26 AD - Pontius Pilate begins Office as Prefect of Judea

Since the deposition of Archelaus in 6 AD Judea had been governed as a Roman province by prefects appointed directly by the Emperor. Pontius Pilate was the fifth such prefect, and the second to be appointed by Emperor Tiberius.

Pilate was born of equestrian upbringing and, within the pecking order of the Roman hierarchy, a minor official. Perhaps out of a desire to prove himself, he exerted himself upon the Jews and quickly gained him their dislike. Soon after his arrival in Judea a riot broke out in Caesarea when he permitted Roman soldiers to bring into Jerusalem standards that were perceived as sacrilegious to the Jews. Josephus records another riot that broke out when Pilate was accused of taking money sacred to the Temple to pay for the construction of an aquaduct to improve the city's water supply. From an outsider's point of view, however, Pilate may not have been at fault here. The people who gained the most out of it were the Temple officials. Not only did it augment the water needed for their ritual purification, the water would also have kept the Temple clean, especially when hundred of thousands of sacrificial animals had to be slaughtered during the Passover festival in the Temple. It would have seem reasonable for Pilate to ask for the Temple funds for the project. This may be a case of the Temple officials—only they would have known about the project before hand and handed the money over—playing "good cop bad cop" with Pilate.

Perhaps it was because he knew he was perceived as insensitive to Jewish sentiments that he was so quite willing to let Jesus into the hands of the Sanhedrin even though he could find Jesus guilty of no crime.

Pilate's prefectship over Judea ended in 37. Josephus tells of an insurrection among the Samaritans that Pilate handled badly, resulting in a massacre. The Samaritans complained to the Roman legate of Syria, Vitellius, who summoned Pilate back to Rome to answer for his actions to the Emperor. Pilate left immediately; as as it was late in the year and the sea routes closed for the winter, he would have had to take the land route which was arduours in the extreme (imagine crossing the Alps in winter). Tiberius, however, died before Pilate made it to Rome. We know nothing of Pilate's fate after that. An apocryphal work written many years later claims that Pilate became a Christian. No scholar takes the work seriously. The new Emperor, Gaius-Caligula, appointed Marullus prefect of Judea for the rest of his reign.

Source Documents

Click here to read Josephus' account of the riot caused by Pilate's Roman standards in Jerusalem.

Click here to read Josephus' account of the riot caused by Pilate's use of the Temple fund..

Click here to read Josephus' account of Pilate's recall to Rome..