Pontius Pilate





Last year's post on Pontius Pilate is available by clicking here


Many see him as a barbaric, ruthless figure; some see him as a progressive man who tried to work with the Jews in Jerusalem, and some see him as a man who just wanted to get out of there; 

a worldweary soldier who would rather be anywhere than Jerusalem during the religious fervour of Passover.

This was the man who stood face to face with Jesus, who found him innocent but handed Him over to be scourged and at the behest of the populace allowed him to be crucified. 

Then he washed his hands..






Left : Study of a Left Hand : Albrecht Durer




Nikolai Gee's brooding painting showing Christ and Pilate :Quod Est Veritas? (What is Truth?)

The original painting is in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. It was  banned in 1890, as were Gee's other late paintings about Jesus and the  Crucifixion, because they showed a mocking Pilate and a powerless Christ  pushed into the shadows. 

Yet there is a dynamism in this painting that  reverses their situations.

For Jesus is the one that is truly free and Pilate is the prisoner.







Image above from The Men Who Tried Jesus



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