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Pontius Pilate (VANITY)
4/6/15 | me

Posted on 04/06/2015 12:35:58 PM PDT by Teacher317

I'm not exactly a Biblical scholar, so be a little gentle with the flames.

I was watching Passion of the Christ yesterday for Easter (my third time seeing it), and a thought occurred to me. Both the movie and the Gospels note that Pilate tried, repeatedly, to not sentence Jesus to death. His wife lobbied for Jesus, he declared "this man has done nothing", he sent him to Herod declaring him not guilty, and he even tried the once-a-year prisoner release gambit. At every turn, the high priests and the crowd pushed for his death. Even after finding him guilty of something (Jesus DID try to talk two tax collectors out of their jobs, and he DID admit to being the King of Hosts... with the exact phrasing depending on your Bible version), he only sentenced him to punishment, not death (and yet Jesus got viciously tortured... again, against Pilates orders).

So... here's my question for the many religious historians and "experts" on FR that I have some respect for...

Why is it that we have, every week for 2000 years, called out Pilate by name in the Apostle's Creed. Caiaphas is the one, by most accounts, who pushed the most for Jesus to be tortured and killed. The high priests pushed the crowds to act up if they did not get their way. The Romans just wanted to avoid yet another riot and civil unrest, and Pilate (according to the movie) was already on notice about allowing any more uprisings.

In the end, Pilate tells the crowd "you do it, I won't. The blood of the Son of God is not on my hands", and he famously washes his hands. He did his best to find other ways out, he did his best to avoid many people being killed in the riots, and he recognized, repeatedly, that Jesus was innocent. His only crime was to EVENTUALLY wear down and give in to the crowd to avoid many more than one "man" being killed. For a Roman soldier with political responsibilities, with no reason to have any faith in this latest prophet, he did a good job overall of trying to minimize the damage to himself, to the crowd, to Rome, and to the region. I cannot say that I could or would have done any better. (although every Christian will want to jump up and say "Well *I* would have stood up for Him!!!"... which is almost surely malarkey. Pilate didn't KNOW, and neither would you have known.)

So, again... why do we weekly pour out scorn for Pilate's name, for millenia, and not Caiaphas?


TOPICS: History; Religion & Culture; Worship
KEYWORDS: beholdtheman; caiaphas; eccehomo; jeb; judea; pilate; pontius; pontiuspilate; quidestveritas; romanempire; whatistruth
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Certainly, you are right, and they were certainly guilty of every human failing not forgiven before the death of Christ brought salvation to all men. Ironic that these may have been the first beneficiaries of the sacrifice. We certainly cannot understand all, but there is a wonder we can see in it anyhow.


81 posted on 04/07/2015 5:38:02 AM PDT by StAntKnee (Add your own danged sarc tag)
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To: Teacher317; All
Pilate did not know God. Nor was he taught who Jesus was. This was on purpose.

Had Jesus taught or performed miracles in the presence of the Romans they would have been converted and would never have allowed Him to be crucified. Which was the plan of God.

Remember, Jesus pleaded to His Father for them, "...forgive them for they know not what they do."

The Jews at that time were so wicked they were the only people that have ever lived that would crucify their God.

So, don't judge Pilate. Pilate judged Jesus to be innocent. It was the Jews at that time that condemned Him to death. If Jesus forgave Pilate, you will see him in the kingdom of God.


82 posted on 04/07/2015 7:27:43 AM PDT by StormPrepper
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To: kearnyirish2

Thanks for the answer.


83 posted on 04/07/2015 8:55:12 AM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: Teacher317
Pilate was ordained by God to make the death judgement on Christ.. He had the final power and authority to do this

John 19:11Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater has the greater sin."

Acts 2: 22"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know-- 23this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.…

The Jews used the Roman system to have Christ killed... Gods plan from before the foundation of the earth .All tools in the hand of God

84 posted on 04/07/2015 10:52:44 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Teacher317
Teach, I found this an enjoyable read Pontius Pilate: A Novel.
85 posted on 04/07/2015 3:33:43 PM PDT by Sdrawkcab
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To: Teacher317
My thoughts exactly! Every year Pilate takes the hit in the liturgy when he was a better advocate for Jesus than any of his disciples. I have just had to step back, after being continually told how evil Pilate was, and recognize that he was destined to fulfill his part of the Passion as foretold, at least in the Psalms, and without the crucifixion, there would be no Resurrection and descent of the Holy Spirit.

But this Easter my prayers about the historical Pilate were answered in our readings. In one reading, Pilate is "corrected" because the sign above Jesus reads, "King of the Jews" and someone says that it is wrong and it should say, "He SAID he was 'King of the Jews"." And Pilate replies, "I have written what I have written." To me, this says that Pilate accepts and acknowledges publicly Jesus as King of the Jews and takes unequivocal responsibility for the public moniker. To me, he is not the world's greatest sinner but may, by his own personal and political martyrdom, be an unsung saint.

86 posted on 04/07/2015 4:21:56 PM PDT by MHT (,)
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To: longfellow

You’re welcome; that is my understanding of it.


87 posted on 04/07/2015 4:37:33 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Uversabound; Teacher317

“Did you watch KILLING JESUS over the past few days? Pilate and his wife were portrayed as real SOBs. They were portrayed as horrors. Not the same character as in Passion at all.”

Bill O’Reilly screwed up most everything in his ‘Killing Jesus’. Of course he had help in the movie version from the screen writer/producer/director etc. Mel Gibson got most of it right in The Passion, except a bit too much of the ‘Stations of the Cross’ thrown in to the mix.


88 posted on 04/07/2015 5:03:12 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)
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To: Teacher317; Trapped Behind Enemy Lines

“...Caiaphas was evil...Caiaphas skates...”

Caiaphas is no doubt burning in a hell he could not imagine existed. Caiaphas was Satan’s stooge. Burn baby burn!

When Jesus said on the cross, ‘forgive them for they know not what they do’...I believe Caiaphas knew exactly what he was doing. God in the flesh on earth was a direct threat to his power and existence. Apply the ‘forgive them’ to the Romans, to the rabble in the streets...


89 posted on 04/07/2015 5:11:35 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)
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To: broken_arrow1; LambSlave

“At that point, he was probably lock-in by prophesy and didn’t have a choice.”

Same can be said of Judas.


90 posted on 04/07/2015 5:14:17 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)
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To: kearnyirish2

You wouldn’t think that when confronted with the miracles you can deny it but I guess power does corrupt absolutely.


91 posted on 04/08/2015 7:30:25 AM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: longfellow

Enough witnesses to the miracles believed in Him, and spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Others didn’t want to lose their hold on people, and deny Him to this day.


92 posted on 04/08/2015 2:51:29 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: elcid1970
I’ve wondered lately whether the tipping point for Caiaphas that sealed his determination to have Jesus executed came when Jesus invaded the Temple grounds & upset the moneychangers’ tables & drove out the livestock merchants while charging, “My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!”

Think of it, Jesus hit Caiaphas where it hurt, in the pocketbook. Those changing money & selling sacrificial animals no doubt had to to pony up some serious dough for the privilege of doing so within the Temple complex & that surely meant that Caiaphas & his cronies got their cut.

Yes, people could buy elsewhere but once inside the Temple environs they were a captive market & besides the high priests had probably forbidden foreign money transactions anywhere else.

I was making similar comments to a friend at a Bible College just last week. I find it odd that Jesus was not charged with some kind of civil crime (theft?) for disrupting the moneychangers' business, but I do not know what civil laws were like for first-century Jerusalem under the Roman occupation.

93 posted on 04/09/2015 8:55:13 AM PDT by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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