luke 13:1.

PONTIUS PILATE. The sixth procurator of Judea. During his administration our Lord carried out His earthly ministry, and it was at his command that our Lord was crucified. Luke 3:1 fixes the date of the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry, and we know that this preceded our Lord’s ministry. Josephus as we have seen dismisses the crucifixion at the command of Pilate in a single paragraph, whereas the description of the trial and death of our Lord is given in great detail in the four Gospels, as we should expect. But the Scriptures and Josephus unite in testimony that our Lord was crucified, and that at the command of Pilate. From the Scriptures we gather that Pilate was weak and vacillating, that he was convinced of the innocence of our Lord, saying, “I find no fault in this man” (Luke 23:4), that he knew full well that it was only religious fanaticism that was clamouring for His blood. We read, “And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that He might be crucified. And the voices of them and the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they desired” (Luke 23:24).

A full generation has passed away since the close of Matthew 2. King Archelaus, after a wicked reign of ten or eleven years, had been banished by the Romans. Judea had ceased to retain even the semblance of a monarchy, and is now under Roman procurators, of whom Pilate is the fifth, in a descending scale of wickedness.

The Roman title given to the chief ruler of a district. Judaea was governed by a procurator, ἡγεμών, who held his authority directly from the emperor, and was invested with powers of life and death. Roman citizens, however, were privileged to appeal from his authority to the emperor. The procurators were to some extent responsible to the Presidents of Syria. Those mentioned in the N.T. are Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Festus. In the A.V. they are called 'governors.'

ἡγεμών, the procurator of Judaea. Matt. 27:2; Luke 20:20, etc.

Pilate saw that it was transparently evident that under Roman law no charge whatever could be sustained against the Lord Jesus, and Pilate publicly declared that he found no fault in Him. This being the case, justice demanded that He be immediately released. But the fierce opposition of the Jews, though they had no specific charge of wrongdoing against Him, was such as to influence Pilate to forget justice, and he began a course of vacillation that ended in the grossest miscarriage of justice that history has ever known.

Pilate's examination of Jesus was brief, and his judgment was swift and sure; it was the only one he could have given, for there was no evidence of any crime nor charge against Him as yet. So to the impatient waiting Jews he declared as the administrator of Roman law, "I find no fault in Him at all." And that if it meant anything, surely meant acquittal, the instant release of the Prisoner and the dispersal of the mob.

Pilate, the Roman judge, must go out to the Jews to inquire as to their accusation against Christ. In answer they have no accusation whatever, but haughtily tell Pilate that he should consider Christ a malefactor simply because they brought Him to Pilate (v. 30)! Had Pilate then only acted justly, he should have declared that the prisoner must be set free, for there was no specific charge against Him. But not at all being qualified as a just judge, he desired to slip out from any responsibility, an attitude he continued to maintain until he had enmeshed himself in the folly of history's most dreadful injustice.

Pilate was quick to disclaim all responsibility, by questioning, “Am I a Jew?” But why had he then asked his first question? Of course it was true, as he said, that the Lord's own nation and their rulers had delivered Him to Pilate. But Pilate's responsibility was to judge righteously as regards any charge brought against the Lord. Yet no charge had been laid. He asks the Lord, “What have You done?” This again was no question for a judge to ask: it was for the accusers to lay the charge as to what He had done, and the judge was to consider strictly this charge.

The religious authorities had now handed Jesus over to the civil governor, and verses 11-26 relate what transpired before him. When examined by Pilate before the multitude Jesus only uttered two words, "Thou sayest," the equivalent of one English word, "Yes," He confessed that He indeed was the King of the Jews, which was the specific charge laid at His door in the presence of the Roman power. The three Synoptic Gospels agree on this point. John records other questions raised by Pilate and answered by the Lord in the comparative privacy of the judgment hall, and three times he records Pilate going out from thence to the people. As far as the public examination was concerned Jesus "answered nothing," for there was really nothing to answer; as Pilate very soon perceived, though he marvelled greatly. He was well versed in the subtle ways of the Jews and his acute legal mind soon discerned that envy was at the bottom of the prosecution. On the other hand he feared the people and wished to stand well with them.