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Home > Magazines > Bible Review > December 2003

How Pilate Became a Saint

By Robin M. Jensen

Pontius Pilate has a terrible reputation. We tend to think of him as one of the New Testament’s greatest cowards. Tragically, at Jesus’ trial, Pilate seems to recognize that a gross injustice is being done, yet he doesn’t use his power as the Roman governor of Judea to stop it. According to the Gospel of Matthew, three times Pilate asks the crowd, “What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” He seems to hope they will say, “Release him!” But they don’t. Instead, the crowd insists that Pilate have Jesus crucified. So the governor famously washes […]

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Footnotes

1.

See Robin M. Jensen, “The Binding of Isaac: How Jews and Christians See Differently,” BR 09:05.

2.

See Robin M. Jensen, “Witnessing the Divine: The Magi in Art,” BR 17:06.

3.

By the 13th century, the Acts of the Pilte and a second-century account of the Harrowing of Hell had been linked together under the title the Gospel of Nicodemus. See Heidi Hornick and Mikeal Parsons, “The Harrowing of Hell,” BR 19:03.

Endnotes

1.

Josephus, Jewish Wars 2.169–177; Antiquities of the Jews 18.55–59, 62, 85–87.

2.

Philo, Embassy to Gaius 301–310.

3.

Tertullian, Adversus Judaeos 10.6.

4.

Tertullian, Apologetics 21.

5.

Hippolytus of Rome, On Daniel 1.27.

6.

Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 1.25.6.

7.

Augustine, Sermons 201.

8.

Eusebius, Historia Ecclesia 2.2.1–6.

9.

Eusebius, Historia Ecclesia 2.2.7.

10.

Eusebius, Historia Ecclesia 9.5.1, 9.7.1. The memoirs provide an incorrect date for the reign of Tiberius, which is why Eusebius is convinced they were late forgeries, produced during the reign of Maximinus Daia (311–312 C.E.).