October 22, 2023
What Sort of Man Is This?
“Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’” John 18:33 (NASB)
History records some stories about Pilate I’ll bet you didn’t know. “The Pilate literature places ultimate responsibility for the death of Jesus upon the Jews. Unfortunately, the blame this group of texts places on them, more than Pilate, for the crucifixion of Jesus may have seeded early anti-Semitic attitudes that fueled later acts of violence against Jews (Burke, Secret Scriptures, 84). The Pilate literature varies its portrayal of Pilate from criminal to martyr. Two distinct traditions regarding Pilate have arisen from these varying pictures in the Pilate Cycle, generally held in the Western and Eastern churches, respectively. The Western church’s general portrayal of the wickedness and condemnation of Pilate is well represented by the Death of Pilate and the Avenging of the Savior. Eusebius says that Pilate died by suicide and that ‘divine justice, it seems, was not slow to overtake him’ (Burke, Secret Scriptures, 83). A penitent portrayal of Pilate is generally maintained in the Eastern church, with the Coptic and Ethiopic churches eventually choosing to honor Pilate as a saint. As early as the second century, traditions of Pilate’s supposed report to Rome and of his supposed conversion were circulating, including a report by Tertullian, who calls Pilate a ‘Christian with respect to his most inner conviction’ (Tertullian, Apology, 21.24; Ehrman, Apocryphal Gospels, 501).”[1]
“Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium,” Pilate returned to the Praetorium. “The Jews would not enter Pilate’s judgment hall because they did not want to be defiled and unable to keep the Passover. Since they would not enter the hall, Pilate came out to them.”[2] Now Jesus became charge of Roman soldiers. Pilate summoned Him since he had to handle the case. The charge Jesus claimed compelled him to do so. This allowed Pilate to hear Jesus without the noise and interference. What is strange is Jews would not normally turn over one of their own to the hated Romans. As Jesus arrived in the Praetorium (or judgment hall), Pilate asked Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?” “In Luke 23:2 they charge our Lord before Pilate with ‘perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ a king.’ Perhaps this was what occasioned Pilate’s question.”[3] The Sanhedrin brought three charges before Pilate as someone opposed the Roman government: 1) by Jesus’s activities He perverted Jewish officials. 2) Jesus forbade the paying of taxes to the Roman government (Luke 23:2). 3) Jesus’s proclamation of Himself as the King of the Jewish nation. Every one of these was a lie. The words of Jesus were; “Emphatic. Jesus did claim to be the spiritual king of Israel as Nathanael said (John 1:49) and as the ecstatic crowd hailed him on the Triumphal Entry (John 12:13), but the Sanhedrin wish Pilate to understand this in a civil sense as a rival of Caesar as some of the Jews wanted Jesus to be (John 6:15) and as the Pharisees expected the Messiah to be.”[4] Even if Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, it was not in violation of Roman law. Pagan Rome allowed the religion of its conquered nations alone. They would not interfere unless there was a public disturbance or other violation of Roman law.
[1] Wolcott, C. S. (2016). In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.
[2] Foster, L. (1987), (p. 196). Standard.
[3] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). (Vol. 2, p. 163).
[4] Robertson, A. T. (1933). (Jn 18:33). Broadman Press.