The word “Pilate” as a proper name has been variously explained.  Some have derived it from the Latin pileatus, meaning one who wore the pileus, the cap of a freed slave, and so have regarded the Roman governor by whom Jesus was tried as a man who had been raised from the ranks of slavery.  The worst condemnation of slavery is, that it degrades the characters of its victims, developing the servile vices of cowardice, meanness, and cruelty—­all of which vices are manifest in Pilate’s character.  But such a promotion as this theory implies would be most improbable.  A more likely explanation connects the name with pilum, a javelin.  The earlier name Pontius suggests the family of the Pontii, of Samnite origin, well-known in Roman history.  It was customary to confine such an office as that which Pilate held to knights, men of the equestrian order.  Nevertheless, it was not a very dignified office.  It is described indefinitely in the Gospels as that of a “governor.”  But Pilate is designated more distinctly by Tacitus and Josephus as procurator of Judaea.  This official served under the Legate of Syria.  His proper duty was simply to collect the taxes of the district over which he was appointed.  Thus he would be likely to come into contact with the chief local collectors, such as Zaccheus; and in this way he may have heard, and that not unfavourably, of One who was known as the “Friend of publicans and sinners.”  But in the turbulent districts—­such as Judaea and Egypt—­the procurators were entrusted with almost unlimited powers, subject to an appeal to Caesar on the part of Roman citizens.  Soldiers were sometimes needed for the forcible collection of taxes, and the disturbed condition of these parts demanded an official in residence who could act at once and on the spot.  The punishment of turbulence was with the rigour of martial law, which really means no law at all, but only the will of the man in charge of the army.  A subordinate official lifted to a position of almost irresponsible power—­such was Pilate.  We can well understand how a man with no moral backbone would succumb to its temptations.  Pilate was a much smaller man than Gallic the proconsul at Corinth, and that other proconsul at Cyprus, Sergius Paulus, whom St Paul won over to Christian faith.  But his pettiness in the eyes of Roman society would lead him to magnify his importance in the little world he was trying to rule like a king, though often with consequences humiliating to himself.

Pilate’s headquarters were at Caesarea, by the sea coast, the Roman capital of Palestine; but he came up to Jerusalem with a troop of soldiers at the Passover, to prevent any disturbance among the vast hosts of pilgrims then gathered together in the city, just as Turkish soldiers now mount guard at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the Easter celebrations, to prevent the Christians from quarrelling and fighting.  That is how it was he happened to be present when Jesus was arrested and brought up for trial.  In this fact also we may see why the Jewish authorities felt it necessary to hand their Prisoner over to the Roman governor; although, a few years later, they were able themselves to execute the death sentence on Stephen in the Jewish mode, by stoning, and still later to do the same with James, the Lord’s brother.