50 Fun Facts About Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate governed Judaea under which Roman emperor?

Tiberius had retired to Capri in 26, leading some scholars to suggest Pilate was really appointed by the Praetorian prefect Sejanus.

Pilate was which number governor of the Roman province of Judaea?

He is the best-attested holder of the post, though few sources about his rule survive.

Pilate is named in which two major statements of Christian faith?

The phrase 'suffered under Pontius Pilate' anchors the crucifixion in history.

Which national church venerates Pilate as both a martyr and a saint, believing he became a Christian?

The Coptic Church historically held the same view; his Ethiopian feast day is 19 June.

Per Josephus, Pilate was dismissed after violently putting down which people's uprising at Mount Gerizim?

They had gathered hoping to find artefacts buried by Moses; their complaint went to the Syrian legate Vitellius.

What happened before Pilate reached Rome to answer for the Samaritan massacre?

Tiberius died at Misenum on 16 March 37; the new emperor Caligula may never have heard the case.

Which contemporary Jewish writer's Embassy to Gaius is one of the most important sources on Pilate?

Philo accuses Pilate of setting up golden shields in Jerusalem that Tiberius ordered removed.

Which Roman historian's Annals states simply that Pilate put Jesus to death?

The passage explains Nero's persecution of Christians; two other chapters that might have mentioned Pilate are lost.

Pilate's cognomen 'Pilatus' may mean skilled with what weapon?

Alternatively it could refer to the pileus cap, hinting that an ancestor was a freedman.

The name Pontius suggests Pilate's ancestors came from which region of central-southern Italy?

He may have belonged to the family of Gavius Pontius and Pontius Telesinus, Samnite leaders before Roman incorporation.

Like almost all governors of Judaea, Pilate belonged to which rank of the Roman nobility?

One attested Pontius, Pontius Aquila, was among the assassins of Julius Caesar.

For how many years does Josephus say Pilate governed Judaea?

That makes him one of the two longest-serving governors of the province.

What was Pilate's official title, implying duties that were primarily military?

The Pilate Stone confirms the title; Tacitus anachronistically calls him procurator.

In which coastal city did Pilate, like other governors of Judaea, make his primary residence?

He went up to Jerusalem mainly for the major feasts to keep order.

Which high priest did Pilate retain for his entire tenure, suggesting a reliable alliance?

Caiaphas was removed soon after Pilate himself was recalled.

Josephus says Pilate offended the Jews by moving what into Jerusalem by night?

A crowd surrounded his house in Caesarea for five days and bared their necks to the swords; Pilate backed down.

Josephus records that Pilate paid for a new aqueduct to Jerusalem using what?

When a mob protested he had soldiers beat them with clubs; many died under the blows or the horses.

Philo says Pilate offended Jewish law by placing what on Herod's Palace in Jerusalem?

Herod's sons appealed to Tiberius, who angrily ordered the shields removed.

The Gospel of Luke mentions Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with what?

Helen Bond suggests the reference to sacrifices places the incident at Passover.

At which festival did Pilate condemn Jesus to death, most likely in AD 30 or 33?

All four gospels say Pilate customarily released one prisoner at the feast, a custom no other source records.

On what charge is Jesus generally assumed to have been brought before Pilate and executed?

The charge rested on his claim to be king of the Jews.

Pilate's washing of his hands and the 'blood curse' appear in only one of the four gospels - which?

Raymond E. Brown argued both scenes reflect later tensions between Jews and Jewish Christians rather than history.

Which everyday English phrase originates in Pilate's gesture at the trial of Jesus?

It means to refuse further involvement or responsibility.

Which famous three-word Latin question does Pilate ask Jesus in John 18:38?

Nikolai Ge's 1890 painting takes 'What is truth?' as its title and was banned in Russia for its portrayal of authority.

What do the Latin words 'Ecce homo', spoken by Pilate as he presents the scourged Jesus, mean?

The scene, from John 19:5, is a standard part of Passion cycles in Christian art.

Pilate's reply 'Quod scripsi, scripsi' in John 19:22 refers to what he had written where?

'What I have written, I have written' answered priests who objected to 'King of the Jews'; the writing of the titulus was a favourite scene of medieval passion plays.

Pilate's wife, unnamed in the Bible, later became known in tradition by what name?

The name first appears in the fifth-century Gospel of Nicodemus; the West later expanded it to Claudia Procula.

According to the gospel account, why does Pilate's wife urge him to have nothing to do with Jesus?

The verse is her only appearance in the Bible; she is venerated as a saint in several Eastern churches.

Which fourth-century church historian records a 'tradition' that Pilate committed suicide?

He dates it to 39; Josephus, Philo and Tacitus say nothing of a suicide, and Origen assumed nothing bad happened to Pilate.

The Pilate Stone, the only surviving inscription naming him, was found in 1961 at which site?

It refers to a building called a Tiberieum, perhaps a temple or lighthouse honouring Tiberius.

What kind of building does the Pilate Stone inscription appear to commemorate?

The word is otherwise unattested; Géza Alföldy thought it a lighthouse, others a temple to Tiberius.

A ring inscribed 'of Pilate', identified in 2018, came from which Herodian fortress?

Given the cheap material, scholars doubt the governor himself wore it; it may have belonged to a subordinate.

Pilate's coins were small bronzes minted in Jerusalem of a type called what?

Struck in his fourth to sixth years, they carried Tiberius's name and pagan designs but no imperial portrait.

Besides the reigning emperor himself, which member of his family was named on Pilate's earlier coins?

After Livia (Julia Augusta) died the coins read only ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΥ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΟΣ.

The Gospel of Nicodemus, a major apocryphal source on the trial of Jesus, is also known by what title?

It anchors a whole 'Pilate cycle' of at least fifteen late antique and medieval texts.

Which apocryphal text fully exonerates Pilate, having Herod Antipas carry out the crucifixion instead?

Early texts often unburdened Pilate of guilt while filling in details of the trial.

Which Swiss mountain is named for a legend that Pilate drowned himself in its summit lake?

The link is attested from 1273, and Lake Lucerne was called Pilatus-See from the fourteenth century.

Which two cities in modern France both claim to be Pilate's birthplace?

Vienne even has a Maison de Pilate, a Prétoire de Pilate and a Tour de Pilate.

Which staircase in Rome is supposed to have come from Pilate's praetorium in Jerusalem?

It is flanked by nineteenth-century sculptures of Christ and Pilate in the Ecce homo scene by Ignazio Jacometti.

Which Russian novel, written in the 1930s and published in 1966, contains a novel-within-a-novel about Pilate?

Henry MacAdam calls Bulgakov's book the cult classic of Pilate-related fiction.

Anatole France's 1892 story The Procurator of Judaea imagines an elderly Pilate banished to which island?

He lives happily as a farmer, plagued by gout and obesity, and famously cannot recall Jesus at all.

Which musician played a gaunt, British-accented Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)?

The trial takes place in Pilate's private stables, opposite Willem Dafoe's American-accented Jesus.

Which Monty Python member played the lisping Pilate who mispronounces his Rs in Life of Brian?

Ann Wroe cites the role as an example of later Pilates taking on a certain effeminacy.

Which Bulgarian actor played a sympathetic Pilate in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004)?

His Pilate fears an uprising if he defies Caiaphas and offers Jesus a drink of water.

Which French actor starred in Ponzio Pilato (1962), the only film told entirely from Pilate's perspective?

In Ben-Hur (1959) the Australian Frank Thring Jr. played the governor presiding over the chariot race.

Which Syrian legate, appointed in 35, finally intervened in Pilate's governorship at its end?

For Pilate's first six years the legate Lucius Aelius Lamia was absent from the region, leaving him largely free to govern as he wished.

Chronicler Kedrenos says Caligula had Pilate enclosed in the skin of what animal and left in the sun?

The legend adds a chicken, a snake and a monkey to the grisly sack; other Eastern tales instead make Pilate a baptised Christian.

In the 15th-century York passion play, Pilate swindles his way into owning which piece of land?

In the play he also browbeats a wavering Judas into going through with the betrayal, then refuses to take him on as a servant.

Which French writer's 1936 novel imagines Pilate acquitting Jesus?

George Bernard Shaw had just used Pilate in the preface to his 1933 play On the Rocks, arguing with Jesus about revolution.

In the 1927 silent The King of Kings, Pilate is introduced seated beneath a giant statue of what?

Victor Varconi played him under the 37-foot eagle, which one scholar reads as power that possesses Pilate rather than power he holds.