Pontius Pilate, the
Roman prefect who condemned
Jesus to
crucifixion, has been portrayed in a number of ways throughout history.
The bit in the
Biblical Canon that speaks of Pilate tells the following story:
Jesus was brought to Pilate, and Pilate examined
Jesus in private. He decided that there was really no
crime to execute
Jesus over, but he was very
freaked out over the large crowds clamoring for
Jesus' blood. When he went out to tell the mobs that
Jesus wasn't guilty of anything, he heard them mention that
Jesus was from
Galilee. So Pilate then sent
Jesus to
Herod, who had jurisdiction over that area, in the hopes that
Herod would be able to find some solution.
Herod mocked
Jesus a little and sent him back, having found no real fault. Forced to finally confront the crowds once and for all, Pilate went out and told them that he could find no fault with
Jesus, and that he would let
Jesus go.
The crowd cried out that they would rather have
Barabbas, a
Jewish rebel or robber, freed instead, and they continued to cry out for
Jesus' blood. Really frightened that he would have a
rebellion on his hands, Pilate sent
Jesus to be whipped, beaten, and humiliated, hoping that a good thrashing would be enough for the them. They continued to demand
crucifixion, however. Pilate then had a brief conversation with
Jesus, which just convinced him even more that
Jesus should be freed. He then debated with the crowds some more, and then they began to accuse Pilate of
treason against the
Roman Empire and insult him. Finally, Pilate allowed
Jesus to be
crucified, saying that he washed his hands of the whole thing. To this, the crowd cried, "His blood be on us, and on our children." And so
Jesus was taken away to be murdered.
As for what happened to Pilate next, there are a few different stories of his ultimate fate.
The "
The Paradosis of Pilate" (also known as "
The Giving up of Pilate") tells that after
Jesus was
crucified, "
darkness and the
earthquake had happened to all the world," so
Romans all around sent letters to
Caesar telling of what Pilate had done.
Caesar proceeded to bring Pilate before him and question him, and when he asked Pilate why he
crucified Jesus, Pilate replied, "I did it because of the transgression and sedition of the lawless and ungodly
Jews." Pilate continued then to reveal that he believes
Jesus to be "greater than all the
gods whom we venerate." So
Caesar had Pilate beheaded, and an
angel appeared to receive him into
heaven, along with his wife, who, being so overjoyed at the
angel's coming, died and ascended with him.
Another document, sometimes called "
The Death of Pilate, Who Condemned Jesus," tells a very different story. In it,
Tiberius Caesar, the
Roman emperor, became very sick. Having heard of a man called
Jesus who has been going around working all kinds of
miracles and healing all kinds of people,
Tiberius sent a messenger to Pilate with the order to send
Jesus to heal him. Pilate admitted to the messenger that
Jesus was dead, however he lied about the cause: he told the messenger that
Jesus was plotting a
rebellion, and was therefore
crucified. At his lodgings, however, the messenger heard a very different story: a woman told him that
Jesus was killed for no reason, and, upon hearing this,
Tiberius immediately sent for Pilate. Pilate was dreadfully frightened, for he knew that
Tiberius would be incredibly angry, but he had a trick under his sleeve--he wore the coat of
Jesus when he went to see the emperor. When
Tiberius saw Pilate, he was immediately mollified and couldn't get angry with Pilate, so he sent Pilate away. But as soon as Pilate left, he grew livid again, and when he recalled Pilate, he was again placated. This happened a few times--Pilate was recalled, sent away, recalled sent away--until someone revealed to
Tiberius what was going on. Pilate was stripped of the coat, and Tiberius ordered Pilate to a "most ignominious death," and so Pilate killed himself instead of facing it.
Now here's the crazy part: first, the
Romans tied Pilate to a big stone and sunk it in a river, but
demons and
evil spirits congregated around it, causing lightning and storms. The
Romans then dragged him back up and sunk him in another river, but the same thing happened again. The townspeople of the city near the river refused, of course, to withstand the presence of
evil spirits, and so the
Romans dredged up the corpse again, and this time buried it in a "pool surrounded by mountains," where "sundry
diabolical contrivances are said to issue forth" to this day.
Both of these documents--"
The Death of Pilate, Who Condemned Jesus" and "
The Paradosis of Pilate" are generally thought to have originated from the
Middle Ages, and therefore they are either
fiction or
tradition rather than
primary source.
As for modern portrayals, Pilate has been presented mainly as either an evil, corrupt
Roman official or as guy who tried really hard to do the
right thing but was literally forced into
crucifying Jesus, and therefore is faultless. The latter seems to be the most common view nowadays.