That Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under Pontius Pilate, the fifth prefect of the imperial Roman province of Judaea, is one of the surest facts of Christianity; it is attested not only by the earliest Christian traditions but also by the Roman historian Tacitus (Annals 15.44). As the judge of Jesus, Pilate has earned an important place both in the New Testament and Christian creeds and also in popular imagination. The picture of an official washing his hands in an attempt to avoid responsibility and the eternally unanswerable question ‘What is truth?’ (John 18.38) are inextricably linked with Pilate, even by those who profess little or no Christian commitment.

In view of Pilate's significance it is not surprising to find many varied treatments of the historical governor over the last century, both on an academic and on a popular literary level. Two factors generally have influenced these presentations. First of all, the sources at the historian's disposal are relatively thin and those which are available appear to give contradictory views of Pilate. The Jewish writers Philo and Josephus describe Pilate in negative terms; a harsh, cruel man who was the enemy of the Jewish nation. The Christian gospels, however, are generally interpreted as presenting a governor who, although weak and indecisive, recognized the innocence of Jesus and attempted to save him from execution. To a large extent any reconstruction of the ‘real Pilate’ has depended upon the relative value set upon each source by the historian.