HISTORY OF PONTIUS PILATE'S JUDGEMENT OF YESHUA OF NAZARETH

TNDL: "THIS IS THE HISTORY OF PONTIUS PILATE'S JUDGEMENT OF YESHUA OF NAZARETH, THE LAMB OF GOD MOST HIGH! YESHUA SAID TO PILATE THAT HE IS A KING; HOWEVER, HIS KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD. HE ALSO EXPLAINED TO HIM THAT HE CAME TO SPEAK THE TRUTH, AND THAT EVERYONE WHO EMBRACED THE TRUTH LISTEN. MY QUESTION IS, DID PILATE LOVE THE TRUTH AND LISTEN TO YESHUA, THE KING OF HEAVEN? LOOK AT THIS HISTORIC LIFE AND YOU BE THE THE JUDGE."
The Roman Ways
Jesus was born about 4 B.C. (see Anno Domini). You may remember that after the wise men announced the birth of Jesus to King Herod I, the king ordered that all baby boys in Bethlehem, who were two years of age or less, should be destroyed. Ironically, Herod himself died shortly after issuing this malicious decree.
Augustus Caesar honored Herod's will that stated that his kingdom was to be divided between his three surviving sons. The will gave Antipas a quarter of the realm, (the territory around Galilee), Philip a quarter of the realm (the area around Traconitis and later, Ituraea), and Archelaus the remaining half of the realm (Judea and Samaria). Each son that governed a quarter of the realm was called a "tetarch" (or a ruler of a fourth, see Luke 3:1), and Archelaus was called an "ethnarch" (a ruler of a province).With the passage of time, Augustus did not think Archelaus was fit to be a king, so he removed Archelaus from his throne about ten years later. Archelaus was exiled and the province of Judea became a third-world Roman province that governors ruled. From A.D. 6 to the Jewish revolt in A.D. 66, governors that came from Rome's middle class ruled Judea. (The exception to this was the brief reign of Herod Agrippa I. (A.D. 41-44))
The first duty of a Roman governor was to maintain order and keep the peace according to the provisions of Roman law. Governors typically had a contingency of Roman soldiers at their command and they used them when necessary to keep order. Governors were also responsible for imposing and collecting taxes for Caesar which was no small task given the intense animosity between the occupied territories and the heavy hand of Rome.
Then as now, people who had political ambitions coveted the office of governor, and yet, with all its trappings, the office was not very glamorous. A Roman governor walked a very fine line. He was trapped between keeping peace in a province who hated to pay taxes to Rome, while simultaneously, meeting all of Caesars demands. If the governor offended the people, it often caused an uprising. When this occurred, Caesar would hear about it and question the governors ability to keep the peace.
If the governor tried to please the people by softening Rome's demands, Caesar would fire him in a heart beat and put him to death for insubordination. So, to be a governor in Jesus day may have been a powerful job, but it required a delicate political balance.
Pontius Pilate
History says that Pilate was the fifth governor of Judea. Most governors served two to four years, but Pilate served as governor of Judea for about eleven years. (A.D. 26-36) We have no information about Pilate before he arrived in Judea as governor. If it were not for a few hours with Jesus on one fateful morning, Pilate would have disappeared long ago into the silent hallway of history. Josephus indicates that Pilates career in Judea ended abruptly when he agitated his subjects one time too many. (Antiquities 18:85-89)
As the story goes, a messianic figure rose in Samaria and formed a group of enthusiastic followers. Problems became serious when they armed themselves in an attempt to deliver their people from the hands of the Romans and establish Gods kingdom. To prove his assumed identity as the Messiah, the messianic figure invited his followers to follow him to the summit of Mt. Gerizim, a mountain the Samaritans considered a holy site. (See Deuteronomy 11:29.)He claimed that Moses had buried sacred vessels on top of the mountain and he knew where they were. (Evidently he believed if the sacred vessels were revealed, it would legitimize his messianic claims.) Pilate learned of this development and sent a platoon of Roman soldiers to block their ascent up the mountain. This led to a bloody confrontation and the Romans killed several Samaritans in the melee that followed.
The Samaritan Council formally complained to Caesar about Pilate�s abusive use of power and Tiberius summoned Pilate to Rome. Pilate left for Rome, but reached the city after Tiberius had died. The new emperor, Gaius, did not send Pilate back to Judea and Pilate suddenly disappeared from the radar screen of history.Eusebius, a spiritual counselor to Emperor Constantine in the fourth century A.D., supports a legend that Pilate committed suicide during the reign of Gaius. The legend maintains that Pilate committed suicide due to his remorse for what he did to Jesus. (Hist. Eccl. 2.7.1)
History does not reveal if Pilate became a born-again Christian. However, it is interesting that Christian churches in northern Africa years later declared Pilate a saint. In fact, Tertullian claims that Pilate was a Christian at heart in a letter he wrote to Tiberius. (Apology 21) I believe that Pilate had a complete change of heart after meeting Jesus, and his actions in the drama you are about to read are quite revealing, when put in context.......