Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate is the Roman Procurator of Judea, Idumea, and Samaria, but not Galilee. He is married to Claudia Procula. He has curly hair, a lazy gait, a skeptical smile. He is a fickle character:
"Because Pilate – you are aware of it as a man, I as God – is but a reed that bends to the side opposite the hurricane, endeavouring to avoid it. He is never insincere. Because he is always convinced that he wants to take action, and he does what he says in that moment. But a moment later, because of the howling of a storm from another direction, he forgets [...]"[1]
He is motivated by ambition:
"Of the small ego of the small man of the greedy ego of the greedy man, of the proud ego of the proud man; that smallness, that greed, that pride want to reign to be great, they want to reign to have superabundance of money, they want to reign to be able to rule over a multitude of subjects stooping to pay homage to them."[1]
Claudia Procula, his wife, plays on all the contradictions that animate him. She threatens to separate (and with her the high protection she represents) if he does not do what she wants. Pilate is a politician: he trusts little the reports of his centurions. He judges them skilled for battle, but not for political analyses. For that, he relies on his wife:
"he often makes use of his wife, who must be very intelligent and shrewd, to have precise information. Claudia is really the true Proconsul." sums up Simon the Zealot.[2]
Jesus tempers the portrait of Pilate:
"he is generally honest, as they say he is, at least at home"[3]
He is not opposed to Jesus but only annoyed by the agitations he causes among the members of the Sanhedrin. He avoids taking sides. Lazarus, son of a former governor of Syria, is welcome with the romans. Faced with the growing hostility of the Sanhedrin that has just condemned Jesus, he comes to ask the favorable intervention of the Proconsul. But Pontius Pilate confirms his neutrality:
"I have firmly decided not to have anything further to do with Him, for good or for evil. I wash my hands of it. I will reinforce the guard because I do not want disturbances. I will thus satisfy Caesar, my wife and myself. That is, the only ones of whom I take sacred care. And with regards to the rest I will not lift a finger."[4]
When Jesus appeared before him,[5] he hesitated: the resurrection of Lazarus,[6] which occurred a few months earlier, had shaken him: he fears the power of Jesus. This fear is reinforced by the warning his wife sends him: he must not concern himself with the affairs of this righteous one.[7] He opposes only his skepticism and ends up obeying the cries of the crowd.
Later, his attitude and the unrest caused by the death of Jesus are reprimanded by Rome.[8]
His name
In Latin: Pontius Pilatus. Pontius is his name (nomen) and Pilatus his surname (cognomen) but his first name (praenomen) is unknown. Every Roman had three names. Ex: Caius Julius Caesar or Tiberius Claudius Nero.
Where is he mentioned in the work?
GRM 255 GRM 282
GRM 329 GRM 379 GRM 393
GRM 426
GRM 531 GRM 540 GRM 546 GRM 549 GRM 563 GRM 566 GRM 570 GRM 576 GRM 578 GRM 582 GRM 583 GRM 588 GRM 592 GRM 598
GRM 604 GRM 604 GRM 644
Learn more about this character
Excerpts from the Dictionary of Gospel Characters, According to Maria Valtorta (Msgr. René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Éditions Salvator, 2012):
Pontius Pilate is named in both versions of the Christian Credo: the apostles' Creed as well as the Nicene Creed. He is one of the three names cited along with Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
His condemnation of Jesus is confirmed by Tacitus (1st century): speaking of the fire of Rome under Nero for which Christians were blamed, he notes that "this name (of Christians) comes from a certain Christos who, under the reign of Tiberius, was condemned to punishment by the procurator Pontius Pilate".[9]
Pontius Pilate was the son of Marcus Pontius, a Spaniard who became a Roman citizen. Pilate was appointed prefect of Judea by Tiberius in 26. As such, he combined the functions of Procurator, responsible for collecting taxes, and of Governor, responsible for maintaining order. The presence, among his collaborators, of Roman aristocrats and their wives was therefore to be expected.
Philo of Alexandria (1st century) described Pilate as "cruel by nature, not shrinking from anything. He ruled with pride, arrogance as well as corruption".[10]
Flavius Josephus (1st century) describes him as brutal and unconcerned about Jewish religious sensitivities. But he adds that he was cunning and knew how to use the diplomacy and flexibility necessary.[11]
At the end of the year 36, his superior, the governor of Syria Lucius Vitellius, ordered him to go to Rome to justify before Tiberius his violent repression of an armed insurrection in Samaria. This was not his first error: the episode of the Galileans massacred on his order is reported by the Gospels.[12] In 37 it was the new emperor Caligula who received him. He was exiled to Vienne, in Gaul or Lucerne (Switzerland). He died shortly afterward. It is unknown whether he committed suicide or was executed.[13]
Mount Pilat, in the region of Vienne, sub-prefecture of Isère, is said to be named after Pontius Pilate.
Another hypothesis, held by some Eastern churches, gives him as converted to Christianity by his wife. In 64, he would have been a victim of the persecution of Nero.[14] These churches celebrate him together with his wife on June 25.
A 4th-century apocryphal text: The Gospel of Nicodemus or Acts of Pilate portrays him favorably.
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 GRM 566.18.
- ↑ GRM 393.4.
- ↑ GRM 255.8.
- ↑ GRM 583.19.
- ↑ GRM 604
- ↑ GRM 549
- ↑ Matthew 27:19.
- ↑ GRM 644
- ↑ Tacitus, Annals, XV, 44.
- ↑ Philo of Alexandria, Legatio ad Caium, 38.
- ↑ Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 18, 55-62 ; The Jewish War, 2, 169-177.
- ↑ Luke 13:1
- ↑ Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, II, 7.
- ↑ The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XII. 1911.