This Roman governor is one of the most hated figures in the Christian religion
Pontius Pilate was definitely a real historical figure. We know this because in 1961, an inscribed slab of limestone was found in Caesarea Maritima (modern-day Israel) and it stated that he was the Roman governor of Judaea under the reign of Emperor Tiberius and during the time when Jesus was alive. Documents relating to his governorship have also been found among ancient texts in Rome.
According to the Four Gospels of Christianity, Pilate oversaw the trial of Jesus after he had been accused of treason by the Sanhedrin Jewish council. The charges of treason existed because Jesus had called himself the “King of all Jews,” something that was illegal while Judaea was under Roman occupation. However, the council really wanted Jesus gone because he was gaining followers fast and they considered him a political threat.
Pilate had been the governor of that part of the Roman empire since 26 AD (and would continue to be until 36 AD). During that time, he hadn’t managed Judaea very well. He’d ordered the introduction of many pagan symbols in sacred Jewish institutions, thus angering the local populace. So by the time Jesus was brought before him, he wasn’t in a position to anger them any further.
He had a talk with Jesus and apparently, he initially found him innocent. But the crowd outside the courthouse shouted that they wanted him dead and Pilate eventually caved and gave them what they wanted. Jesus was whipped to the bone, made to wear a crown of thorns, and crucified. Then he rose again three days after his death, proving to his followers that he really was the son of God (again, according to scriptures).
And so Christianity continued to grow until it became the religion with the largest following in the world. But despite the important role Pontius Pilate played in its origin, the majority of people today don’t know anything about the rest of his life.
So What Became of Pilate After the Crucifixion?
According to most historical texts, Pilate and the Roman Empire as a whole were not particularly affected by the supposed miracle of Christ’s resurrection in 30 or 33 AD. The next few years were business as usual for them.
The Four Gospels may have maintained that Pilate was simply a ruler who could easily be swayed by public opinion — as outlined above — but other historical (non-religious) sources assert that he was quite heartless and brutal in general. There were numerous other accused rebels who subsequently met a similar fate to Jesus under his rule. You see, the Roman Empire had laws that outlined appropriate punishments for any crime, but those laws only applied to its citizens. And the people of Judaea were not citizens so Pilate could be as cruel as he wanted.
This narrative is supported by the writings of Philo of Alexandria — a Jewish philosopher — who summarized the governor’s reign in 50 AD as having been marked by “briberies, insults, robberies, outrages and wanton injuries, executions without trial, constantly repeated, ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty.”
Other historical records also detail how at one point, Pilate stole funds from a Jewish temple and used them to build an aqueduct to Jerusalem. When the local populace found out, they protested outside Pilate’s town hall. So he had soldiers dressed as civilians infiltrate the unarmed crowd and then beat a bunch of the protesters to death using clubs.
As you can probably tell by now, Pilate was not really a benevolent or popular governor at all. But his crowning failure occurred when a bunch of Samaritans were looking for artifacts that were supposed to have been buried by the Prophet Moses near Mount Gerizim. Pilate mistook their gathering there as a potential insurrection so he sent his soldiers to massacre them — even though the Samaritans were unarmed.
Some of the survivors later complained about this to the Roman governor of Syria, Lucius Vitellius, and Pilate was soon recalled to Rome to be judged by Tiberius. That’s why his term as governor ended in 36 AD. However, while he was on his way, Tiberius died of old age and was replaced by Caligula. Most Roman emperors at the time were not in the habit of honoring all the appointments of their predecessors, and Caligula, in particular, was not too concerned with legal matters so the trial never happened.
Pilate just retired from politics and survived on a state pension and whatever money he stole from the people of Judaea. He died at an unknown date either in modern-day France or Switzerland.
After his death, a great amount of lore spread through Europe about Pilate. You see, the Roman Empire didn’t embrace Christianity until the rule of Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century. So the early Christians constructed a new narrative about Christ’s crucifixion that didn't portray the corrupt former Roman governor in a bad light. They just wanted to avoid being persecuted any more than they already were.
But this had unintended consequences: the Jews were blamed for Jesus’ death instead. Fake letters that were supposedly written by Pilate began to be circulated among believers as early as the 2nd century. They portrayed him as a kind soul who also converted to Christianity. Other accounts such as the “Acts of Pilate” detailed how Pilate supposedly said, “I have found in [Christ] no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”
But the Jewish crowd wanted him dead and argued against this by declaring, “His blood be on us and our children!” As in, they’ll take responsibility for killing the son of God. If this sounds ludicrous to you, that’s probably because it is. This quote was composed hundreds of years after Christ’s death and as already stated, its purpose was to shift the blame from Pilate to the Jews.
However, it was for this reason that during the subsequent millennia, Jews all over the world would often be persecuted by (some) Christians.
When the Roman Empire finally became Christian, the blame for Jesus’ death was reassigned to Pontius Pilate. Monks wrote new manuscripts which stated that he had been punished by God and was executed or committed suicide upon returning to Rome. But the damage — regarding the Gospels which blamed the Jews — was already done.
And in reality, for all the crimes he had committed, Pilate never suffered any punishment (except perhaps eternal damnation). This article was not written by me, but by an unknown author on the internet.
William James Roop, M.A.B.S.
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