title: Jessie J

text: In May 2018, her fourth studio album "R.O.S.E." was released. The album was released as four EPs titled Realisations, Obsessions, Sex, and Empowerment, creating an acronym for "R.O.S.E." The album moved away from the pop sound heard in much of her past music, instead taking on an R&B style. In September 2018, Jessie J announced her first Christmas album titled "This Christmas Day", which was released on 26 October 2018. In December 2018, Jessie J confirmed that she would be appearing as a coach on "The Voice Kids UK" alongside Pixie Lott, Danny Jones and will.i.am for its third series. She also stated in an Instagram Live that she wants to write new pop/soul songs. In April 2019 Jessie began touring festivals across Europe and Asia. She announced via Instagram that the tour is called The Lasty Tour, in honour of her close friend and bodyguard Dave Last "Lasty" who died in December 2018.


title: Jessie J

text: Jessie J co-wrote "One More Try" with Max Martin and Oscar Holter. The track is the only original song to appear in Martin's 2019 jukebox musical "& Juliet", where it is sung by Miriam-Teak Lee and Jordan Luke Gage as Juliet and Romeo on the official soundtrack. Jessie J's own version of the song is also included on the soundtrack.


title: Jessie J

text: In 2021, Jessie J released a new single "I Want Love", which was followed by a diagnosis of Ménière's disease and an unrelated miscarriage. During an interview on Steven Bartlett's podcast "Diary of a CEO" on 2 May 2022, Jessie J revealed that her sixth album was recorded but she had decided to scrap it entirely after deciding that it "did not feel right". She also revealed that her label was supportive of the decision and supported her to start re-recording the album in April 2022. In terms of previously recorded music, Jessie J elaborated that some of the songs could be re-recorded, scrapped or allocated elsewhere but she was not sure if they would appear on the album. Jessie J also revealed that she had departed ways with her sixth manager, sensing that she needed a new internal team.


title: Jessie J

text: Although Jessie J was first identified as a soul singer, she primarily records songs of R&B and pop music with hip hop influences. Music critic Matthew Perpetua of Pitchfork Media compared her to her peers Adele and Amy Winehouse, but suggested she was missing something: "Whereas Adele and Winehouse also have powerhouse voices, they fit into clear aesthetic niches and invest their songs with depth and humanity. Jessie J doesn't have even a fraction of their restraint." Perpetua added: "Her idea of showcasing her gift is to shoot for a blaring melisma on "Mamma Knows Best" that makes Christina Aguilera seem as subtle as Joni Mitchell by comparison."


title: Jessie J

text: Ailbhe Malone of the music magazine "NME" also recognised Cornish's "undeniably potent voice". However, she pointed out the possible "identity crisis" that might have been caused by Jessie's songwriter past: "This is an album of singles for other artists. There's Rihanna Jessie ('Do It...'), Perry Jessie ('Abracadabra'), Pixie Jessie ('Mamma Knows Best'), Ellie Jessie ('Big White Room')." Caroline Sullivan of "The Guardian" shared her positive opinion about the singer, saying that "if any singer has the potential to be the British Katy Perry or Pink, with the accompanying millions of sales, it's her". Sullivan also complimented Cornish's attitude: "[Her songs] are delivered with a confidence that money can't buy." Jessie J. has been compared to Perry, and has expressed admiration for Perry's music and her work ethic. She said, "Her hard work, her dedication, and how she deals with having the world stare at her every move, personally and professionally, with such dignity and strength, is inspiring."


title: Jessie J

text: "Entertainment Weekly"s music critic Adam Markovitz said of Jessie: "The 23-year-old Brit has all the tools, from a monster voice to an ear for hooks—she co-wrote Miley Cyrus' 'Party in the U.S.A.'—and a manic persona that's equal parts Katy Perry, Kristin Chenoweth, and Alice Cooper."


title: Jessie J

text: Jessie J calls her fans "heartbeats", after her Heartbeat Tour. Of them, she has said, "They're amazing, and they're the only reason I'm here at the VMAs and people know who I am ... They support me and buy my albums and singles, and they stand outside hotels, and they come to shows, and they get tattoos of my lyrics and they cut their hair like me. You have to love your fans. That's why I call them my Heartbeats, because without them I wouldn't be here."


title: Jessie J

text: Asked about her bisexuality in an interview on the "In Demand" radio show on 3 March 2011, Jessie J stated, "I've never denied it. Whoopie doo guys, yes, I've dated girls and I've dated boys – get over it." Sophie Wilkinson of "The Guardian" argued that Jessie J's sexuality was valuable to young teens, especially for young girls unsure of themselves because of their sexuality and identity, to feel "that this does happen and this is normal." In April 2014, Jessie J renounced her bisexuality, stating, "For me, it was a phase. But I'm not saying bisexuality is a phase for everybody." Laura Kay of "The Guardian" said although she would never deny anyone the right to define their own sexuality, Jessie J renouncing her bisexuality "feels like such a loss for young gay or questioning people who look up to her", and wondered if the wrong message might have been sent because is "an unhelpful term as this is an idea that gay people find themselves constantly battling against."


title: Jessie J

text: She identifies as a feminist, and believes that equal rights should be a normality and that her responsibility as a woman includes "being confident and not standing down for any ego or suit."


title: Jessie J

text: In 2014, Jessie J relocated from London to Los Angeles, California. She cited work opportunities and dissatisfaction with the level of focus in the UK on her personal life rather than on her singing, saying, "In America they see me as a singer whereas here I feel that people don't appreciate my voice."


title: Jessie J

text: In November 2014, she started dating American singer Luke James. The couple ended their relationship in October 2015. It is unclear whether the pair rekindled their relationship, but they went on to perform together a couple of times. In 2018, she started dating American actor Channing Tatum. They broke up in 2019, but rekindled their romance in 2020 before breaking up again later that year.


title: Jessie J

text: In early 2011, she suffered a panic attack on stage after she was forced to perform in the dark. "I did a gig recently and had a panic attack on stage," she said. "The night was called 'Black Out' and I had to perform in the dark. I asked them to turn on the lights and they didn't. I was onstage in pitch black and, because I couldn't see anything, I started to panic. It was awful."


title: Jessie J

text: In an Instagram post on Christmas Eve in 2020, she revealed that she has been diagnosed with Ménière's disease. In the post, she wrote how the condition made her feel like "someone crawled" into her ear "and turned a hair dryer on." The disorder affects the inner ear, and can lead to severe dizziness, ringing in the ear and hearing loss.


title: Jessie J

text: Jessie J has appeared on the major UK charity telethons, Children in Need and Comic Relief, both broadcast on the BBC. She confirmed on 2 August 2011 that she would be shaving her hair off for charity in 2012. Speaking via her official Twitter account she said: "It's hair, It will grow back. Even if it takes 2 years, if it saves lives it's worth it. Even if its 1 life that's something." On 15 March 2013, Jessie's head was shaved live during Red Nose Day 2013, helping to raise money for Comic Relief.


title: Jessie J

text: In November 2011, Jessie J performed "Nobody's Perfect" at the charity concert "Children in Need Rocks Manchester" held at the Manchester Arena to raise money for Children in Need 2011. Jessie J is a supporter of UK children's charity Believe in Magic, a charity that grants wishes to terminally ill children across the UK. In July 2012 she performed "Laserlight" on stage with a 7-year-old fan, leukaemia sufferer Daniel Sullivan. Sullivan died four months later.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Thomas B. Kin Chong (born May 24, 1938) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, musician, activist. He is known for his marijuana-themed Cheech & Chong comedy albums and movies with Cheech Marin, as well as playing the character Leo on Fox's "That '70s Show". He became a naturalized United States citizen in the late 1980s.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Thomas B. Kin Chong was born on May 24, 1938, in Edmonton, Alberta. His mother was of Scotch-Irish Canadian ancestry, and his father was a Chinese Canadian who immigrated in the 1930s. He had an older brother, Stan (1936-2019). After arriving in Canada, the senior Chong had first lived with an aunt in Vancouver.


title: Tommy Chong

text: As a youth, Tommy Chong moved with his family to Calgary, settling in a conservative neighbourhood Chong has referred to as "Dog Patch". He has said that his father had "been wounded in World War II and there was a veterans' hospital in Calgary. He bought a $500 house in Dog Patch and raised his family on $50 a week." In an interview, Chong later described how he dropped out of Crescent Heights High School "when I was 16 but probably just before they were going to throw me out anyway." He played guitar to make money. "I discovered that music could get you laid, even if you were a scrawny, long-haired, geeky-looking guy like me."


title: Tommy Chong

text: By the early 1960s, Chong was playing guitar for a Calgary soul group called the Shades. The Shades moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where the band's name changed to "Little Daddy & the Bachelors". They recorded a single, "Too Much Monkey Business" / "Junior's Jerk". Together with bandmember Bobby Taylor, Chong opened a Vancouver nightclub in 1963. Formerly the Alma Theatre, they called it "Blue Balls". They brought in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, which had never been to Vancouver before. Although Little Daddy & the Bachelors built up a small following, things soured when they went with Chong's suggestion and had themselves billed as "Four Niggers and a Chink" (or, bowing to pressure, "Four N's and a C") before taking on the moniker Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers.


title: Tommy Chong

text: In 1965, the Vancouvers signed with Gordy Records (a subsidiary of Detroit's Motown Records). They recorded their debut album, an eponymous release, and their debut single, the Tommy Chong co-composition, "Does Your Mama Know About Me," which peaked at number 29 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. While on tour in Chicago for a short time, the band followed opening act the Jackson 5. Chong later referred to the young Michael Jackson as a "cute little guy". After the band released two additional singles, Chong and bandmate Wes Henderson missed a Friday night performance to apply for green cards so they could become American citizens. Chong was fired by Chris Clark and Motown producer Johnny Bristol for arriving late to the gig. Later, when Berry Gordy told Chong that he wasn't fired after all, that it had been a mistake, Chong said he wanted to stay fired. "I said I want to become a Berry Gordy, I don't want to just work for a Berry Gordy. And he says I can, I can dig that. So he was nice. He gave me $5,000 as the severance and to me that was a fortune." The group broke up shortly afterwards, when Chong tried to reduce the number of players covered by the Vancouvers' contract. He intended that he, Taylor, and Henderson would constitute the group, while other members would be classified as sidemen and session artists.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Chong co-wrote and performed on many Cheech & Chong comedy albums, four of which were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. He and Cheech Marin shared the 1973 award in this category for "Los Cochinos".


title: Tommy Chong

text: Cheech & Chong, while a very successful comedy act, split in 1985 due to creative differences and Marin's desire to focus on a mainstream acting career. This began a difficult time for Chong. He developed an unsold pilot for CBS called "The Martinez Family", which was redeveloped as the 1988 sitcom "Trial and Error". In 1990, he directed, wrote and starred in the movie "Far Out Man". He did not act regularly until filling the recurring role (later a regular role) as the fun-loving, aging hippie "Leo" (similar to his Chong character) on "That '70s Show". Chong was absent during the fifth and sixth seasons of the show as he was serving a brief jail sentence; upon his release, he returned to the series for its final two seasons. He also played a role as a hippie in "Dharma & Greg".


title: Tommy Chong

text: Chong was originally going to voice the character of Shenzi, the hyena in the Disney film "The Lion King". Cheech Marin voiced Banzai. (The Shenzi character was changed to a female and was voiced instead by Whoopi Goldberg.) Chong provided the voice of the character Yax in the 2016 Disney film "Zootopia".


title: Tommy Chong

text: In September 2005, "a/k/a Tommy Chong" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary, produced, written and directed by Josh Gilbert, chronicles Chong's comedic and personal history. It includes material related to his prosecution by the US Justice Department and imprisonment. The project features interviews with Cheech Marin, Bill Maher, George Thorogood, Peter Coyote, Lou Adler, Eric Schlosser and Jay Leno. In 2011, Chong appeared as a Judge in an episode of "Franklin & Bash."


title: Tommy Chong

text: On September 4, 2014, Chong was announced as one of the celebrities participating on the 19th season of "Dancing with the Stars". He paired with professional dancer Peta Murgatroyd. Despite being at the bottom of the leaderboard numerous times, Chong and Murgatroyd were able to make it to the night of the semi-finals but were eliminated at the end of that night. Chong is the oldest contestant to have made it to the semi-finals of the show.


title: Tommy Chong

text: On April 4, 2015, Chong appeared as a guest speaker at the annual "Hash Bash" event in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which focuses on cannabis legalization.


title: Tommy Chong

text: In November 2017, Chong guest-starred as himself in an episode of the "Trailer Park Boys" spinoff "Out of the Park: USA". In 2017, Chong also partnered with smoking subscription box service Daily High Club to create the DHC Tommy Chong Signature Smoking Supply Box.


title: Tommy Chong

text: On January 9, 2019, Chong competed in season one of "The Masked Singer" as "Pineapple" where he sang "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor.


title: Tommy Chong

text: On May 23, 2019, Chong appeared on episode #1303 of the internet video podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience", hosted by Joe Rogan.


title: Tommy Chong

text: On June 19, 2019, Chong appeared on episode #694 of the internet video podcast "The Church Of What's Happening Now", hosted by Joey Diaz.


title: Tommy Chong

text: On December 18, 2020, Chong appeared in the online cannabis publication "The Green Fund" for an interview to discuss his career with Cheech & Chong and his upcoming branded dispensaries.


title: Tommy Chong

text: In 2003, Chong became caught up in two American investigations, code-named Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter, which tried to trace drug traffic and users through businesses selling drug paraphernalia, mostly bongs. Operation Pipe Dreams was run from Pittsburgh. US Attorney for Western Pennsylvania Mary Beth Buchanan oversaw the case. The estimated cost of Operation Pipe Dreams was over $12 million and included the resources of 2,000 law enforcement officers. Fifty-five companies that sold drug paraphernalia over the Internet were the subject of the investigation, and Nice Dreams was one of them.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Chong was charged for his part in financing and promoting Chong Glass/Nice Dreams, a company started by his son Paris. His case never went to trial, as his attorney negotiated a plea agreement with the US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania's Office. He admitted to distributing 7,500 bongs and water pipes on the Internet through Nice Dreams, a family company. Chong agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute drug paraphernalia in exchange for non-prosecution of his wife, Shelby, and his son, Paris. Chong cooperated with the government and was the first of the Operation Pipe Dreams defendants to plead guilty.


title: Tommy Chong

text: At Chong's sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania Mary McKeen Houghton said in her arguments that Tommy Chong "used his public image to promote this crime" and marketed his products to children. U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan also was present at the sentencing in Pittsburgh and released a statement to the press stating, "There are consequences for violating the law, even if the violator is a well-known entertainer like Thomas Chong."


title: Tommy Chong

text: While Chong argued for community service and home detention at his sentencing, the district judge, Arthur J. Schwab, denied his requests and sentenced him to 9 months in federal prison, a fine of $20,000, forfeiture of $103,514, and the loss of all merchandise seized during the raid of his business. Chong served his sentence at the Taft Correctional Institution from October 8, 2003, to July 7, 2004. He was a cellmate of "The Wolf of Wall Street" Jordan Belfort, who credits him for encouraging Belfort to write his memoirs. They have remained friends ever since.


title: Tommy Chong

text: These events were among those chronicled in "a/k/a Tommy Chong" (2006), a documentary by Josh Gilbert. It premiered theatrically at the New York Film Forum in New York City and won awards. His time in prison was also a main point in his book, "The I Chong".


title: Tommy Chong

text: While government officials denied that Chong was treated any differently from the other defendants, supporters felt his celebrity status was being used against him. Chong's publicist Brandie Knight said the Chong family was shocked by the raid. "We've done everything the right way, and the government is saying there is no right way," Knight said. Supporters started the "Free Tommy Chong!" movement that called for his release. They questioned why Chong was prosecuted rather than his son Paris Chong, who was CEO of the business. They also pointed to the disparity in sentences between Chong's and those of other defendants, and they protested the DEA tactics used in the investigation.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Paris Chong had started Nice Dreams in 1999. He was never charged with his crimes in relation to the investigation, as part of a plea bargain. When asked why the government had focused on Chong rather than his son the CEO, US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said that "Tommy Chong was the more responsible corporate officer because he financed and marketed the product."


title: Tommy Chong

text: Of the 55 people who were subjects of the investigation, Chong was the only one without previous convictions who received jail time. When questioned on the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan noted that Chong had never gone to trial and made a plea bargain. She said, "He was a relatively new player, but he had the ability to market products like no other."


title: Tommy Chong

text: During its investigation of Nice Dreams, federal agents posed as head-shop owners from Beaver County in western Pennsylvania. They asked Paris Chong to sell them pipes through the mail to a fictitious shop in the town of Beaver Falls, from Pittsburgh. Paris Chong had been prohibited from selling to Pittsburgh or anywhere in Western Pennsylvania because of the successful federal prosecution of Akhil Kumar Mishra and his wife, Rajeshwari, who had two head shops in the city. Accounts differ as to who in Nice Dreams went against Chong's prohibition, or even if it had been made up by the defence, but the sales did take place to the agents. This enabled the U.S. Attorney to show jurisdiction in Pennsylvania for Chong's illegal activities, as opposed to California, which was the base for Nice Dreams.


title: Tommy Chong

text: In December 2004, Chong was to appear in an off-Broadway show entitled "The Marijuana-Logues", a parody of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues". His parole officer barred him from the show and the tour was cancelled, as audience members were smoking pot during performances. Such exposure would cause Chong to violate the terms of his parole. In 2006, Chong published a memoir about his experiences in jail and his exploration of meditation, called "The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint".


title: Tommy Chong

text: In 2010, Chong and Cyril Wecht appeared at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to aid the campaign against Mary Beth Buchanan, the United States Attorney who prosecuted him. She was running as a Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives. She was defeated in the Republican primary.


title: Tommy Chong

text: On May 7, 2008, federal agents raided Spectrum Labs in an investigation related to its "detoxification" products. The search was one of nine conducted for Operation True Test, an investigation being led by Buchanan, still the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. It targeted companies that sold so-called "masking products," intended to help drug users pass employer drug tests. No federal law bans such products; they are regulated on a state-by-state basis. Of the nine search warrants issued, none was for businesses within Buchanan's district.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Chong claimed that federal agents had seized 8,000–10,000 copies of the yet-to-be released documentary, "a/k/a Tommy Chong," from Spectrum Labs, but their attorney said no DVDs were taken. In a press release, Chong said, "[The seizure of the DVDs is] a way to punish the distributor financially. There's no way to get the DVDs back until the investigation is over." Chong said he did not have any ownership of the film. The "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" later amended its story, saying that an "undisclosed number of DVDs was taken". It noted the government is not required to disclose a reason for the seizure as the raid was part of "an ongoing investigation".


title: Tommy Chong

text: Chong appeared with his long-time comedy partner, Cheech Marin, in a 2000 "South Park" episode called "Cherokee Hair Tampons".


title: Tommy Chong

text: In mid-2008, Cheech & Chong reunited and started touring. The tour was called "Light Up America and Canada" and "The Felimony Tour", which referred to major experiences of each. In October 2008, they appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" , the "Opie and Anthony" Show, and the "Ron and Fez" Show on SIRIUS/XM Satellite Radio. On March 1, 2010, they hosted "WWE Raw" in Oklahoma City. On March 13, 2011, Cheech & Chong were guest stars on "The Simpsons" episode "A Midsummer's Nice Dream", where, during a reunion tour, Homer briefly replaced Chong before the pair reconciled.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Cheech Marin appeared in Tommy Chong's first dance in the season opener of "Dancing with the Stars" on September 15, 2014. Around this same time, Cheech and Chong appeared together on the Internet-based, pro-marijuana show, "Getting Doug with High".


title: Tommy Chong

text: In 1960, Chong married Maxine Sneed in Canada. They raised two daughters, Rae Dawn (b. 1961) by his previous wife Gail Lewis, and Robbi Chong (b. 1965). They divorced in 1970.


title: Tommy Chong

text: In 1975, Chong married Shelby Fiddis in Los Angeles. They had three children, sons Paris (b. 1974) and Gilbran (b. 1981) and daughter Precious Chong (b. 1968). In 1978, the couple adopted Marcus Wyatt. Rae Dawn, Robbi, Marcus, Paris, and Precious Chong have each pursued careers in acting. In addition to film work, in May 2011, Precious Chong had her play, "Push ... One Mother of a Show," produced in Toronto.


title: Tommy Chong

text: In an interview, Tommy Chong shared that he smoked with Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his bodybuilding buddies, also with all the Beatles except Paul McCartney. He also calls George Harrison his favourite smoking friend.


title: Tommy Chong

text: In the late 1980s, Chong became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Rae Dawn Chong has also become a naturalized U.S. citizen.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Tommy Chong has become a marijuana activist and supports legalizing the plant's use. He is a regular contributor to "Cannabis Culture Magazine" and sits on the NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) advisory board.


title: Tommy Chong

text: Chong announced on June 9, 2012, that he is battling prostate cancer. He described the cancer "as a slow stage one [that I've] had for a long time". He said that he had been drug free for about three years, during which time he began having prostate-related problems.


title: Tommy Chong

text: On July 15, 2012, Chong tweeted that the hemp oil treatment he had been using to cure his cancer was effective and that he is "99% cancer free". However, on June 16, 2015, Chong stated that he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer and was "using cannabis like crazy" in order to endure the treatment.


title: Tommy Chong

text: In 2019, Chong announced that he is "cancer-free". He also opined that stress could have been a cause of his diagnosis.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pontius Pilate (; , ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately ordered his crucifixion. Pilate's importance in modern Christianity is underscored by his prominent place in both the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. Due to the Gospels' portrayal of Pilate as reluctant to execute Jesus, the Ethiopian Church believes that Pilate became a Christian and venerates him as both a martyr and a saint, a belief which is historically shared by the Coptic Church.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Although Pilate is the best-attested governor of Judaea, few sources regarding his rule have survived. Nothing is known about his life before he became governor of Judaea, and nothing is known about the circumstances that led to his appointment to the governorship. Coins that he minted have survived from Pilate's governorship, as well as a single inscription, the so-called Pilate stone. The Jewish historian Josephus, the philosopher Philo of Alexandria and the Gospel of Luke all mention incidents of tension and violence between the Jewish population and Pilate's administration. Many of these incidents involve Pilate acting in ways that offended the religious sensibilities of the Jews. The Christian Gospels record that Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus at some point during his time in office; Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus also record this information. According to Josephus, Pilate's removal from office occurred because he violently suppressed an armed Samaritan movement at Mount Gerizim. He was sent back to Rome by the legate of Syria to answer for this incident before Tiberius, but the emperor died before Pilate arrived in Rome. Nothing is known about what happened to him after this event. On the basis of events which were documented by the second-century pagan philosopher Celsus and the Christian apologist Origen, most modern historians believe that Pilate simply retired after his dismissal. Modern historians have differing assessments of Pilate as an effective ruler: while some believe that he was a particularly brutal and ineffective governor, others believe that his long time in office implies reasonable competence. According to one prominent post-war theory, Pilate's treatment of the Jews was motivated by antisemitism, but most modern historians do not believe this theory.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Pilate became the focus of a large group of New Testament apocrypha expanding on his role in the Gospels, the Pilate cycle. Attitudes split by region: In texts from the Eastern Roman Empire, Pilate was portrayed as a positive figure. He and his wife are portrayed as Christian converts and sometimes martyrs. In Western Christian texts, he was instead portrayed as a negative figure and villain, with traditions surrounding his death by suicide featuring prominently. Pilate was also the focus of numerous medieval legends, which invented a complete biography for him and portrayed him as villainous and cowardly. Many of these legends connected Pilate's place of birth or death to particular locations around Western Europe, such as claiming his body was buried in a particularly dangerous or cursed local area.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate has frequently been a subject of artistic representation. Medieval art frequently portrayed scenes of Pilate and Jesus, often in the scene where he washes his hands of guilt for Jesus's death. In the art of the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Pilate is often depicted as a Jew. The nineteenth century saw a renewed interest in depicting Pilate, with numerous images made. He plays an important role in medieval passion plays, where he is often a more prominent character than Jesus. His characterization in these plays varies greatly, from weak-willed and coerced into crucifying Jesus to being an evil person who demands Jesus's crucifixion. Modern authors who feature Pilate prominently in their works include Anatole France, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Chingiz Aitmatov, with a majority of modern treatments of Pilate dating to after the Second World War. Pilate has also frequently been portrayed in film.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Sources on Pontius Pilate are limited, although modern scholars know more about him than about other Roman governors of Judaea. The most important sources are the "Embassy to Gaius" (after the year 41) by contemporary Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria, the "Jewish Wars" () and "Antiquities of the Jews" () by the Jewish historian Josephus, as well as the four canonical Christian Gospels, Mark (composed between 66–70), Luke (composed between 85–90), Matthew (composed between 85–90), and John (composed between 90–110); he is also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (composed between 85–90) and by the First Epistle to Timothy (written in the second half of the 1st century). Ignatius of Antioch mentions him in his epistles to the Trallians, Magnesians, and Smyrnaeans (composed between 105–110 AD). He is also briefly mentioned in "Annals" of the Roman historian Tacitus (early 2nd century AD), who simply says that he put Jesus to death. Two additional chapters of Tacitus's "Annals" that might have mentioned Pilate have been lost. Besides these texts, dated coins in the name of emperor Tiberius minted during Pilate's governorship have survived, as well as a fragmentary short inscription that names Pilate, known as the Pilate Stone, the only inscription about a Roman governor of Judaea predating the Roman-Jewish Wars to survive. The written sources provide only limited information and each has its own biases, with the gospels in particular providing a theological rather than historical perspective on Pilate.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The sources give no indication of Pilate's life prior to his becoming governor of Judaea. His praenomen (first name) is unknown; his cognomen "Pilatus" might mean "skilled with the javelin ()," but it could also refer to the or Phrygian cap, possibly indicating that one of Pilate's ancestors was a freedman. If it means "skilled with the javelin," it is possible that Pilate won the cognomen for himself while serving in the Roman military; it is also possible that his father acquired the cognomen through military skill. In the Gospels of Mark and John, Pilate is only called by his cognomen, which Marie-Joseph Ollivier takes to mean that this was the name by which he was generally known in common speech. The name "Pontius" suggests that an ancestor of his came from Samnium in central, southern Italy, and he may have belonged to the family of Gavius Pontius and Pontius Telesinus, two leaders of the Samnites in the third and first centuries respectively, before their full incorporation to the Roman Republic. Like all but one other governor of Judaea, Pilate was of the equestrian order, a middle rank of the Roman nobility. As one of the attested Pontii, Pontius Aquila (an assassin of Julius Caesar), was a tribune of the plebs, the family must have originally been of plebeian origin. They became ennobled as equestrians.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate was likely educated, somewhat wealthy, and well-connected politically and socially. He was probably married, but the only extant reference to his wife, in which she tells him not to interact with Jesus after she has had a disturbing dream (Matthew 27:19), is generally dismissed as legendary. According to the "cursus honorum" established by Augustus for office holders of equestrian rank, Pilate would have had a military command before becoming prefect of Judaea; Alexander Demandt speculates that this could have been with a legion stationed at the Rhine or Danube. Although it is therefore likely Pilate served in the military, it is nevertheless not certain.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. The post of governor of Judaea was of relatively low prestige and nothing is known of how Pilate obtained the office. Josephus states that Pilate governed for 10 years ("Antiquities of the Jews" 18.4.2), and these are traditionally dated from 26 to 36/37, making him one of the two longest-serving governors of the province. As Tiberius had retired to the island of Capri in 26, scholars such as E. Stauffer have argued that Pilate may have actually been appointed by the powerful Praetorian Prefect Sejanus, who was executed for treason in 31. Other scholars have cast doubt on any link between Pilate and Sejanus. Daniel R. Schwartz and Kenneth Lönnqvist both argue that the traditional dating of the beginning of Pilate's governorship is based on an error in Josephus; Schwartz argues that he was appointed instead in 19, while Lönnqvist argues for 17/18. This updated dating has not been widely accepted by other scholars.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate's title of prefect implies that his duties were primarily military; however, Pilate's troops were meant more as a police than a military force, and Pilate's duties extended beyond military matters. As Roman governor, he was head of the judicial system. He had the power to inflict capital punishment, and was responsible for collecting tributes and taxes, and for disbursing funds, including the minting of coins. Because the Romans allowed a certain degree of local control, Pilate shared a limited amount of civil and religious power with the Jewish Sanhedrin.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate was subordinate to the legate of Syria; however, for the first six years in which he held office, Syria's legate Lucius Aelius Lamia was absent from the region, something which Helen Bond believes may have presented difficulties to Pilate. He seems to have been free to govern the province as he wished, with intervention by the legate of Syria only coming at the end of his tenure, after the appointment of Lucius Vitellius to the post in 35. Like other Roman governors of Judaea, Pilate made his primary residence in Caesarea, going to Jerusalem mainly for major feasts in order to maintain order. He also would have toured around the province in order to hear cases and administer justice.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: As governor, Pilate had the right to appoint the Jewish High Priest and also officially controlled the vestments of the High Priest in the Antonia Fortress. Unlike his predecessor, Valerius Gratus, Pilate retained the same high priest, Joseph ben Caiaphas, for his entire tenure. Caiaphas would be removed following Pilate's own removal from the governorship. This indicates that Caiaphas and the priests of the Sadducee sect were reliable allies to Pilate. Moreover, Maier argues that Pilate could not have used the temple treasury to construct an aqueduct, as recorded by Josephus, without the cooperation of the priests. Similarly, Helen Bond argues that Pilate is depicted working closely with the Jewish authorities in the execution of Jesus. Jean-Pierre Lémonon argues that official cooperation with Pilate was limited to the Sadducees, noting that the Pharisees are absent from the gospel accounts of Jesus's arrest and trial.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Daniel Schwartz takes the note in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 23:12) that Pilate had a difficult relationship with the Galilean Jewish king Herod Antipas as potentially historical. He also finds historical the information that their relationship mended following the execution of Jesus. Based on John 19:12, it is possible that Pilate held the title "friend of Caesar" (, ), a title also held by the Jewish kings Herod Agrippa I and Herod Agrippa II and by close advisors to the emperor. Both Daniel Schwartz and Alexander Demandt do not think this especially likely.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Various disturbances during Pilate's governorship are recorded in the sources. In some cases, it is unclear if they may be referring to the same event, and it is difficult to establish a chronology of events for Pilate's rule. Joan Taylor argues that Pilate had a policy of promoting the imperial cult, which may have caused some of the friction with his Jewish subjects. Schwartz suggests that Pilate's entire tenure was characterized by "continued underlying tension between governor and governed, now and again breaking out in brief incidents."


title: Pontius Pilate

text: According to Josephus in his "The Jewish War" (2.9.2) and "Antiquities of the Jews" (18.3.1), Pilate offended the Jews by moving imperial standards with the image of Caesar into Jerusalem. This resulted in a crowd of Jews surrounding Pilate's house in Caesarea for five days. Pilate then summoned them to an arena, where the Roman soldiers drew their swords. But the Jews showed so little fear of death, that Pilate relented and removed the standards. Bond argues that the fact that Josephus says that Pilate brought in the standards by night, shows that he knew that the images of the emperor would be offensive. She dates this incident to early in Pilate's tenure as governor. Daniel Schwartz and Alexander Demandt both suggest that this incident is in fact identical with "the incident with the shields" reported in Philo's "Embassy to Gaius", an identification first made by the early church historian Eusebius. Lémonon, however, argues against this identification.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: According to Philo's "Embassy to Gaius" ("Embassy to Gaius" 38), Pilate offended against Jewish law by bringing golden shields into Jerusalem, and placing them on Herod's Palace. The sons of Herod the Great petitioned him to remove the shields, but Pilate refused. Herod's sons then threatened to petition the emperor, an action which Pilate feared that would expose the crimes he had committed in office. He did not prevent their petition. Tiberius received the petition and angrily reprimanded Pilate, ordering him to remove the shields. Helen Bond, Daniel Schwartz, and Warren Carter argue that Philo's portrayal is largely stereotyped and rhetorical, portraying Pilate with the same words as other opponents of Jewish law, while portraying Tiberius as just and supportive of Jewish law. It is unclear why the shields offended against Jewish law: it is likely that they contained an inscription referring to Tiberius as (son of divine Augustus). Bond dates the incident to 31, sometime after Sejanus's death in 17 October.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In another incident recorded in both the "Jewish Wars" (2.9.4) and the "Antiquities of the Jews" (18.3.2), Josephus relates that Pilate offended the Jews by using up the temple treasury () to pay for a new aqueduct to Jerusalem. When a mob formed while Pilate was visiting Jerusalem, Pilate ordered his troops to beat them with clubs; many perished from the blows or from being trampled by horses, and the mob was dispersed. The dating of the incident is unknown, but Bond argues that it must have occurred between 26 and 30 or 33, based on Josephus's chronology.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The Gospel of Luke mentions in passing Galileans "whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices" (Luke 13:1). This reference has been variously interpreted as referring to one of the incidents recorded by Josephus, or to an entirely unknown incident. Bond argues that the number of Galileans killed does not seem to have been particularly high. In Bond's view, the reference to "sacrifices" likely means that this incident occurred at Passover at some unknown date. She argues that "[i]t is not only possible but quite likely that Pilate's governorship contained many such brief outbreaks of trouble about which we know nothing. The insurrection in which Barabbas was caught up, if historical, may well be another example."


title: Pontius Pilate

text: At the Passover of most likely 30 or 33, Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus of Nazareth to death by crucifixion in Jerusalem. The main sources on the crucifixion are the four canonical Christian Gospels, the accounts of which vary. Helen Bond argues that


title: Pontius Pilate

text: the evangelists' portrayals of Pilate have been shaped to a great extent by their own particular theological and apologetic concerns. [...] Legendary or theological additions have also been made to the narrative [...] Despite extensive differences, however, there is a certain agreement amongst the evangelists regarding the basic facts, an agreement which may well go beyond literary dependency and reflect actual historical events.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate's role in condemning Jesus to death is also attested by the Roman historian Tacitus, who, when explaining Nero's persecution of the Christians, explains: "Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment..." (Tacitus, "Annals" 15.44). Josephus also mentioned Jesus's execution by Pilate at the request of prominent Jews ("Antiquities of the Jews" 18.3.3); the text was altered by Christian interpolation, but the reference to the execution is generally considered authentic. Discussing the paucity of extra-biblical mentions of the crucifixion, Alexander Demandt argues that the execution of Jesus was probably not seen as a particularly important event by the Romans, as many other people were crucified at the time and forgotten. In Ignatius's epistles to the Trallians (9.1) and to the Smyrnaeans (1.2), the author attributes Jesus's persecution under Pilate's governorship. Ignatius further dates Jesus's birth, passion, and resurrection during Pilate's governorship in his epistle to the Magnesians (11.1). Ignatius stresses all these events in his epistles as historical facts.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Bond argues that Jesus's arrest was made with Pilate's prior knowledge and involvement, based on the presence of a 500-strong Roman cohort among the party that arrests Jesus in John 18:3. Demandt dismisses the notion that Pilate was involved. It is generally assumed, based on the unanimous testimony of the gospels, that the crime for which Jesus was brought to Pilate and executed was sedition, founded on his claim to be king of the Jews. Pilate may have judged Jesus according to the "cognitio" , a form of trial for capital punishment used in the Roman provinces and applied to non-Roman citizens that provided the prefect with greater flexibility in handling the case. All four gospels also mention that Pilate had the custom of releasing one captive in honor of the Passover festival; this custom is not attested in any other source. Historians disagree on whether or not such a custom is a fictional element of the gospels, reflects historical reality, or perhaps represents a single amnesty in the year of Jesus's crucifixion.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The Gospels' portrayal of Pilate is "widely assumed" to diverge greatly from that found in Josephus and Philo, as Pilate is portrayed as reluctant to execute Jesus and pressured to do so by the crowd and Jewish authorities. John P. Meier notes that in Josephus, by contrast, "Pilate alone [...] is said to condemn Jesus to the cross." Some scholars believe that the Gospel accounts are completely untrustworthy: S. G. F. Brandon argued that in reality, rather than vacillating on condemning Jesus, Pilate unhesitatingly executed him as a rebel. Paul Winter explained the discrepancy between Pilate in other sources and Pilate in the gospels by arguing that Christians became more and more eager to portray Pontius Pilate as a witness to Jesus' innocence, as persecution of Christians by the Roman authorities increased. Bart Ehrman argues that the Gospel of Mark, the earliest one, shows the Jews and Pilate to be in agreement about executing Jesus (Mark 15:15), while the later gospels progressively reduce Pilate's culpability, culminating in Pilate allowing the Jews to crucify Jesus in John (John 19:16). He connects this change to increased "anti-Judaism." Raymond E. Brown argued that the Gospels' portrayal of Pilate cannot be considered historical, since Pilate is always described in other sources ("The Jewish War" and "Antiquities of the Jews" of Josephus and "Embassy to Gaius" of Philo) as a cruel and obstinate man. Brown also rejects the historicity of Pilate washing his hands and of the blood curse, arguing that these narratives, which only appear in the Gospel of Matthew, reflect later contrasts between the Jews and Jewish Christians.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Others have tried to explain Pilate's behavior in the Gospels as motivated by a change of circumstances from that shown in Josephus and Philo, usually presupposing a connection between Pilate's caution and the death of Sejanus. Yet other scholars, such as Brian McGing and Bond, have argued that there is no real discrepancy between Pilate's behavior in Josephus and Philo and that in the Gospels. Warren Carter argues that Pilate is portrayed as skillful, competent, and manipulative of the crowd in Mark, Matthew, and John, only finding Jesus innocent and executing him under pressure in Luke. N. T. Wright and Craig A. Evans argue that Pilate's hesitation was due to the fear of causing a revolt during Passover, when large numbers of pilgrims were in Jerusalem.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: According to Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews" (18.4.1–2), Pilate's removal as governor occurred after Pilate slaughtered a group of armed Samaritans at a village called Tirathana near Mount Gerizim, where they hoped to find artifacts that had been buried there by Moses. Alexander Demandt suggests that the leader of this movement may have been Dositheos, a messiah-like figure among the Samaritans who was known to have been active around this time. The Samaritans, claiming not to have been armed, complained to Lucius Vitellius the Elder, the governor of Syria (term 35–39), who had Pilate recalled to Rome to be judged by Tiberius. Tiberius however, had died before his arrival. This dates the end of Pilate's governorship to 36/37. Tiberius died in Misenum on the 16th of March in 37, in his seventy-eighth year (Tacitus, "Annals" , ).


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Following Tiberius's death, Pilate's hearing would have been handled by the new emperor Caligula: it is unclear whether any hearing took place, as new emperors often dismissed outstanding legal matters from previous reigns. The only sure outcome of Pilate's return to Rome is that he was not reinstated as governor of Judaea, either because the hearing went badly, or because Pilate did not wish to return. J. P. Lémonon argues that the fact that Pilate was not reinstated by Caligula does not mean that his trial went badly, but may simply have been because after ten years in the position it was time for him to take a new posting. Joan Taylor, on the other hand, argues that Pilate seems to have ended his career in disgrace, using his unflattering portrayal in Philo, written only a few years after his dismissal, as proof.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The church historian Eusebius ("Church History" 2.7.1), writing in the early fourth century, claims that "tradition relates that" Pilate committed suicide after he was recalled to Rome due to the disgrace he was in. Eusebius dates this to 39. Paul Maier notes that no other surviving records corroborate Pilate's suicide, which is meant to document God's wrath for Pilate's role in the crucifixion, and that Eusebius explicitly states that "tradition" is his source, "indicating that he had trouble documenting Pilate's presumed suicide". Daniel Schwartz, however, argues that Eusebius's claims "should not lightly be dismissed." More information on the potential fate of Pontius Pilate can be gleaned from other sources. The second-century pagan philosopher Celsus polemically asked why, if Jesus was God, God had not punished Pilate, indicating that he did not believe that Pilate shamefully committed suicide. Responding to Celsus, the Christian apologist Origen, writing , argued that nothing bad happened to Pilate, because the Jews and not Pilate were responsible for Jesus' death; he therefore also assumed that Pilate did not die a shameful death. Pilate's supposed suicide is also left unmentioned in Josephus, Philo, and Tacitus. Maier argues that "[i]n all probability, then, the fate of Pontius Pilate lay clearly in the direction of a retired government official, a pensioned Roman ex-magistrate, than in anything more disastrous." Taylor notes that Philo discusses Pilate as though he were already dead in the "Embassy to Gaius", although he is writing only a few years after Pilate's tenure as governor.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: A single inscription by Pilate has survived in Caesarea, on the "Pilate Stone". The (partially reconstructed) inscription is as follows:


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Vardaman "freely" translates it as follows: "Tiberium [?of the Caesareans?] Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea [ .. has given?]". The fragmentary nature of the inscription has led to some disagreement about the correct reconstruction, so that "apart from Pilate's name and title the inscription is unclear." Originally, the inscription would have included an abbreviated letter for Pilate's praenomen (e.g., "T." for Titus or "M." for Marcus). The stone attests Pilate's title of prefect and the inscription appears to refer to some kind of building called a "Tiberieum", a word otherwise unattested but following a pattern of naming buildings about Roman emperors. Bond argues that we cannot be sure what kind of building this referred to. G. Alföldy argued that it was some sort of secular building, namely a lighthouse, while Joan Taylor and Jerry Vardaman argue that it was a temple dedicated to Tiberius.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: A second inscription, which has since been lost, has historically been associated with Pontius Pilate. It was a fragmentary, undated inscription on a large piece of marble recorded in Ameria, a village in Umbria, Italy. The inscription read as follows:


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The only clear items of text are the names "Pilate" and the title quattuorvir ("IIII VIR"), a type of local city official responsible for conducting a census every five years. The inscription was formerly found outside the church of St. Secundus, where it had been copied from a presumed original. At the turn of the 20th century, it was generally held to be fake, a forgery in support of a local legend that Pontius Pilate died in exile in Ameria. The more recent scholars Alexander Demandt and Henry MacAdam both believe that the inscription is genuine, but attests to a person who simply had the same cognomen as Pontius Pilate. MacAdam argues that "[i]t is far easier to believe that this very fragmentary inscription prompted the legend of Pontius Pilate's association with the Italian village of Ameria [...] than it is to posit someone forging the inscription two centuries ago—quite creatively, it would seem—to provide substance for the legend."


title: Pontius Pilate

text: As governor, Pilate was responsible for minting coins in the province: he appears to have struck them in 29/30, 30/31, and 31/32, thus the fourth, fifth, and sixth years of his governorship. The coins belong to a type called a "perutah", measured between 13.5 and 17mm, were minted in Jerusalem, and are fairly crudely made. Earlier coins read on the obverse and on the reverse, referring to the emperor Tiberius and his mother Livia (Julia Augusta). Following Livia's death, the coins only read . As was typical of Roman coins struck in Judaea, they did not have a portrait of the emperor, though they included some pagan designs.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: E. Stauffer and E. M. Smallwood argued that the coins' use of pagan symbols was deliberately meant to offend the Jews and connected changes in their design to the fall of the powerful Praetorian prefect Sejanus in 31. This theory was rejected by Helen Bond, who argued that there was nothing particularly offensive about the designs. Joan Taylor has argued that the symbolism on the coins show how Pilate attempted to promote the Roman imperial cult in Judaea, in spite of local Jewish and Samaritan religious sensitivities.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Attempts to identify the aqueduct that is attributed to Pilate in Josephus date to the 19th century. In the mid-20th century, A. Mazar tentatively identified it as the Arrub aqueduct that brought water from Solomon's Pools to Jerusalem, an identification supported in 2000 by Kenneth Lönnqvist. Lönnqvist notes that the Talmud (Lamentations Rabbah 4.4) records the destruction of an aqueduct from Solomon's Pools by the Sicarii, a group of fanatical religious Zealots, during the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73); he suggests that if the aqueduct had been funded by the temple treasury as recorded in Josephus, this might explain the Sicarii's targeting of this particular aqueduct. However, more recent research, published in 2021, dates the construction of another one of the aqueducts providing water to the Solomon's Pools, namely the Biar Aqueduct (also known as Wadi el-Biyar Aqueduct), to the mid-first century AD, probably during the time of Pilate.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In 2018, an inscription on a thin copper-alloy sealing ring that had been discovered at Herodium was uncovered using modern scanning techniques. The inscription reads (), meaning "of Pilate". The name Pilatus is rare, so the ring could be associated with Pontius Pilate; however, given the cheap material, it is unlikely that he would have owned it. It is possible that the ring belonged to another individual named Pilate, or that it belonged to someone who worked for Pontius Pilate.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Due to his role in Jesus' trial, Pilate became an important figure in both pagan and Christian propaganda in late antiquity. Perhaps the earliest apocryphal texts attributed to Pilate are denunciations of Christianity and of Jesus that claim to be Pilate's report on the crucifixion. According to Eusebius ("Church History" 9.2.5), these texts were distributed during the persecution of Christians conducted by the emperor Maximinus II (reigned 308–313). None of these texts survive, but Tibor Grüll argues that their contents can be reconstructed from Christian apologetic texts.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Positive traditions about Pilate are frequent in Eastern Christianity, particularly in Egypt and Ethiopia, whereas negative traditions predominate in Western and Byzantine Christianity. Additionally, earlier Christian traditions portray Pilate more positively than later ones, a change which Ann Wroe suggests reflects the fact that, following the legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (312), it was no longer necessary to deflect criticism of Pilate (and by extension of the Roman Empire) for his role in Jesus's crucifixion onto the Jews. Bart Ehrman, on the other hand, argues that the tendency in the Early Church to exonerate Pilate and blame the Jews prior to this time reflects an increasing "anti-Judaism" among Early Christians. The earliest attestation of a positive tradition about Pilate comes from the late first-, early second-century Christian author Tertullian, who, claiming to have seen Pilate's report to Tiberius, states Pilate had "become already a Christian in his conscience." An earlier reference to Pilate's records of Jesus's trial is given by the Christian apologist Justin Martyr around 160. Tibor Grüll believes that this could be a reference to Pilate's actual records, but other scholars argue that Justin has simply invented the records as a source on the assumption that they existed without ever having verified their existence.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Beginning in the fourth century, a large body of Christian apocryphal texts developed concerning Pilate, making up one of the largest groups of surviving New Testament Apocrypha. Originally, these texts served both to unburden Pilate of guilt for the death of Jesus as well as to provide more complete records of Jesus's trial. The apocryphal Gospel of Peter completely exonerates Pilate for the crucifixion, which is instead performed by Herod Antipas. Moreover, the text makes explicit that while Pilate washes his hands of guilt, neither the Jews nor Herod do so. The Gospel includes a scene in which the centurions who had been guarding Jesus' tomb report to Pilate that Jesus has been resurrected.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The fragmentary third-century Manichaean "Gospel of Mani" has Pilate refer to Jesus as "the Son of God" and telling his centurions to "[k]eep this secret".


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In the most common version of the passion narrative in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (also called the "Acts of Pilate"), Pilate is portrayed as forced to execute Jesus by the Jews and as distraught at having done so. One version claims to have been discovered and translated by a Jewish convert named Ananias, portraying itself as the official Jewish records of the crucifixion. Another claims that the records were made by Pilate himself, relying on reports made to him by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Some Eastern versions of the Gospel of Nicodemus claim that Pilate was born in Egypt, which likely aided his popularity there. The Christian Pilate literature surrounding the Gospel of Nicodemus includes at least fifteen late antique and early medieval texts, called the "Pilate cycle", written and preserved in various languages and versions and dealing largely with Pontius Pilate. Two of these include purported reports made by Pilate to the emperor (the "Anaphora Pilati" to Emperor Tiberius and the Letter of Pilate to Claudius to Claudius) on the crucifixion, in which Pilate recounts Jesus' death and resurrection, blaming the Jews. Another purports to be an angry reply by Tiberius, condemning Pilate for his role in Jesus' death, the Letter of Tiberius to Pilate. Another early text is an apocryphal letter attributed to "Herod" (a composite character of the various Herods in the Bible), which claims to respond to a letter from Pilate in which Pilate spoke of his remorse for Jesus' crucifixion and of having had a vision of the risen Christ; "Herod" asks Pilate to pray for him.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In the so-called "Book of the Cock", a late-antique apocryphal passion Gospel only preserved in Ge'ez (Ethiopic) but translated from Arabic, Pilate attempts to avoid Jesus's execution by sending him to Herod and writing further letters arguing with Herod not to execute Jesus. Pilate's family become Christians after Jesus miraculously cures Pilate's daughters of their deaf-muteness. Pilate is nevertheless forced to execute Jesus by the increasingly angry crowd, but Jesus tells Pilate that he does not hold him responsible. This book enjoys "a quasi-canonical status" among Ethiopian Christians to this day and continues to be read beside the canonical gospels during Holy Week.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Seven of the Pilate texts mention Pilate's fate after the crucifixion: in three, he becomes a very positive figure, while in four he is presented as diabolically evil. A fifth-century Syriac version of the "Acts of Pilate" explains Pilate's conversion as occurring after he has blamed the Jews for Jesus' death in front of Tiberius; prior to his execution, Pilate prays to God and converts, thereby becoming a Christian martyr. In the Greek "Paradosis Pilati" (5th century), Pilate is arrested for the crime of executing Jesus, although he has since converted to be a follower of Christ. His beheading is accompanied by a voice from heaven calling him blessed and saying he will be with Jesus at the Second Coming. The "Evangelium Gamalielis", possibly of medieval origin and preserved in Arabic, Coptic, and Ge'ez, says Jesus was crucified by Herod, whereas Pilate was a true believer in Christ who was martyred for his faith; similarly, the "Martyrium Pilati", possibly medieval and preserved in Arabic, Coptic, and Ge'ez, portrays Pilate, as well as his wife and two children, as being crucified twice, once by the Jews and once by Tiberius, for his faith.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In addition to the report on Pilate's suicide in Eusebius, Grüll notes three Western apocryphal traditions about Pilate's suicide. In the "Cura sanitatis Tiberii" (dated variously 5th to 7th century), the emperor Tiberius is healed by an image of Jesus brought by Saint Veronica, Saint Peter then confirms Pilate's report on Jesus's miracles, and Pilate is exiled by the emperor Nero, after which he commits suicide. A similar narrative plays out in the "Vindicta Salvatoris" (8th century). In the "Mors Pilati" (perhaps originally 6th century, but recorded ), Pilate was forced to commit suicide and his body thrown in the Tiber. However, the body is surrounded by demons and storms, so that it is removed from the Tiber and instead cast into the Rhone, where the same thing happens. Finally, the corpse is taken to Lausanne in modern Switzerland and buried in an isolated lake (perhaps Lake Lucerne), where demonic visitations continue to occur.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Beginning in the eleventh century, more extensive legendary biographies of Pilate were written in Western Europe, adding details to information provided by the bible and apocrypha. The legend exists in many different versions and was extremely widespread in both Latin and the vernacular, and each version contains significant variation, often relating to local traditions.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The earliest extant legendary biography is the "De Pilato" of , with three further Latin versions appearing in the mid-twelfth century, followed by many vernacular translations. Howard Martin summarizes the general content of these legendary biographies as follows: a king who was skilled in astrology and named Atus lived in Mainz. The king reads in the stars that he will bear a son who will rule over many lands, so he has a miller's daughter named Pila brought to him whom he impregnates; Pilate's name thus results from the combination of the names "Pila" with "Atus".


title: Pontius Pilate

text: A few years later, Pilate is brought to his father's court where he kills his half-brother. As a result, he is sent as a hostage to Rome, where he kills another hostage. As punishment he is sent to the island of Pontius, whose inhabitants he subjugates, thus acquiring the name Pontius Pilate. King Herod hears of this accomplishment and asks him to come to Palestine to aid his rule there; Pilate comes but soon usurps Herod's power.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The trial and judgment of Jesus then happens as in the gospels. The emperor in Rome is suffering from a terrible disease at this time, and hearing of Christ's healing powers, sends for him only to learn from Saint Veronica that Christ has been crucified, but she possesses a cloth with the image of his face. Pilate is taken as a prisoner with her to Rome to be judged, but every time the emperor sees Pilate to condemn him, his anger dissipates. This is revealed to be because Pilate is wearing Jesus's coat; when the coat is removed, the Emperor condemns him to death, but Pilate commits suicide first. The body is first thrown in the Tiber, but because it causes storms it is then moved to Vienne, and then thrown in a lake in the high Alps.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: One important version of the Pilate legend is found in the "Golden Legend" by Jacobus de Voragine (1263–1273 CE), one of the most popular books of the later Middle Ages. In the "Golden Legend", Pilate is portrayed as closely associated with Judas, first coveting the fruit in the orchard of Judas's father Ruben, then granting Judas Ruben's property after Judas has killed his own father.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Several places in Western Europe have traditions associated with Pilate. The cities of Lyon and Vienne in modern France claim to be Pilate's birthplace: Vienne has a "Maison de Pilate", a "Prétoire de Pilate" and a "Tour de Pilate". One tradition states that Pilate was banished to Vienne where a Roman ruin is associated with his tomb; according to another, Pilate took refuge in a mountain (now called Mount Pilatus) in modern Switzerland, before eventually committing suicide in a lake on its summit. This connection to Mount Pilatus is attested from 1273 CE onwards, while Lake Lucerne has been called "Pilatus-See" (Pilate Lake) beginning in the fourteenth century. A number of traditions also connected Pilate to Germany. In addition to Mainz, Bamberg, Hausen, Upper Franconia were also claimed to be his place of birth, while some traditions place his death in the Saarland.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The town of Tarragona in modern Spain possesses a first-century Roman tower, which, since the eighteenth-century, has been called the "Torre del Pilatos," in which Pilate is claimed to have spent his last years. The tradition may go back to a misread Latin inscription on the tower. The cities of Huesca and Seville are other cities in Spain associated with Pilate. Per a local legend, the village of Fortingall in Scotland claims to be Pilate's birthplace, but this is almost certainly a 19th-century invention—particularly as the Romans did not invade the British Isles until 43.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate was also the subject of legends in Eastern Christianity. The Byzantine chronicler George Kedrenos () wrote that Pilate was condemned by Caligula to die by being left in the sun enclosed in the skin of a freshly slaughtered cow, together with a chicken, a snake, and a monkey. In a legend from medieval Rus', Pilate attempts to save Saint Stephen from being executed; Pilate, his wife and children have themselves baptized and bury Stephen in a gilded silver coffin. Pilate builds a church in the honor of Stephen, Gamaliel, and Nicodemus, who were martyred with Stephen. Pilate dies seven months later. In the medieval Slavonic Josephus, an Old Church Slavonic translation of Josephus, with legendary additions, Pilate kills many of Jesus's followers but finds Jesus innocent. After Jesus heals Pilate's wife of a fatal illness, the Jews bribe Pilate with 30 talents to crucify Jesus.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate is one of the most important figures in early Christian art; he is often given greater prominence than Jesus himself. He is, however, entirely absent from the earliest Christian art; all images postdate the emperor Constantine and can be classified as early Byzantine art. Pilate first appears in art on a Christian sarcophagus in 330 CE; in the earliest depictions he is shown washing his hands without Jesus being present. In later images he is typically shown washing his hands of guilt in Jesus' presence. 44 depictions of Pilate predate the sixth century and are found on ivory, in mosaics, in manuscripts as well as on sarcophagi. Pilate's iconography as a seated Roman judge derives from depictions of the Roman emperor, causing him to take on various attributes of an emperor or king, including the raised seat and clothing.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The older Byzantine model of depicting Pilate washing his hands continues to appear on artwork into the tenth century; beginning in the seventh century, however, a new iconography of Pilate also emerges, which does not always show him washing his hands, includes him in additional scenes, and is based on contemporary medieval rather than Roman models. The majority of depictions from this time period come from France or Germany, belonging to Carolingian or later Ottonian art, and are mostly on ivory, with some in frescoes, but no longer on sculpture except in Ireland. New images of Pilate that appear in this period include depictions of the Ecce homo, Pilate's presentation of the scourged Jesus to the crowd in , as well as scenes deriving from the apocryphal "Acts of Pilate". Pilate also comes to feature in scenes such as the Flagellation of Christ, where he is not mentioned in the Bible.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The eleventh century sees Pilate iconography spread from France and Germany to Great Britain and further into the eastern Mediterranean. Images of Pilate are found on new materials such as metal, while he appeared less frequently on ivory, and continues to be a frequent subject of gospel and psalter manuscript illuminations. Depictions continue to be greatly influenced by the "Acts of Pilate", and the number of situations in which Pilate is depicted also increases. From the eleventh century onward, Pilate is frequently represented as a Jewish king, wearing a beard and a Jewish hat. In many depictions he is no longer depicted washing his hands, or is depicted washing his hands but not in the presence of Jesus, or else he is depicted in passion scenes in which the Bible does not mention him.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Despite being venerated as a saint by the Coptic and Ethiopian Churches, very few images of Pilate exist in these traditions from any time period.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In the thirteenth century, depictions of the events of Christ's passion came to dominate all visual art forms—these depictions of the "Passion cycle" do not always include Pilate, but they often do so; when he is included, he is often given stereotyped Jewish features. One of the earliest examples of Pilate rendered as a Jew is from the eleventh century on the Hildesheim cathedral doors (see image, above right). This is the first known usage of the motif of Pilate being influenced and corrupted by the Devil in Medieval Art. Pilate is typically represented in fourteen different scenes from his life; however, more than half of all thirteenth-century representations of Pilate show the trial of Jesus. Pilate also comes to be frequently depicted as present at the crucifixion, by the fifteenth century being a standard element of crucifixion artwork. While many images still draw from the "Acts of Pilate", the "Golden Legend" of Jacobus de Voragine is the primary source for depictions of Pilate from the second half of the thirteenth century onward. Pilate now frequently appears in illuminations for books of hours, as well as in the richly illuminated "Bibles moralisées", which include many biographical scenes adopted from the legendary material, although Pilate's washing of hands remains the most frequently depicted scene. In the , Pilate is generally depicted as a Jew. In many other images, however, he is depicted as a king or with a mixture of attributes of a Jew and a king.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries see fewer depictions of Pilate, although he generally appears in cycles of artwork on the passion. He is sometimes replaced by Herod, Annas, and Caiaphas in the trial scene. Depictions of Pilate in this period are mostly found in private devotional settings such as on ivory or in books; he is also a major subject in a number of panel-paintings, mostly German, and frescoes, mostly Scandinavian. The most frequent scene to include Pilate is his washing of his hands; Pilate is typically portrayed similarly to the high priests as an old, bearded man, often wearing a Jewish hat but sometimes a crown, and typically carrying a scepter. Images of Pilate were especially popular in Italy, where, however, he was almost always portrayed as a Roman, and often appears in the new medium of large-scale church paintings. Pilate continued to be represented in various manuscript picture bibles and devotional works as well, often with innovative iconography, sometimes depicting scenes from the Pilate legends. Many, mostly German, engravings and woodcuts of Pilate were created in the fifteenth century. Images of Pilate were printed in the "Biblia pauperum" ("Bibles of the Poor"), picture bibles focusing on the life of Christ, as well as the "Speculum Humanae Salvationis" ("Mirror of Human Salvation"), which continued to be printed into the sixteenth century.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In the modern period, depictions of Pilate become less frequent, though occasional depictions are still made of his encounter with Jesus. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Pilate was frequently dressed as an Arab, wearing a turban, long robes, and a long beard, given the same characteristics as the Jews. Notable paintings of this era include Tintoretto's "Christ before Pilate" (1566/67 CE), in which Pilate is given the forehead of a philosopher, and Gerrit van Honthorst's 1617 "Christ before Pilate", which was later recatalogued as "Christ before the High Priest" due to Pilate's Jewish appearance.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Following this longer period in which few depictions of Pilate were made, the increased religiosity of the mid-nineteenth century caused a slew of new depictions of Pontius Pilate to be created, now depicted as a Roman. In 1830, J. M. W. Turner painted "Pilate Washing His Hands", in which the governor himself is not visible, but rather only the back of his chair, with lamenting women in the foreground. One famous nineteenth-century painting of Pilate is "Christ before Pilate" (1881) by Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy: the work brought Munkácsy great fame and celebrity in his lifetime, making his reputation and being popular in the United States in particular, where the painting was purchased. In 1896, Munkácsy painted a second painting featuring Christ and Pilate, "Ecce homo", which however was never exhibited in the United States; both paintings portray Jesus's fate as in the hands of the crowd rather than Pilate. The "most famous of nineteenth-century pictures" of Pilate is "What is truth?" () by the Russian painter Nikolai Ge, which was completed in 1890; the painting was banned from exhibition in Russia in part because the figure of Pilate was identified as representing the tsarist authorities. In 1893, Ge painted another painting, "Golgotha", in which Pilate is represented only by his commanding hand, sentencing Jesus to death. The Scala sancta, supposedly the staircase from Pilate's praetorium, now located in Rome, is flanked by a life-sized sculpture of Christ and Pilate in the "Ecce homo" scene made in the nineteenth century by the Italian sculptor Ignazio Jacometti.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The image of Pilate condemning Jesus to death is commonly encountered today as the first scene of the Stations of the Cross, first found in Franciscan Catholic churches in the seventeenth century and found in almost all Catholic churches since the nineteenth century.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate plays a major role in the medieval passion play. He is frequently depicted as a more important character to the narrative than even Jesus, and became one of the most important figures of medieval drama in the fifteenth century. The three most popular scenes in the plays to include Pilate are his washing of hands, the warning of his wife Procula not to harm Jesus, and the writing of the "titulus" on Jesus' cross. Pilate's characterization varies greatly from play to play, but later plays frequently portray Pilate somewhat ambiguously, though he is usually a negative character, and sometimes an evil villain. While in some plays Pilate is opposed to the Jews and condemns them, in others he describes himself as a Jew or supports their wish to kill Christ.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In the passion plays from the continental Western Europe, Pilate's characterization varies from good to evil, but he is mostly a benign figure. The earliest surviving passion play, the thirteenth-century from Klosterneuburg, portrays Pilate as a weak administrator who succumbs to the whims of the Jews in having Christ crucified. Pilate goes on to play an important role in the increasingly long and elaborate passion plays performed in the German-speaking countries and in France. In Arnoul Gréban's fifteenth-century "Passion", Pilate instructs the flagellators on how best to whip Jesus. The 1517 portrays Pilate as condemning Christ to death out of fear of losing Herod's friendship and to earn the Jews' good will, despite his long dialogues with the Jews in which he professes Christ's innocence. He eventually becomes a Christian himself. In the 1493 , on the other hand, Pilate himself accuses Christ. The fifteenth-century German Benediktbeuern passion play depicts Pilate as a good friend of Herod's, kissing him in a reminiscence of the kiss of Judas. Colum Hourihane argues that all of these plays supported antisemitic tropes and were written at times when persecution of Jews on the continent were high.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The fifteenth-century Roman depicts Pilate as trying to save Jesus against the wishes of the Jews. In the Italian passion plays, Pilate never identifies himself as a Jew, condemning them in the fifteenth-century and stressing the Jews' fear of the "new law" of Christ.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Hourihane argues that in England, where the Jews had been expelled in 1290 CE, Pilate's characterization may have been used primarily to satyrize corrupt officials and judges rather than to stoke antisemitism. In several English plays, Pilate is portrayed speaking French or Latin, the languages of the ruling classes and the law. In the Wakefield plays, Pilate is portrayed as wickedly evil, describing himself as Satan's agent () while plotting Christ's torture so as to extract the most pain. He nonetheless washes his hands of guilt after the tortures have been administered. In the fifteenth-century English Townley Cycle, Pilate is portrayed as a pompous lord and prince of the Jews, but also as forcing Christ's torturer to give him Christ's clothes at the foot of the cross. It is he alone who wishes to kill Christ rather than the high priests, conspiring together with Judas. In the fifteenth-century English York passion play, Pilate judges Jesus together with Annas and Caiaphas, becoming a central character of the passion narrative who converses with and instructs other characters. In this play, when Judas comes back to Pilate and the priests to tell them he no longer wishes to betray Jesus, Pilate browbeats Judas into going through with the plan. Not only does Pilate force Judas to betray Christ, he double-crosses him and refuses to take him on as a servant once Judas has done so. Moreover, Pilate also swindles his way into possession of the Potter's field, thus owning the land on which Judas commits suicide. In the York passion cycle, Pilate describes himself as a courtier, but in most English passion plays he proclaims his royal ancestry. The actor who portrayed Pilate in the English plays would typically speak loudly and authoritatively, a fact which was parodied in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The fifteenth century also sees Pilate as a character in plays based on legendary material: one, , exists in two dramatic treatments focusing on the horrible fates that befell Christ's tormenters: it portrays Pilate being tied to a pillar, covered with oil and honey, and then slowly dismembered over 21 days; he is carefully tended to so that he does not die until the end. Another play focusing on Pilate's death is Cornish and based on the . The by Jean Michel includes legendary scenes of Pilate's life before the passion.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pontius Pilate appears as a character in a large number of literary works, typically as a character in the judgment of Christ. One of the earliest literary works in which he plays a large role is French writer Anatole France's 1892 short story ("The Procurator of Judaea"), which portrays an elderly Pilate who has been banished to Sicily. There he lives happily as a farmer and is looked after by his daughter, but suffers from gout and obesity and broods over his time as governor of Judaea. Spending his time at the baths of Baiae, Pilate is unable to remember Jesus at all.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate makes a brief appearance in the preface to George Bernard Shaw's 1933 play "" where he argues against Jesus about the dangers of revolution and of new ideas. Shortly afterwards, French writer Roger Caillois wrote a novel "Pontius Pilate" (1936), in which Pilate acquits Jesus.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate features prominently in Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita", which was written in the 1930s but only published in 1966, twenty six years after the author's death. Henry I. MacAdam describes it as "the 'cult classic' of Pilate-related fiction." The work features a novel within the novel about Pontius Pilate and his encounter with Jesus (Yeshu Ha-Notsri) by an author only called the Master. Because of this subject matter, the Master has been attacked for "Pilatism" by the Soviet literary establishment. Five chapters of the novel are featured as chapters of "The Master and Margarita". In them, Pilate is portrayed as wishing to save Jesus, being affected by his charisma, but as too cowardly to do so. Russian critics in the 1960s interpreted this Pilate as "a model of the spineless provincial bureaucrats of Stalinist Russia." Pilate becomes obsessed with his guilt for having killed Jesus. Because he betrayed his desire to follow his morality and free Jesus, Pilate must suffer for eternity. Pilate's burden of guilt is finally lifted by the Master when he encounters him at the end of Bulgakov's novel.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The majority of literary texts about Pilate come from the time after the Second World War, a fact which Alexander Demandt suggests shows a cultural dissatisfaction with Pilate having washed his hands of guilt. One of Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt's earliest stories ("Pilatus," 1949) portrays Pilate as aware that he is torturing God in the trial of Jesus. Swiss playwright Max Frisch's comedy portrays Pilate as a skeptical intellectual who refuses to take responsibility for the suffering he has caused. The German Catholic novelist Gertrud von Le Fort's portrays Pilate's wife as converting to Christianity after attempting to save Jesus and assuming Pilate's guilt for herself; Pilate executes her as well.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: In 1986, Soviet-Kyrgiz writer Chingiz Aitmatov published a novel in Russian featuring Pilate titled ("The Place of the Skull"). The novel centers on an extended dialogue between Pilate and Jesus witnessed in a vision by the narrator Avdii Kallistratov, a former seminarian. Pilate is presented as a materialist pessimist who believes mankind will soon destroy itself, whereas Jesus offers a message of hope. Among other topics, the two anachronistically discuss the meaning of the last judgment and the second coming; Pilate fails to comprehend Jesus's teachings and is complacent as he sends him to his death.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate has been depicted in a number of films, being included in portrayals of Christ's passion already in some of the earliest films produced. In the 1927 silent film "The King of Kings", Pilate is played by Hungarian-American actor Victor Varconi, who is introduced seated under an enormous 37 feet high Roman eagle, which Christopher McDonough argues symbolizes "not power that he possesses but power that possesses him". During the "Ecce homo" scene, the eagle stands in the background between Jesus and Pilate, with a wing above each figure; after hesitantly condemning Jesus, Pilate passes back to the eagle, which is now framed beside him, showing his isolation in his decision and, McDonough suggests, causing the audience to question how well he has served the emperor.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The film "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1935) portrays Pilate as "a representative of the gross materialism of the Roman empire", with the actor Basil Rathbone giving him long fingers and a long nose. Following the Second World War, Pilate and the Romans often take on a villainous role in American film. The 1953 film "The Robe" portrays Pilate as completely covered with gold and rings as a sign of Roman decadence. The 1959 film "Ben-Hur" shows Pilate (the Australian actor, Frank Thring, Jr.) presiding over a chariot race, in a scene that Ann Wroe says "seemed closely modeled on the Hitler footage of the 1936 Olympics," with Pilate bored and sneering. Martin Winkler, however, argues that "Ben-Hur" provides a more nuanced and less condemnatory portrayal of Pilate and the Roman Empire than most American films of the period.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Only one film has been made entirely in Pilate's perspective, the 1962 French-Italian "Ponzio Pilato", where Pilate was played by Jean Marais. In the 1973 film "Jesus Christ Superstar", the trial of Jesus takes place in the ruins of a Roman theater, suggesting the collapse of Roman authority and "the collapse of all authority, political or otherwise". The Pilate in the film, played by Barry Dennen, expands on to question Jesus on the truth and appears, in McDonough's view, as "an anxious representative of [...] moral relativism". Speaking of Dennen's portrayal in the trial scene, McDonough describes him as a "cornered animal." Wroe argues that later Pilates took on a sort of effeminancy, illustrated by Michael Palin’s Pilate in "Monty Python's Life of Brian", who lisps and mispronounces his r's as w's. In Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), Pilate is played by David Bowie, who appears as "gaunt and eerily hermaphrodite." Bowie's Pilate speaks with a British accent, contrasting with the American accent of Jesus (Willem Dafoe). The trial takes place in Pilate's private stables, implying that Pilate does not think the judgment of Jesus very important, and no attempt is made to take any responsibility from Pilate for Jesus's death, which he orders without any qualms.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Mel Gibson's 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ" portrays Pilate, played by Hristo Shopov, as a sympathetic, noble-minded character, fearful that the Jewish priest Caiaphas will start an uprising if he does not give in to his demands. He expresses disgust at the Jewish authorities' treatment of Jesus when Jesus is brought before him and offers Jesus a drink of water. McDonough argues that "Shopov gives us a very subtle Pilate, one who manages to appear alarmed though not panicked before the crowd, but who betrays far greater misgivings in private conversation with his wife."


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pontius Pilate is mentioned as having been involved in the crucifixion in both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. The Apostles Creed states that Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." The Nicene Creed states "For our sake [Jesus] was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried." These creeds are recited weekly by many Christians. Pilate is the only person besides Jesus and Mary mentioned by name in the creeds. The mention of Pilate in the creeds serves to mark the passion as a historical event.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: He is venerated as a saint by the Ethiopian Church with a feast day on 19 June, and was historically venerated by the Coptic Church, with a feast day of 25 June.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Pilate's washing his hands of responsibility for Jesus's death in Matthew 27:24 is a commonly encountered image in the popular imagination, and is the origin of the English phrase "to wash one's hands of (the matter)", meaning to refuse further involvement with or responsibility for something. Parts of the dialogue attributed to Pilate in the Gospel of John have become particularly famous sayings, especially quoted in the Latin version of the Vulgate. These include ( "Am I a Jew?"), (; "What is truth?"), John 19:5 (, "Behold the man!"), (, "Behold your king!"), and (, "What I have written, I have written").


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The Gospels' deflection of responsibility for Jesus's crucifixion from Pilate to the Jews has been blamed for fomenting antisemitism from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: The main ancient sources on Pilate offer very different views on his governorship and personality. Philo is hostile, Josephus mostly neutral, and the Gospels "comparatively friendly." This, combined with the general lack of information on Pilate's long time in office, has resulted in a wide range of assessments by modern scholars.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: On the basis of the many offenses that Pilate caused to the Judaean populace, some scholars find Pilate to have been a particularly bad governor. M. P. Charlesworth argues that Pilate was "a man whose character and capacity fell below those of the ordinary provincial official [...] in ten years he had piled blunder on blunder in his scorn for and misunderstanding of the people he was sent to rule." However, Paul Maier argues that Pilate's long term as governor of Judaea indicates he must have been a reasonably competent administrator, while Henry MacAdam argues that "[a]mong the Judaean governors prior to the Jewish War, Pilate must be ranked as more capable than most." Other scholars have argued that Pilate was simply culturally insensitive in his interactions with the Jews and in this way a typical Roman official.


title: Pontius Pilate

text: Beginning with E. Stauffer in 1948, some scholars have argued, on the basis of his possible appointment by Sejanus, that Pilate's offenses against the Jews were directed by Sejanus out of hatred of the Jews and a desire to destroy their nation, a theory supported by the pagan imagery on Pilate's coins. According to this theory, following Sejanus's execution in 31 CE and Tiberius's purges of his supporters, Pilate, fearful of being removed himself, became far more cautious, explaining his apparently weak and vacillating attitude at the trial of Jesus. Helen Bond argues that "[g]iven the history of pagan designs throughout Judaean coinage, particularly from Herod and Gratus, Pilate's coins do not seem to be deliberately offensive," and that the coins offer little evidence of any connection between Pilate and Sejanus. Carter notes this theory arose in the context of the aftermath of the Holocaust, that the evidence that Sejanus was anti-Semitic depends entirely on Philo, and that "[m]ost scholars have not been convinced that it is an accurate or a fair picture of Pilate."


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The Serenity Prayer is a prayer attributed to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) in 1943. However, Winnifred Crane Wygal wrote an earlier version in 1933. It is commonly quoted as:


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The prayer originally asked for courage first, and specifically for changing things that must be changed, not things that simply can be changed:


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The prayer was composed in 1933. The prayer spread rapidly, often without attribution, through church groups in the 1930s and 1940s and was adopted and popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous in 1941 and other twelve-step programs. Niebuhr used it in a 1943 sermon at Heath Evangelical Union Church in Heath, Massachusetts. It also appeared in a sermon of Niebuhr's in the 1944 "Book of Prayers and Services for the Armed Forces", while Niebuhr first published it in 1951 in a magazine column.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Early versions of the prayer are given no title, but by 1955, it was being called the Serenity Prayer in publications of Alcoholics Anonymous.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: In 1962, Hallmark began using the prayer in its graduation cards crediting Niebuhr; in the 1970s they also produced a wall plaque. Posters and household ornaments were produced by others without attribution.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The prayer has appeared in many versions. Reinhold Niebuhr's versions of the prayer were always printed as a single prose sentence; printings that set out the prayer as three lines of verse modify the author's original version. The most well-known form is a late version, as it includes a reference to grace not found before 1951:


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The following clauses were added in the AA "Origin of the Serenity Prayer: A Historic Paper" but were not part of the tripartite original. Niebuhr's daughter in her book "The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Time of Peace and War" said: "...their message and their tone are not in any way Niebuhrian."


title: Serenity Prayer

text: A version (apparently quoted from memory) appeared in the "Queries and Answers" column in "The New York Times Book Review", July 2, 1950, p. 23, asking for the author of the quotation. A reply in the same column in the issue for August 13, 1950, p. 19, attributed the prayer to Niebuhr, quoting it as follows:


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.</poem>


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The earliest recorded reference to the prayer is a diary entry from 1932 by , a pupil and collaborator of Reinhold Niebuhr, quoting the prayer and attributing it to Niebuhr. Several versions of the prayer then appeared in newspaper articles in the early 1930s written by, or reporting on talks given by, Wygal. In 1940, Wygal included the following form of the prayer in a book on worship, attributing it to Niebuhr:


title: Serenity Prayer

text: O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Wygal was a longtime YWCA official and all early recorded usages were from women involved in volunteer or educational activities connected to the YWCA.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The earliest printed reference, in 1936, mentions that during a speech, a Miss Mildred Pinkerton "quotes the prayer," as if to indicate it was already in a circulation known to the reporter, or that Pinkerton relayed it as a quote, without mentioning its authorship. A 1937 Christian student publication attributed the prayer to Niebuhr in the following form, which matches the other earliest published forms in requesting "courage to change" before petitioning for serenity:


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Various other authors also cited Niebuhr as the source of the prayer from 1937 on. The Federal Council of Churches (NCC) included the prayer in a book for army chaplains and servicemen in 1944 and the USO circulated the prayer (with Niebuhr's permission) to soldiers on printed cards during World War II. In 1950, in response to questions about the already quite widely known prayer's provenance, Niebuhr wrote that the prayer "may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself." He confirmed this in 1967. His daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, thought that Niebuhr had first written it in 1943, while Niebuhr's wife Ursula believed it had been written in 1941 or '42, adding that it may have been used in prayers as early as 1934.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The Serenity Prayer was listed under Neibuhr in the "Yale Book of Quotations" (2006). Editor Fred R. Shapiro first raised doubts about Neibuhr's authorship in 2008, but after further research confirmed him in 2010. William FitzGerald of Rutgers University-Camden argued in 2017 that credit should be given to Winnifred Wygal, a YWCA official and student of Neibuhr's at Union Theological Seminary. FitzGerald noted that "this is certainly not the first time a woman’s voice has been silenced by a man’s voice.". Wygal is listed as author of the Serenity Prayer in "The New Yale Book of Quotations" (2021); Shapiro includes a section "Anonymous Was a Woman" and the Serenity Prayer in the Introduction.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Though Niebuhr's daughter was once quoted suggesting that Niebuhr first wrote the prayer for the 1943 sermon at the Heath Evangelical Union Church, there is convincing documentary evidence that he had used it much earlier.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Numerous statements of more or less similar sentiments by other authors have been identified and it is likely that more will be found. The prayer has also been falsely attributed to a variety of other authors.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Epictetus wrote: "Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Some things are up to us [eph' hêmin] and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions—in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing."


title: Serenity Prayer

text: And they said: At the head of all understanding – is distinguishing between what is and what cannot be, and the consoling of what is not in our power to change.


title: Serenity Prayer

text: The philosopher W.W. Bartley juxtaposes without comment Niebuhr's prayer with a Mother Goose rhyme (1695) expressing a similar sentiment:


title: Serenity Prayer

text: Friedrich Schiller advocated the first part in 1801: "Blessed is he, who has learned to bear what he cannot change, and to give up with dignity, what he cannot save."