Pite In Helen Bond's Pontius Pilate

The bible tells us of a man known as Pontius Pilate. At the time, he was a cruel Roman governor of Judea under emperor Tiberius. He is widely know as the man who gave the final \order for the crucifixion of Jesus. The governor is looked at as both good and bad. In fact, many scholars think that he was possibly the first ever Christian. However, how was someone who ruled under the ancient Roman law deserving of such title? Helen Bond conveys in her book, Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation, that there is evidence that suggests that Pilate, as cruel as he was, did not want to give Jesus a death sentence. "This is shown in the gospel of Matthew 27 verse thirteen through twenty. He repeatedly tried to find other ways to avoid it. For example when he was reminded that it was s custom to free

The Jewish leaders wanted to get rid of Jesus because he was threat to their religious authority. As said in Mathew he handed them over to the crowd full of chief priest and elders (Mathew 27:24-26). Pilate needed the partnership of the Jewish leaders. I read in a book about the biography of Pilate, in it it explains how his official was called Praefect. This word translate into "governor". In which his title implies that his two main dutys are to keep peace and order in the land and also collect tax to be sent to Rome. Being a Roman governor he would want to keep his power over them so that they would not rebel and overthrow him. Also in John 19:1-17 says that Pilate looked a way to save Jesus but soon gave up after the Jewish leaders threaten to report him to the emperor for not enforcing the law. He permitted the crucifixion was a way to appease the Jewish leaders and prevent any other civil disturbance that they might have caused. For him, it was more beneficial to allow the death of one man than have to deal with a riot of