The New Testament presents the Jewish leaders and the Jewish people as a bloodthirsty mob out to get Jesus, mercilessly calling for his blood, without any regard for justice. This is the lens through which Christendom would come to view the whole of Jewish people for the next two thousand years. At the same time, the ruthless murderer Roman procurator of Judea Pontius Pilate, a man who would often slaughter people indiscriminately and without trial, a foreign ruler who crucified hundreds if not thousands of Jews and Samaritans under his charge, is portrayed as going out of his way to spare Jesus’ life. He is even shown as almost pleading and trying to reason with Jews in Jesus’ defense, acting not as a vicious executioner who hated Jews with every fiber of his being, but as a defense attorney for a Jewish messianic candidate. (Note: it was the Roman policy to execute all messianic pretenders to the Davidic throne in order to prevent a Jewish rebellion. In the light of the fact that Jesus’ own followers proclaimed him as the Messiah and NT records Jesus as not only not denying it but even acknowledging it on occasion, it is hard to fathom that Pilate would seek to let a would-be messiah go, to save the “King of the Jews” from his own countrymen). To show his disapproval of the injustice that Jews were committing, the New Testament authors even have Pilate, the murderer who had no regard for human life, especially a Jewish one, actually wash his hands, a Jewish custom (Psalms 26:6), in a show of innocence. Billions of Christians have been led to believe in this fictional “good” Pilate to such a degree, he and his wife are to this day venerated as saints in Ethiopian (Pilate and wife, with a feast day on June 25) and Greek / Eastern Orthodox (wife, honored on October 27) churches. Augustine saw Pilate as a prophet of the Kingdom of God (cf. sermon 201), and Tertullian thought that he was a Christian at heart (Apologeticum). His image, along that of his wife, was displayed in Christian art for generations of Christians to admire. However, this is not the man of history.
Pontius Pilate was a ruthless killer whose career was prematurely cut short not because he’s gone soft, “saw the light” and repented of his murders, but because the Roman government, itself far from being averse to merciless bloodshed of its foreign subjects, actually recalled and fired Pilate from his post – specifically for his brutality.
Joseph Telushkin, in his book Jewish Literacy, presents us with the Pilate of history:
Concerning Jesus’ executioner, Pontius Pilate, we have a considerable body of data that contradicts the largely sympathetic portrayal of him in the New Testament. Even among the long line of cruel procurators who ruled Judea, Pilate stood out as a notoriously vicious man. He eventually was replaced after murdering a group of Samaritans: The Romans realized that keeping him in power would only provoke continual rebellions. The gentle, kindhearted Pilate of the New Testament—who in his “heart of hearts” really did not want to harm Jesus is fictional. Like most fictions, the story was created with a purpose. When the New Testament was written, Christianity was banned by Roman law. The Romans, well aware that they had executed Christianity’s founder—indeed the reference to Jesus’ crucifixion by the Roman historian Tacitus is among the earliest allusions to him outside the New Testament—had no reason to rescind their anti-Christian legislation. Christianity’s only hope for gaining legitimacy was to “prove” to Rome that its crucifixion of Jesus had been a terrible error, and had only come about because the Jews forced Pilate to do it. Thus, the New Testament depicts Pilate as wishing to spare Jesus from punishment, only to be stymied by a large Jewish mob yelling, “Crucify him.” The account ignores one simple fact. Pilate’s power in Judea was absolute. Had he wanted to absolve Jesus, he would have done so: He certainly would not have allowed a mob of Jews, whom he detested, to force him into killing someone whom he admired. (Joseph Telushkin. Jewish Literacy.)
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