Pilate, Pontius

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Pilate, Pontius. The governor (‘prefect’) of Judaea under whom Jesus was crucified. The gospels may show him in an unduly favourable light in their insistence on blaming the Jewish mob for Jesus' death.

The apocryphal text known as the Acts of Pilate (4th cent. at the earliest) can hardly derive from any official records of Jesus' trial.

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