Mark pontius pilate biography history

Later texts known as " The Letters of Herod and Pilate " purport to be actual correspondence between Pilate and Herod Antipas, the king of Galilee, about the trial of Jesus. In Pilate's letter, he and his wife are visited by the resurrected Jesus, whom they recognize as the Son of God and beg forgiveness for their sins. Bond says that while these texts are "a million miles away from anything that may be historical," they recast Pilate as a repentant sinner who ultimately accepted Jesus as his Savior.

In some Christian traditions, including the Ethiopian Church, Pilate and his wife Procla even achieved sainthood. Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish-Roman historian who lived in Egypt at the same time that Pilate was governor of Syria. His writings are the closest thing we have to a contemporary historical account of Pilate's tenure in Judea — even the gospels were written decades later — but Philo had his own problems with Pilate.

He says Pilate was vain, savage and stubborn, and that he put people to death without trial. Philo's main beef with Pilate was that he brought gilded shields called "standards" into Jerusalem , which insulted the Jewish authorities and Temple priests. When the Jewish leaders protested, Pilate refused to remove the statues. According to Philo, it took a sharply worded letter from Emperor Tiberius himself to convince Pilate to take down the standards.

Josephus was another Jewish-Roman historian who was born soon after Pilate's stint in Judea. Josephus is famous for being the only nonbiblical ancient source to mention Jesus, although his brief account was "clearly worked over by Christian editors," says Bond, and must be taken with a grain of salt. As for Pilate, Josephus tells us of another blow-up with the Jewish authorities, when Pilate tried again to have some busts of the emperor displayed in Jerusalem.

When a crowd of Jewish protesters gathered outside of Pilate's headquarters in the coastal town of Caesarea, Pilate ordered his soldiers to surround them. According to Josephus, the Jews "astonished" Pilate with their willingness to die rather than endure the insult, so Pilate relented and removed the statues. In another incident, he had an aqueduct constructed with sacred funds from the treasury of the Jewish temple.

When people protested, Pilate had soldiers go among the crowd disguised as civilians with clubs under their coats which they used to beat the protesters, many to death. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Mark Antony. Julius Caesar. Napoleon Bonaparte. Queen Elizabeth II. Marcus Aurelius. Maria Theresa. Alexander the Great.

Menelik II. Nicholas II. Despite the absence of details about his origins, Pilate's extended tenure as Prefect suggests his competence in governance. However, his rule was reportedly marked by harshness, ruthlessness, and corruption, as noted by Philo of Alexandria. He offended Jewish religious sentiments by introducing Roman standards with imperial imagery into Jerusalem and by using Temple funds to build an aqueduct.

Mark pontius pilate biography history

Pilate's controversial reign culminated in a massacre of Samaritan rebels gathered on Mount Gerizim. Following this incident, he was ordered to return to Rome, marking the end of his known history from reliable sources. Visual art [ edit ]. Late antique and early medieval art [ edit ]. High and late medieval and renaissance art [ edit ].

Post-medieval art [ edit ]. Medieval plays [ edit ]. Modern literature [ edit ]. Film [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. Scholarly assessments [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. Citations [ edit ]. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus The Death of the Messiah.

Yale University Press. Westminster John Knox Press. Retrieved 23 June The Times. Retrieved 17 January The Scotsman. Cardinal Newman Catechist Consultants. Archived PDF from the original on 2 March Retrieved 15 July References [ edit ]. Amora-Stark, Shua; et al. Israel Exploration Journal. Ash, Rhiannon, ed. Tacitus Annals. Book XV. Bayes, Jonathan F.

The Apostles' Creed: Truth with Passion. Wipf and Stock Publishers. Bond, Helen K. JSTOR Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation. Cambridge University Press. Bormann, Eugen, ed. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XI. Berlin: G. Burke, Paul F. In English, Mary C. Pushing the boundaries of Historia. London and New York: Routledge. Carter, Warren Pontius Pilate: Portraits of a Roman Governor.

Collegeville, Mn. Demandt, Alexander ISBN X. Pontius Pilatus. Munich: C. Dilley, Paul C. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. Ehrman, Bart D. The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford University Press. Gounelle, Remi In Castagno, Adele Monaci ed. Sacre impronte e oggetti "non fatii da mano d'uomo" nelle religioni : atti del Convegno Internazionale, Torino, 18—20 maggio Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso.

Grace, Pamela Classica et Mediaevalia. Hourihane, Colum Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. Izydorczyk, Zbigniew, ed. Kirschbaum, Engelbert; et al. Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie. Rome, Freiburg, Basel, Vienna: Herder. Koester, Helmut The Harvard Theological Review. S2CID Langenhorst, Georg Literature and Theology.

Ponce Pilate. Paris: Atelier. Luisier, Philippe Orientalia Christiana Periodica. MacAdam, Henry I. Irish Biblical Studies. The Polish Journal of Biblical Research. Maier, Paul L. Church History. Martin, Gary Retrieved 15 August