“Under Pontius Pilate”

The mention of Pontius Pilate is important not only to mark the time of the crucifixion, but to establish that Christianity takes place in history. The Christian faith does not consist in abstract ideas or timeless philosophy: it is the record of the dynamic relationship between God and his people within the course of real, datable history, “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes… and touched with our hands” (1Jo 1:1; see Q014).

History attests that Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor (prefect) of Judaea, which had become subject to the Romans. At that time, the Jewish authorities had lost the legal right to carry out capital punishment, which is why the Sanhedrin had to bring Jesus to Pilate to secure his execution, as they themselves said: “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death” (Joh 18:31).

In this account of the Lord’s trial and condemnation we are reminded of Jacob’s prophecy: “The scepter [which included the right of capital judgment] shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [the Messiah] comes; and he is the desire of the nations” (Gen 49:10). This scepter had been taken away from the Jewish leadership shortly before the days of Christ’s ministry, as Jewish sources themselves record: “Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the power of pronouncing capital sentences was taken away from Israel” (Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin, 1.1; 7.2; cf. Josephus, Antiquities 20.9). The timing of the Passion thus bears witness that the Messiah had come.