Enda80

Why did Pilate hate Jews? Also, what is general consenus as to whether or not Pilate ever converted to Christianity?

andrewcriddle

I'm not aware of evidence that Pilate did 'hate Jews'. As the administrator of a conquered province of the Roman Empire (Judea) he was sometimes hardh and insensitive but that is another matter.

(In fact Pilate ruled a difficult province reasonably successfully for about ten years. Most Roman Governors of Judea were replaced after a shorter period.)

The claims that Pilate converted to Christianity are late legends. It didn't happen.

Andrew Criddle

ohwilleke

The Bible passion stories are relatively friendly to Pilate. They make the execution of Jesus look almost like a modern case of an "execution volunteer", with Pilate asking Jesus to give Pilate any execuse not to execute him, and Jesus refusing to defend himself at all. Most of the moral responsibility is placed with the angry Jewish crowds and their theological leaders, who appear to be behind the push to have him arrested and who demand the execution of Jesus.

Also, keep in mind that Rome was something of a federal state. The Romans intervened in matters of concern to Rome, but otherwise tended to respect local custom and local religious beliefs.

Put another way, the anti-semetic approach of blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus, while reprehensible, is not entirely absent from the Gospel text. The fundamentalists who hold these views draw it from the text of the Passion story itself, and then get their doctrine and theology machines into a might tizzy to extend that blame to people who are living 2000 years later.

Enda80

http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/pilate.html

In Josephus' writings too we find further confirmation of Agrippa I's assessment of Pilate. Unlike his predecessors, Coponius (governor AD6-9), Ambibulos (AD9-12), Annius Rufus (AD12-15) and Valerius Gratus (AD15-26), Pilate had nothing but contempt for Jewish culture, religion and people. Josephus' Antiquities (18:3:1-5) gave a summary of Pilate's experience with the Jews. In three separate incidents, Pilate showed himself to be a man with little respect for the Jews and their religion.

Anyone know why Pilate held such contempt?

ohwilleke

The text you cite portrays him as a generally mean, authoritarian SOB with a chip on his shoulders about Roman perogatives in their own province. This is the kind of guy that makes it up the ranks in authoritarian imperial regimes.

Diogenes the Cynic

If he had such contempt it is likely that he viewed Judea as a backwards, third rate province full of superstitious rubes and bad scenery. It was likely to be a provincial and elitist disdain more than anything else. He was stuck in a third world backwater full of people who didn't believe in the Gods, who had a bunch of weird customs and rituals of their own, who hated the Romans (not a small thing, it wasn't like the people loved and welcomed Roman governors) and who were constantly threatening to riot or revolt. It was not exactly a plush tour of duty for Pilate.

Amaleq13

Makes me wonder who he pissed off to get the gig.

Or might he have considered it a necessary stepping stone to bigger things?

Vorkosigan

The descriptions of Pilate we have come from his enemies. Andrew's point that Pilate ruled for ten years is very cogent. From the discussion of Pilate on my website:

• Pilate was appointed not on merit but because he was a favorite of Sejanus, a power in Tiberius' court. Nevertheless, the fact that he governed for a decade argues that he must have been relatively competent. Additionally, although Tiberius moved against many of Sejanus' appointees after Sejanus' death in 31, Pilate remained in office for five more years, another signal of competence. Moreover, Judea was quiet during his term; the Roman legions were withdrawn, leaving local auxiliary troops to police the public order. Finally, although Pilate ruled for ten years, he never removed a Jewish high priest from office, unlike his predecessor Gratus, who had deposed four high priests during his eleven-year rule (Brown 1994, p694-695).

It is hard to reconcile competent governance with unremitting contempt for Judaism, especially since Pilate did not remove any high priests -- it is hard to imagine that he had good relations with the high priests but had contempt for Judaism. IMHO the picture in Philo and Josephus is skewed (and the more I read Josephus, the less I trust of his "history").

Amaleq13

So, somewhere between their depiction and the one in the Gospels?

Vorkosigan

That's how I see it. Andrew might want to argue differently, though.