Posted on 11/29/2018 7:28:32 PM PST by bkopto
The Israeli daily Ha’aretz is reporting that a bronze ring found 50 years ago at the Herodion excavation near Bethlehem has been discovered to bear the name of Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Jerusalem and the man who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus, according to the New Testament.
Ha’aretz reports that the name was discovered on the ring with the use of a special camera at the Israel Antiquities Authority labs. The letters on the ring spelled out in Greek writing “Pilatus.” The words surrounded a picture of a wine vessel.
Hebrew University Professor Danny Schwartz told Ha’aretz that Pilatus was a rare name in Israel. “I don’t know of any other Pilatus from the period and the ring shows he was a person of stature and wealth,” Schwartz said, according to the article.
The ring is a sealing ring, common in ancient times, and used to seal letters and stamp official documents using molten wax. “Researchers believe it was used by the governor in day to day work, or belonged to one of his officials or someone in his court, who would use it to sign in his name,” Ha’aretz reports.
Adding weight to the possibility that this ring belonged to the Pontius Pilate of the New Testament is the fact that this type of ring was a “hallmark” of the cavalry in the Roman era, to which Pilate belonged, Ha’aretz reports.
Pilate was the fifth prefect of the province of Judea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26 C.E. to 36 C.E., though there is some dispute about the exact dates.
The ring was originally found by Hebrew University Professor Gideon Forster shortly after the Six-Day War in 1968-69, Ha’aretz reports.
Not at all. Archeological finds abound. What, you prefer the Merseburger Zaubersprüche?
That became the language in the east since Alexander the Great.
That made me do a search. Wiki (!?) says Latin was used for most official documents, although Greek was used in the Eastern Empire (so the Holy Land). Greek was often used for normal language - and sometimes even a mix of Latin and Greek in the same writing.
Thought they used latin for official actions. I think the Pilate stone found at Caesaria was in Latin. Particularly if this was a seal ring of a local government official, I suppose it would make sense it would be in the local language.
That was my first thought, as I noted in my last post, the Pilate stone is in Latin. But if it was a local official mostly sealing documents used locally not transmitted to Rome, it would make sense his name was in Greek.
Greek was the Lingua Franka of the eastern part of the Empire.
Pilate’s family was orginally from Samnium.
The Samnites were a particularly nasty race from Southern Italy. It took three wars to conquer them. The fact that they were a hill tribe forced the Romans to restructure their military from the
Greek phalanx type formation to the far more flexible manipular legion which served them well in future battles and wars.
Pilate’s family may have been from the upper classes as Romans frequently incorporated local hotshot into their government structure.
Spam from the Danbury Mint hawking a knockoff replica coming to my inbox in 3.....2.....1.....
Pilate was just the vessel thru which God worked.
Pilate had no choice, but to go along with the force of the Holy Spirit.
He knew Jesus was innocent and even gave the Pharisees a choice to save Barrabas or Jesus. They chose Barrabas...............
The Holy Spirit knows all that happens and can reveal what it wants to whomever it wants.................
Greek was the cultured language in Rome, like French to English speakers.
The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) do not mention the Pharisees in their accounts of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus (rather the chief priests, the scribes and the elders and the council). Only John mentions the Pharisees once (18.3) in connection with the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Pharisees were laymen, not officials (but perhaps some members of the council were Pharisees).
They were sad you see....................
-—the Pharisees -—
It is my understanding that Caiapas the high priest and leadert of he Jewish opposition demanded the death of Jesus. Jesus was said to be King of the Jews by virtue of lineage back to David. They did not want to be usurped from their political positions by a King.
It is argued that Palm Sunday was a political event where a new leader was recognized by large segments of the population. Such a turn of events was not viewed as favorable by Caiphas and the existing leadership out of the Temple.
Yes, they wanted to appease the Romans at the same time, fearing a mob could get out of hand, especially among the Zealots , and then Rome would crush them, as they eventually did, as Jesus had predicted...............
I wonder if Pilate ended up having to sleep in the garage for a couple of weeks?
Is the only thing on the ring that’s readable “Pilate i.e. in Latin Pilatus “? No Pontius script readable?
And from the Latin Pilatus , literally “armed with javelins,” from pilum “javelin”.
I’ve read that in the Roman Army the slang word Pilatus was often used for 1st Pilum (1st javelin) - the top centurion in the maniple or maybe cohort - like maybe master sergeant today. So this could just be the ring of such a person rather then have any direct connection to Pontius Pilate.
Mow when they say the ring is the “hallmark of cavalry” do they mean the mounted cavalry which were often auxiliaries (foreign) usually with Roman officers or the Equites (knightly- noble) class of Romans. I also read somewhere that Pontius Pilates was much lower class more like Marcus Agrippa - a self made Roman governing thug!
was his finger still in it?
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