Whence Art Thou? A Roman Governor in Israel Confronts a King

By

Elizabeth Kirkley Best

Judah’s Glory: “The Passover Blogs” Series

The days had not been easy for Pontius Pilate:  isolated in what he must have considered a desolate desert outpost,   he had ordered the violent subduing of one uprising after another:  while primarily it was the Zealots who gave him trouble,  there was no question that the better part of Israel wanted no part of Rome and it was also a time when many in Israel expected the Messiah to appear,  with several claiming he already had, or was the rabbi from Galilee that was known as Yshua, or 'Jesus' in Aramaic.    News of this 'Jesus' had already stirred the palaces in the area, and the seat of Roman authority,  but some claimed he was the Messiah to come,  which would deeply trouble Rome, and perhaps even lead an army in victory against Roman authority,  and yet still others claimed he was a holy man, a miracle, and perhaps something even more,  though that talk was obsequies.

Pontius Pilate was no friend to the Jews nor Israel:  he was known for being a brutal man,  and the death of insurrectionists and slaves was of minor concern to a Roman prelate:  he was willing to enforce law fully in the hopes of a perfect record that might take his career back to Rome.   Jerusalem in the first century was bustling with commerce and warring factions,  and the Children of Israel were not happy with Rome, with the Roman purchased High Priest,  or with a system that had become oppressive and intolerable,  as those who fought back lined the roads into Jerusalem, crucified,   a sign to any upcoming 'rebel slaves'.   In some ways one can surmize that Pilate, like Herod might have looked forward to meeting this 'Yshua' of Nazareth,  wondering if rumors of his healings and miracles had any veracity.   The Governor though, was about the meet a King,  though a highly unexpected one dressed in the garb of the poor of Israel.

One does not have to guess that Pilate could discern what was going on:   the Scriptures note his detection of the motives of the Pharisees and leadership with regard to Jesus:

For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. Matthew 27:18For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. Mark 15:10 

Though cruel and unjust, the Roman governor probably had 'seen it all' and though he could have rendered a cursory judgment,  he instead maintained a 'wait and see' policy,  not knowing that it was the Rabbi from Galilee that would disarm him, instead of the the converse.

Much discussion occurs in the Gospels regarding authority.   Jesus did not negate earthly authority, he very much admonished his disciples to obey earthly authority by 'rendering unto Caesar what was Caesar's', but at the same time, he noted that particularly with regard to the Word of God, the Children of the Kingdom, are free.   Paul would later go on in Romans 13 to note that all authority is given of God, and that we are to obey the 'powers', as ordained of God though this is one of the most misunderstood and too often misused portions of scripture.   This interplay of the duty of a believer to obey authority as ordained of God, and yet first to obey the Sovereign God,  has been one of the centerpieces of Post WWII theology, as to when to obey vs. not to obey,  and when obedience becomes 'blind'.

Discussions of authority though in the Gospel is not all negative:  Jesus commends the Centurion for his great faith, though he is both Gentile and Roman, and an officer in the army of the occupying force, because the centurion understands Jesus' ability to command his creation:   he notes that:

For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this [man], Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth [it].

When Jesus heard [it], he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Matthew 8:9-10

The discussion of authority is seen in the parables that Jesus tells,  also in the sovereign commands of the winds and waves on Geneseret,   in the authoritative commands to 'be made whole',  or 'be made clean',  and even the disciples and people of Israel who noted that Jesus spoke with authority,  in a way they had not heard before.  So before Jesus is brought before Pilate, bound as a lamb,  and seemingly nothing more than a prisoner,  the issue of who was the governing power in Israel had already been brought up.

The conversation though which is about to take place,  is one of the most telling in the Scriptures:  it is one favored by Christians over the centuries as an interchange which determines definitively, ‘Who’s Who’ in Israel:  a ‘governor’ from Rome and representing Caesar,  brings before him one called, “The Nazarene” and confronts him about who he is:

John 18:33-38

33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? 34 Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? 35    Pilate answered,  Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? 36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. 37  Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.38  Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. 

Note what Pilate is most interested in:  whether it is in mocking or not, whether he is influenced by the dream his wife had of this “Just man” is not made clear:   he has one primary question to begin the conversation:  “Art thou the King of the Jews?”  There are many reasons that this is the premiere question, and one that has lasted in the minds and hearts of most for centuries:  Pilate is interested first and foremost in Rome’s interest.  The only crime in question is one of sedition or attempted overthrow of the government, or taking undue authority;  he has already berated the Pharisees regarding whether they are bringing Jesus before him as an issue of their doctrine:

28   Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.

 29  Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man?

 30  They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee.

 31  Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. 

As Jesus is led from Caiaphas, unto the ‘hall of judgment’ there is a statement being made about the spiritual condition of the those in authority at the time:  while the Sanhedrin does first place Jesus on trial before the counselors of Israel, it is the middle of the night, an illegal time for a trial2 before either the Sanhedrin or Pilate, and Jesus is ‘paraded’ before the High priest before being brought to Pilate.   The ‘hall of judgment’ was the judicial hearing platform of Pilate, near or on the Gabbatha where hearings regarding justice and matters of state took place.  (See the discussion on the Gabbatha in the study “ Jesus is Brought Before Pilate:  The Azazel vs. the Sin Offering).   Pilate was the Praetor of Rome, in Palestine, living in and judging from the Praetorium.  

[Mar 15:16 KJV] 16 And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band.

The Praetorium Guard,  (in other versions and in secular sources ‘praetorian’) was the guard of Pilate’s complex,  a structure which many archaeologists today was built across from the Temple by a colonnade about 600 feet away. 3    The word comes from ‘praetoriani’  meaning………..,  and Thayer’s Dictionary BLB  provides the following definition:

1. "Head-quarters" in a roman camp, the tent of the commander-in-chiefThe palace in which the governor or procurator of a province resided, to which use the romans were accustomed to appropriate the palaces already existing, and formerly dwelt in by kings or princes; at Jerusalem it was a magnificent palace which Herod the great had built for himself, and which the roman procurators seemed to have occupied whenever they came from Caesarea to Jerusalem to transact public business.The camp of the praetorian soldiers established by Tiberius...       Thayers Lexicon in BLB

In sum, then, the governor was the praetor, who lived and judged from the Praetorium, which is also referred to as the judgment hall or hall of judgment, near the ‘Gabbatha’ or pavement, guarded by the Roman guard associated with Roman governors, generals, and Caesars called the Praetorian guard,  though the expression ‘Praetorian guard’ is not used in the King James version.4   

Jesus was hardly the hardened criminal that Pilate usually had brought before him:   Rome in the years preceding Jesus’ crucifixion , considerably unwelcome in the desert city,  had encountered uprisings and protests some of which are attested to in the writings of Josephus5 and Tertullian6 including groups of Zealots tearing the eagle down from the temple walls, or even a contingent of Jewish statesmen travelling to Rome shortly after the time of Jesus to petition Caligula for the right to worship.   From the time of the Roman occupation the searing and painful reminders of their presence were etched on the conscience of Israel:  Jewish men crucified on stakes lined roads leading into Jerusalem for the ‘criminal’ act of rebelling against the occupying force.   Runaway slaves were brought to court along with those charged with traditional crimes, but for the most part, the cases which reached the Roman Prefect were those which involved the State:   the Pharisees must have known, ultimately that the only charge they could make stick would be ‘treason’ or ‘sedition’:  in this case, of a “King of Israel” opposing the Caesars of Rome.  Still before the Messiah is brought out to people on the Gabbatha that day,  Pilate interrogates his prisoner.

Pilate is the legal representative of Caesar:   Caesar in the eyes of Romans and occupied areas is ‘King’,  so that anyone declaring himself a ‘King of Israel’  would be at once committing a treasonous act, an act of rebellion against Rome.   The discussion though notes what Charles Colson once referred to as “Kingdoms in Conflict”7  : The representative of the Roman Caesar stands face to face with Jesus,  who in the past three years has healed the sick,  restored sight to the blind, walked on water, calmed storms and without pause asks him a most unusual question :

“Art thou the King of the Jews?”

There was something in Pilate’s countenance that kept him fixated on Jesus.    Jesus responds:

Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?

Every soul from the beginning of time till the end is confronted with this question from the Lord and Savior:  do you say of yourselves, that he is King of the Jews, or are you repeating what you have heard?   The day Jesus asked the question of Pilate,  he showed that there was no one of any rank or position who was left out of having to answer the question.  The question is akin to asking “Do you believe I am the Messiah (meaning, the King of Israel)?  It is ‘typically Jesus’ to use a rabbinical style of answering a question with a question,  but even confronting his own affliction and death,  his mind was on souls, even of those who were persecuting him unmercifully.  Pilate also though, was used to circumventing a direct question, and answers:

35    … Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?

His first question to Jesus is ‘Am I a Jew?’.   He cut to the quick, perceiving at least that Jesus was asking him a significant question which he was unwilling to answer.  Asking Jesus, “Am I a Jew?” at least in part indicates Pilate seeing salvation and the Messiah as part of being ‘a Jew’ and that more likely than not he did not expect to have to declare the kingship of Jesus.

One wonders just what Pilate was thinking, for rather than directly accusing Jesus of charges, he asks Jesus for the charges against himself!   Pilate remarks that Jesus’ own nation of Israel, and the chief priests (though they were hardly Levitical*) delivered Jesus to Pilate for judgment,  though they have failed to specify succinct charges against him.

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*Note:  Caiaphas as high priest had paid Rome for his position:  because of the conflicts before Christ’s birth,  Rome had taken over a previous practice of ‘charging’ a fee for the institution of a High Priest at Jerusalem, though this was clearly against the Scriptures and Jewish practice.   The fee or tariff was raised at the expense of the congregation of Israel and amounted in modern dollars to something around $20,000 8.  

more to follow: EKBest