10 Days of Archaeology: Day Four – Pontius Pilate Stone

Epic Archaeology‘s superb infographics highlight various archaeological artifacts that relate or even support the biblical narrative. Continuing the “Ten Days of Archaeology” posts featuring some of the infographics Epic Archaeology has produced. Here is day four with the Pontius Pilate Inscription. Be sure to check out the other infographics at Epic Archaeology.

I discussed the recent Pilate ring discovery on a previous blog post, but the Pilate Stone discovery occurred back in 1961 at Caesarea Maritima in Israel. Pilate is mentioned by Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, Tacitus, and in all four gospels: Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John. Pilate presided over the trial of Jesus and condemned Him to crucifixion. This story is found in Matthew 27. Here is a short video with Frank Turek discussing the Pilate Inscription:

The actual stone is housed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. This damaged monument has a partial inscription mentioning Pontius Pilate, the a prefect (i.e., magistrate, or regional governor) of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26 to 36. Here is a short video of the actual inscription at the museum:

The partial inscription reads:

[DIS AUGUSTI]S TIBERIÉUM

[…PONTI]US PILATUS

[…PRAEF]ECTUS IUDA[EA]E

[…FECIT D]E[DICAVIT]

The translation from Latin to English for the inscription reads:

To the Divine Augusti [this] Tiberieum…

Pontius Pilate…

prefect of Judea…

has dedicated [this]

Pontius Pilate probably made his headquarters at Caesarea Maritima – the site where the stone was discovered, since that city had replace Jerusalem as the administrative capital and military headquarters of the province in AD 6, Pilate probably travelled to Jerusalem, the central city of the province’s Jewish population, only when necessary such as during Passover.

Here is a great article by the Bible Archaeology Report which summarizes all of the archeology discoveries related to Pontius Pilate.

You can check out other archaeological discoveries related to the bible here:

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