During the Trial of Jesus Christ, it was the Jewish Sanhedrin that convicted Jesus Christ to crucifixion and death, while Pontius Pilate seemed to be a bemused onlooker. The odd behaviour of Pontius Pilate, who commented about Jesus, “I find no fault in this man” and, “What Is Truth?” – the most damning of all being his statement: “he [Pilate] took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person” – thus going sharply against everything we know about Pilate from secular historians, who described him as a merciless tyrant. The Gospel stories suggest that the accounts of the Trial of Jesus Christ dates from a period of time when a sharp schism existed between Judaism and Christianity, from a period of time when anti-Semitism had taken a firm foothold – not from the lifetime of Pontius Pilate and therefore is unhistorical in nature.

Based on historical accounts from the 1st century, Pontius Pilate was widely considered a ruthless, inflexible, and cruel Roman governor, rather than the hesitant and reluctant figure sometimes portrayed in the Gospels. His actions as the prefect of Judaea (26-36 CE) were marked by heavy-handed rule that often ignored Jewish religious sensibilities, resulting in violent, bloody confrontations.

Pilate deliberately placed Roman standards (flags) and shields with inscriptions honoring the emperor into the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, provoking massive protests and threatening to kill protestors before backing down. Historical reports from figures like Philo described his administration as involving “bribery, insults, robbery, outrages, wanton injuries, constant and unexecuted sentences of death, and boundless, inhuman cruelty”.