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Pontius Pilate – The History and Historicity of the Civil Servant Who Condemned Jesus

Khalid Elhassan June 3, 2025 18 min

statue of pontius pilate and jesus at base of holy stairs in rome — Pontius Pilate introduces Jesus in this statue at the base of the Holy Stairs in Rome in this March 10, 2014, file photo. Tradition maintains that Jesus climbed the stairs when Pilate brought him before the crowd. It's believed that Constantine's mother, St. Helen, brought the stairs to Rome from Jerusalem in 326. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See VATICAN LETTER March 19, 2015.

12. Scourging, Mockery, and the Way to the Cross

Pilate - 'Ecce Homo' ('Behold the Man'), by Antonio Ciseri, depicts Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem — ‘Ecce Homo’ (‘Behold the Man’), by Antonio Ciseri, depicts Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem. Wikimedia

Roman scourging was a brutal punishment with whips embedded with sharp objects, that tore into the flesh. It was often a prelude to crucifixion, and served to weaken the condemned and publicly humiliate them. Jesus is then mocked by Roman soldiers, who dress him in a purple robe, place a crown of thorns on his head, and sarcastically hail him as “King of the Jews“.

The mockery underscores the political dimensions of his execution: his punishment is not for religious heresy, but for a supposed claim to kingship – a title that threatened Roman imperial authority. Jesus is forced to carry his cross through Jerusalem’s streets to the execution site, a place called Golgotha – Aramaic for “the Skull”. Along the way, according to the Synoptic Gospels, a man named Simon of Cyrene is compelled to carry the cross when Jesus collapses from exhaustion and injury.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.