PILATE, PONTIUS, was the sixth Roman Pro curator of (Matt. xxvii. 2 ; Mark xv. I ; Luke iii. 1 ; John xviii. xix.), under whom our Lord taught, suffered, and died (Acts iii. 53 ; iv. 27 ; xiii. 28 ; 1 Tim. vi. 13 ; Tacit. Annal. xv. 44). The testimony of Tacittis on this point is uo less clear than it is important ; for it fixes beyond a doubt the time when the foundations of our re ligion were laid. The words of the great historian are : Auctor nominis ejus Christus, Tiberio imperi tante, per Procuralorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus est-' The author of that name (Christian) or sect was Christ, who was capitally punished in the reign of Tiberius by Pontius Pilate.
Pilate was the successor of Valerius Gratus, and governed Judaea, as we have seen, in the reign of Tiberius. He held his office for a period of ten years. The agreement on this point between the accounts in the N. T. and those supplied by Josephus is entire and satisfactory. It has been exhibited in detail by the learned, accurate, and candid Lardner (vol. i. 150-389, Lond. 1827).
Pilate's conduct in his office was in many respects highly culpable. Josephus has recorded two in stances in which Pilate acted very tyrannically (An/iq. xviii. 3. I ; comp. De Bell. yud. ii. 9. 2, seq.) in regard to the Jews. But now Pilate, the Procurator of Judwa, removed the army from Cmsarea to Jerusalem, to take their winter quarters there, in order to abolish the Jewish laws. So he introduced Cxsar's effigies, which were upon the ensigns, and brought them into the city ; whereas our law forbids us the very making of images ; on which account the former procurators were wont to make their entry into the city with such ensigns as had not those ornaments. Pilate was the first who brought those images to Jerusalem, and set them up there : which was done without the know ledge of the people, because it was done in the night-time ; but, as soon as they knew it, they came in multitudes to Cmsarea, and interceded with Pilate many days, that he would remove the images ; and when he would not grant their requests, because this would tend to the injury of Cwsar, while they yet persevered in their request, on the sixth day he ordered his soldiers to have their weapons privately, while he came and sat upon his judgment-seat ; which seat was so prepared in the open place of the city, that it concealed the army that lay ready to oppress them : and when the Jews petitioned him again, he gave a signal to the soldiers to encom pass them round, and threatened that their punish ment should be no less than immediate death, un less they would leave off disturbing him, and go their ways home. But they threw themselves on the ground, and laid their necks bare, and said they would take their death very willingly, rather than the wisdom of their laws should be trans gressed ; upon which Pilate was deeply affected with their resolution to keep their laws inviolable, and presently commanded the images to be carried back from Jerusalem to Caesarea.' But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem, and did it with the sacred money, and derived the origin of the stream from a distance of zoo furlongs. However, the Jews were not pleased with what had been done about this water ; and many ten thousands of the people got together, and made a clamour against him, and insisted that he should leave off that design. Some of them also used reproaches, and abused the man, as crowds of such people usually do. So he habited a great number of his soldiers in their habit, who carried daggers under their gar ments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them. He bid the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting reproaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been be forehand agreed on, who laid upon them much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them, and equally punished those that were and those that were not ; nor did they spare them in the least ; and since the people were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about, there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others of them ran away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition.' We have,' says Lardner, 'another attempt of Pilate's of the same nature, mentioned in the letter which Agrippa the elder sent to Caligula, as this letter is given us by Philo. In some particulars it has a great resemblance with the story Josephus has told of Pilate's bringing the ensigns into Jeru salem, and in others it is very different from it ; which has given occasion to some learned men to suppose that Philo has been mistaken. For my
own part, as I make no doubt but Josephus's ac count of the ensigns is true, so I think that Philo may also be relied on for the truth of a fact he has mentioned, as happening in his own time in and, consequently, I judge them to be two differ ent facts.' Agrippa, reckoning up to Caligula the several favours conferred on the Jews by the imperial family, says : Pilate was Procurator of Judaea. He, not so much out of respect to Tiberius as a malicious intention to vex the people, dedicates gilt shields, and places them in Herod's palace within the holy city. There was no figure upon them, nor anything else which is forbidden, except an inscription, which expressed these two things— the name of the person who dedicated them, and of him to whom they were dedicated. When the people perceived what had been done, they de sired that this innovation of the shields might be rectified ; that their ancient customs, which had been preserved through so many ages, and had hitherto been untouched by kings and emperors, might not now be violated. He refused their demands with roughness, such was his temper, fierce and untractable. They then cried out, Do not you raise a sedition yourself ? do not you dis turb the peace by your illegal practices ? It is not Tiberius's pleasure that any of our laws should be broken in upon. If you have received any edict or letter from the emperor to this purpose, produce it, that we may leave you, and depute an embassy to him, and entreat him to revoke his orders. This put him out of all temper ; for he was afraid that if they should send an embassy they might discover the many mal-administrations of his go vernment, his extortions, his unjust decrees, his inhuman cruelties. This reduced him to the utmost perplexity. On the one hand, he was afraid td remove things that had been once dedi cated, and was also unwilling to do a favour to men that were his subjects ; and, on the other hand, he knew very well the inflexible severity of Tiberius. The chief men of the nation observing this, and perceiving that he repented of what he had done, though he endeavoured to conceal it, wrote a most humble and submissive letter to Tiberius. It is needless to say how he was pro voked when he read the account of Pilate's speeches and threatenings, the event showing it sufficiently. For he soon sent a letter to Pilate, reprimanding him for so audacious a proceeding ; requiring, also, that the shields should be removed. And, accordingly, they were carried from the metropolis to Cmsarea by the sea-side, called Sebaste, from your great-grandfather, that they might be placed in the temple there consecrated to him, and there they were reposited.' To the Samaritans, also, Pilate conducted him self unjustly and cruelly. His own misconduct led the Samaritans to take a step which in itself does not appear seditious or revolutionary, when Pilate seized the opportunity to slay many of the people, not only in the fight which ensued, but also in cold blood after they had given themselves up. But when this tumult was appeased, the Sa maritan senate sent an embassy to Vitellius, now president of Syria, and accused Pilate of the murder of those who had been slain. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care of the affairs of Judwa, and ordered Pilate to go to Rome to answer before the emperor to the accusations of the Jews. Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judzea, made haste to Rome, and this in obedi ence to the orders of Vitellius, which he durst not contradict ; but, before he could get to Rome, Tiberius was dead' (Joseph. Antig. xviii. 4. 2). This removal took place before the Passover in A.D. 36, probably about September or October A.D. 35 ; Pilate must, therefore, as he spent ten years in Juda:a, have entered on his government about October A.D. 25, or at least before the Passover A.D. 26, in the twelfth year of Tiberius's sole empire (compare Lardner, i. 39t, seq.; Winer, Real-worterb.) To be put out of his government by Vitellius, on the complaints of the people of his province, must have been a very grievous mortification to Pilate ; and though the emperor was dead before he reached Rome, he did not long enjoy such im punity as guilt permits ; for, as Eusebius (Chron., p. 78) states, he shortly afterwards made away with himself out of vexation for his many mis fortunes (roucacces bepulreereov aw.L06pats).