Pontius Pilate: Digging for Truth Episode 94

hi welcome to digging for truth I'm your co-host Henry Smith and our program we explore archaeological discoveries and their relationship to the Bible today we're going to be exploring the life of one of the most infamous historical figures recorded and found in the New Testament Pontius Pilate the man who sentenced Jesus to death Brian window' guest friend pastor and a BR staff member is joining us today to analyze the historical and archaeological evidence for Pontius Pilate well Brian welcome back to the show once again thanks so much it is always an honor to join you Henry yeah we're great I always say it's great to have you but you know like I said before you're becoming a regular feature of the program we're gonna have to we're gonna have to put a chair over here for you pretty soon I just can't say no when you guys ask yeah I know I mean it's kind of hard to come from Canada but you know praise praise the Lord for modern technology all right well Pontius Pilate most people out there have heard of him he's the infamous figure who's involved in the execution of Jesus he he even makes his way into the famous Creed of the church the Apostles Creed right he was crucified under Pontius Pilate let's talk about Pontius Pilate yeah well Pontius Pilate is mentioned over 50 times in Scripture and most of people of course know him from the incident at the end of Jesus life but there's there's an incident incident earlier in his life where Pontius Pilate is mentioned and in Luke chapter 13 Luke records an incident where some people come and tell Jesus about this group of Galileans who had been killed by Pontius Pilate and and how Pilate had mingled their blood with their sacrifices and Jesus of knowledge is of course that he's aware of the incident and he uses it to warn people about the coming judgement but it's interesting when we look at at what we see what we learn about Pontius Pilate in here we see I think someone who is who is very cruel I think we see someone who is intentionally going out of his way to offend the Jewish people I mean he could have just had them taken off and executed but no that wasn't good enough for him he had them not only executed but had their blood mingled with their sacrifices we don't know what their crime was but we get a bit of a glimpse into the psyche of Pilate with this this unique punishment that he gives out here yeah you know I've always found that passage interesting because there's so much theology and warning in it Jesus doesn't address the wickedness of Pilate although I'm sure that asked the question or at least given the context he certainly sees it that way but he's concerned more about where people's spiritual condition is as it relates to Eternity and the judgment of God be right with God because you never know when your your day your that you'll did the day you'll die it's a it's a dire warning but a warning of compassion a lot of people misunderstand it but we can't explore that particular issue because that's a whole nother program though that issue of of God's judgment and all that let's shift the discussion towards the crucifixion then the trial related to Pilate go ahead and build on that well pilots interaction with Jesus and the Jewish leaders is really interesting to see sometime later now in the chronology and when when Pilate interviews and interrogate s-- Jesus Jesus doesn't initially answer him doesn't say anything to him and and Pilate says you won't speak to me do you not know I have the authority to release you or the authority to crucify you I think we see here Pilate flexing the might of Rome that that he has the authority of and of course Jesus replies to him simply you would have no authority over me unless it was given to you from above and then we see Pilate interacting here with the Jewish leaders they've accused Jesus but after interrogating Jesus Pilate recognizes that there isn't any there's an a capital crime that he's committed here he doesn't deserve death and so he goes out and tells the Jewish leaders that he finds no fault in them and they of course respond that if you release this man you are no friend of Caesars everyone who makes him a king opposes himself to see opposes Caesar and then it's interesting Pilate delivers Jesus over at that moment now this is really interesting because it seems that something has changed here the pilot from earlier who went out of his way to offend Jewish people now seems to be kind of a little worried that the Jewish people might tell Caesar about him now how do you explain this change in behavior and there actually is some interesting historical things happening at this time that does provide a bit of a background for that there was a man named sue Janus Tiberius Caesar had gone into a bit of a semi-retirement he'd left the kingdom in the control of sagine s but so Janus wanted to be Emperor and so hatched this plot to take over and Tiberius heard about it and came back had sagine as executed and and some people have suggested maybe that Pilate was appointed to his position by sagine s and I'm not sure about that but what's really interesting is that Philo of Alexandria writes about him he says this that matters in Italy became troublesome when so Janus was organizing his onslaught for Tiberius knew the truth and he knew at once after so Genesis death that the accusations made against the Jewish inhabitants of Rome were false slanders invented by him because he missed him wished to make away with the nation and Tiberius charged his procurator's in every place to which he was appointed to speak comfortably to the members of our nation in different cities so what what Philo of Alexandria is his recording here is that there was a significant shift in public policy understood Janus who was who was just violently anti-semitic there was great persecution of the Jews but after his death when Tiberius comes back he sends out the word to say no no we need to treat these people with respect and kindness and I think this helps explain the change that we see in Pilate so Janus died in 31 ad if Jesus died in 33 ad as many people believe that he did then that would explain how pilots attitude changed previously he was quite willingly and quite happily it seems carrying out a very aggressive public policy against the Jews but after the death of C Genesis it appears that he changed his policy and realized he needs to stay on Tiberius as good side especially with Tiberius killing all the co-conspirators with of so Genesis plot yeah that's very interesting so so in a way it's a it's it's of course Pilate is has a lot of authority but he still has authority over him and so politically expediency demands a shift in how he's going to be so what you're saying is over here in the mixing of the blood we have brutality just sort of unveiled and then in dealing with Jesus as this dialogue unfolds a little more contrition perhaps perhaps a little bit different not necessarily as as as arrogant or as as aggressive but in the end he ends up crucifying them so but for other reasons we're gonna explore that some more Brian that's very good thank you for those very particular observations very details in the the evidence outside the Bible from Philo and from the text itself and folks please don't go away brian is gonna be sharing more about evidence for Pontius Pilate from outside of Scripture and how we can trust the text and narrative of a New Testament we'll be right back in a culture of intense Bible denying skepticism associates for biblical research exists to strengthen followers of Jesus by affirming the authority of the Bible our archaeological fieldwork and original research form a strong foundation in upholding the reliability of the scriptures students or anyone asking if they can really trust the Bible please visit our website and partner with us by joining our prayer team or financially supporting this ministry and thank you for standing with us [Music] hi welcome back to digging for truth I'm your co-host Henry Smith I'm here with Pastor Brian windows on the ABR staff and also a pastor in Canada and Brian's here today to talk about Pontius Pilate and we were moving our discussion into this second segment we're going to talk about some historical sources continue on that Brian about this most infamous figure in the history of the Bible and the world you know Henry I always find it interesting when I read about a particular figure historical figure in scripture and then I start to go and do some research and read about what else we know about them from history and in many cases particularly with the rulers that are mentioned in Scripture we learn more about them in in other places as well so a Pilate Pontius Pilate was the prefect of Judea for about a decade from 26 to about 36 AD and the Bible isn't the only ancient historical document we have that talks about him Philo writes about him Josephus writes about him the the Roman historian Tacitus writes about him probably the earliest written description that we have of him is from Philo Philo describes Pontius Pilate as one of one of the Emperor's lieutenants he's called and he describes him this way he says he was a man of very inflexible disposition and very merciless as well as very obstinate in Philo's opinion Pilate was exceedingly angry and at all times a man of most ferocious passion who had the habit of insulting others cruelly and murdering people untried and uncontested Jewish historian Josephus adds to this and he says that Pilate was sent by Tiberius as prefect to Judea and that he condemned Jesus to the cross Josephus also records an incident where pilot used sacred money from the Paul Treasury to build an aqueduct into the city and when the Jews protested this this terrible misuse of funds Pilate had them beaten by his soldiers and many of the Jewish people died what's really interesting is that both Philo and Josephus record incidents where the Jewish people threatened to go to Caesar and to and to tell Caesar about this cruelty and his insensitivity to the religious beliefs and and how at times it appears that that pilot even relented now isn't this interesting in light of what we just discussed in the last segment that we see this same picture played out not just in the Bible but also in other ancient texts and so we see this Pilate as this man who was who tried to rule and impose Rome's piece on Judea with an iron fist and yet at the same time knows that he has to stay in the good graces of the Emperor as well and so he's he's doing this balancing act of being the Roman tough guy but also recognizing that he better stay on Tiberius his good side as well yeah yeah it's extraordinary to get these little glimpses into the site you know I mean we always have to take the the account like from some someone like Philo he didn't know him personally but he's a contemporary I witnessed so we have to take seriously his his analysis of his character and it certainly fits the Luke's thirteen narrative with the killing of of the Jews and the mixing of their blood so again here we have Philo famous Jewish philosopher lived around the same time documenting information about Philo let's shift a little bit again with further evidence you have some evidence from Tacitus the roman historian yeah and Tacitus his quote might be one of the most important ancient quotes not just about Pontius Pilate but about Christianity and about Jesus as well he was a Roman historian and he and also a senator and he wrote his probably most famous work as as annals which he wrote about 116 ad and in it he describes the Emperor Nero's response to the famous Great Fire of Rome and how Nero blamed the Christians for the blaze to deflect the accusations that people were making about him people were suspecting that he himself started the fire and so Tacitus writes this he says consequently to get rid of the report Nero fastens the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations called Christians by the populace Christ us from whom the name had its origin suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurator's Pontius Pilate and a most mischievous superstition thus checked for the moment again broke out not only in Judea the first source of the evil but also even in Rome where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular and so we learn from this passage that that Pontius Pilate was the one who condemned and crucified Jesus during his reign when Tiberius was was the Caesar and and it affirms what's written in the Gospel accounts as well so Brian tell the audience what your best understanding of the most mischievous superstition is what is tacit is talking about and that's a really really interesting illusion isn't it yeah people have offered different suggestions I look at it and I think he's referring to the resurrection here that this this superstition can you imagine what it would have been like for the Roman people to have all of these Christians running around knowing that Jesus had been crucified under Pontius Pilate I mean it's it's public record Tacitus is writing about it almost a hundred years later and but have these people running around saying that they met Jesus alive again that he rose from the dead imagine how superstitious that would have sounded to the Romans I think he's referring to the resurrection of Jesus yeah yeah I mean yeah I I think so too I mean you know it could be but it's singular you know it's a moose mischievious so it's not just Christian practice like communion communion you know they believe they're eating the flesh of this person Jesus but a superstition seems to me to be pointing into belief the resurrection this is a remarkable hostile witness to the accuracy of the biblical text and the preaching of the resurrection would you I I know you would agree with that but maybe you have salutely take about 30 seconds to build on that a little bit further sure it's one thing people often will say of the critics will often save the New Testament writers well they're biased because they're on Jesus side they're trying to portray Jesus in a good light but a hostile witness is someone who has no bias like that in fact they're bias would be the opposite end of the extreme and that would be Tacitus and yet interestingly even Tacitus a hostile witness what he writes lines up so beautifully with what the Gospel writers write and I would suggest it does because it's true amen well that's a good way to end the segment Brian thank you friends please don't go away we're talking about Pontius Pilate and the reliability of the gospel record and we'll be right back Bimal and spade is a non technical quarterly publication published by the associates for biblical research written from a scholarly and conservative viewpoint Bible and Spade supports the inerrancy of the biblical record and as it must read for both the serious Bible student and anyone asking if they can really trust the Bible archaeological evidence properly interpreted upholding the history of the Bible subscribe today at Bible archaeology org [Music] hi welcome back to digging for truth I'm here with Brian Wendell today we're talking about Pontius Pilate alright Brian we talked about has some historical evidence related to Pilate now we're gonna talk about his name etched in stone why don't you tell the audience about that yes the famous Pilate stone was discovered in 1961 in Caesarea maritima which was the the provincial capital in Judea where were the Roman procurator's ruled from it was a limestone block and it was discovered near the theater and had been used reused in some steps in in the fourth century but but on on it were still visible this inscription that said could be reconstructed to read Tiberium Pontius Pilate the prefect of Judea and so it seems that this came from a building called the Tiberium we don't really know what that is it might have been a temple to to the Imperial cult of Tiberius Caesar but what's really interesting is that it affirms that Pontius Pilate was a historical figure number one but number two that he was indeed the prefect of Judea sometimes I'm Tacitus for example if you remember the quote from the last section called him a procurator and that's because later in history later in the first century the the titles of people ruling in particular areas the governor's was changed from prefect to procurator some time under the the reign of Claudius and so what this shows us is that and that Pontius Pilate was indeed a prefect that confirms his title of prefect now it's interesting that the Gospel writers don't use either term they use just a general generic term meaning a governor someone who governs so they're they're accurate and how they do it but but this is this is amazing archaeological affirmation of a person who we knew from history from the ancient writings existed but now we actually have archaeological affirmation of them and tells us a little bit about about his position yes excellent now we that was discovered in 1961 we also have other evidence coins in fact in our previous dig at curb adele McCotter which we identified as I there's remains from the time period of Christ and we found coins with Pontius Pilate on them why don't you tell the audience a little more about the coins in general please if Pontius Pilate we've mentioned how he seemed to go out of his way to intentionally offend the Jewish people and on his coins he minted two types of coins little bronze prutas and on both of them he on the one hand didn't put any graven images so he didn't go that far but he slipped other little things in he he would use symbols that were not Jewish symbols but symbols that were used in the Roman Imperial cults one had a ladle that was used by Roman priests to pour wine over their sacrifices the other had a staff that was used by Roman priests to show their authority and so even in minting his coins we see him get little digs in to the Jewish people who were there but we see these coins and they again attest to Pilate ruling at that particular area and at that particular time more recently there was a really interesting rediscovery in 2018 you see back in 1968-69 they were doing some excavations at the Herodian and they discovered a copper ring and it was discovered in an archaeological context that could be dated no later than 71 AD based on the other things around and it was put in a box and put on a shelf like a lot of discoveries unfortunately are and then it was pulled out in 2018 it was cleaned it was photographed and analyzed and here is the inscription pilato pilots name on this ring and scholars have suggested that it either belonged to Pilate or that it belonged to one of his servants so the grammar is interesting because it seems to indicate that it would be used to mark things that were sent to that person to Pilate and so it might have been someone who was looking for pilot collecting goods on behalf of the prefect of Judea and sending them on to him but again interesting that we have this these archaeological discoveries sometimes that are that are made a long time ago and then sometimes that are rediscovered in in modern times and we're able to reanalyze them using modern techniques yeah it's it's fascinating how sort of read looking at the evidence and within modern technology and all that how much has been missed in the past we've experienced that a little bit of our dig at shiloh going back in old dumps and sifting through material and finding things that were missed you know so to try to show more than that the ring was a really a fascinating discovery now Brian we got I'm gonna give you about two minutes to wrap up the show maybe somebody's watching the show for the first time in going okay why does this matter a lot of people have watched the show before but maybe someone watching for the first time going hey this message about Jesus and the Gospels why does why does the archaeology evidence matter related to that yeah that's a good question Henry um I think probably the way I would answer that is this people look at the Bible and they'll often make the argument you can't trust what's in the Bible because it's just a religious text and one of the things that we often do at AVR is we try to show people that it while the Bible may be a religious text it's a it's a historical document as well and people who make the claim that you can't trust it because it's a religious text seem to be implying that that just because something is religious it's unreliable historically nough so beyond the the logic of that that is that is illogical um one of the things that we often point out is that the Bible is historically accurate when it describes Pontius Pilate it describes him in a particular way and when we look at other writings outside of the Bible when we look at archaeological evidence that we've discovered related to Pontius Pilate we see this beautiful alignment we see this again and again and a in the world of Biblical Archaeology when properly understood and interpreted archaeology helps affirm what's in Scripture and one of the things that I often tell the young people who I work with is if you can trust the Bible historically if what it says about things that's historically accurate I believe you can also trust it for what it says spiritually yes and I thought its heart the Bible is this incredible story of God's interaction with humans rescuing us coming to save us from our sin and and the crowning part of the story is Jesus death for our sins and his resurrection and Pilate is bound up in that story and the fact that it's historically accurate there I think can can lead us to conclude that the spiritual truths that it teaches the the fact the truth of the good news is accurate as well and is something that you can stake your life on Brian you've expressed that I can't say any more than that we hope that those who are watching will come to a saving knowledge in faith in our Lord Jesus Christ thank you for joining us today [Music]

Channel: Associates for Biblical Research

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Length: 26min 1sec (1561 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020