My LORD’s BibleWho Was Pontius Pilate?
Rome's governor of Judea for about a decade, remembered for one afternoon — the trial at which he repeatedly found no fault in Jesus, yet handed him over to be crucified.
Rome's man in Judea
Pontius Pilate governed Judea as Roman prefect from roughly AD 26 to 36, the period covering the whole of Jesus's adult ministry. Judea had been placed under direct Roman rule after Herod Archelaus was deposed (see the companion article on the Herods), which is why it is Pilate, not another member of the Herod dynasty, who holds the one power that mattered most at Jesus's trial: the authority to execute.
Luke dates the start of John the Baptist's ministry precisely against Pilate's governorship:
Luke 3:1
Read in full chapter →1Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
See also: Luke 2:1, Genesis 49:10
Repeatedly finding no fault
The Gospel accounts are consistent on one point: Pilate did not believe Jesus was guilty of anything Rome could punish, and said so more than once.
After questioning Jesus directly about truth and kingship:
John 18:38
Read in full chapter →38Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
See also: Gospel of Nicodemus, Part I: The Acts of Pilate 3:2, John 19:4
Repeated again as the crowd presses for crucifixion:
John 19:6
Read in full chapter →6When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.
See also: John 19:4, Daniel 6:5
His wife's own warning, delivered mid-trial, only sharpens the picture of a verdict Pilate reached but didn't act on.
Her message, sent while Pilate was still on the judgment seat:
Matthew 27:19
Read in full chapter →19When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
See also: Genesis 20:3, Zechariah 9:9
Washing his hands
Facing a crowd he could not control, Pilate performed a symbolic act of disavowal rather than reverse his decision.
The gesture, and the words that go with it:
Matthew 27:24
Read in full chapter →24When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
See also: Ephesians 5:15, Matthew 27:4
The hand-washing did not change the outcome — Pilate still had Jesus scourged and handed over to be crucified. It records his stated position, not a different verdict.
The inscription he refused to change
Pilate's one recorded act of stubbornness in the whole episode is small but pointed: the sign he ordered placed on the cross, and his refusal to soften its wording when the chief priests objected.
The inscription itself:
John 19:19
Read in full chapter →19And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
See also: Matthew 27:37, Mark 15:26
His answer when the chief priests ask him to change it:
John 19:22
Read in full chapter →22Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
See also: Psalms 76:10, Genesis 43:14
After the Gospels
Scripture's account of Pilate ends with the crucifixion and the sealing of Jesus's tomb at the chief priests' request. What happened to him afterward is not covered in the New Testament itself — the historian Josephus records other episodes from his governorship, and later tradition holds that Rome eventually recalled him over his handling of a separate incident in Samaria (see the companion article on Josephus for how that outside record fills in gaps scripture leaves open).
Common questions
- Did Pontius Pilate think Jesus was guilty?
- No. John's Gospel records him stating "I find in him no fault at all" more than once during the trial, and Matthew records his wife warning him against condemning "that just man."
- Why did Pilate crucify Jesus if he found no fault in him?
- Facing a crowd pressing for crucifixion and the political risk of appearing to protect someone accused of claiming kingship, Pilate handed Jesus over rather than release him — symbolically washing his hands of the decision without reversing it.
- What did the sign on Jesus's cross say?
- "JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS," written by Pilate's own order. When the chief priests asked him to change it, he refused: "What I have written I have written."
- How long did Pilate govern Judea?
- About a decade, from roughly AD 26 to AD 36 — spanning the entire period of Jesus's recorded adult ministry.