The Stone That Names Pilate

June, 1961. Italian archaeologist Maria Teresa Fortuna Canivet is digging at Caesarea, on the coast of Roman Judaea, when a damaged block of limestone comes to light.

Scripture: and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pontius Pilate, the governor.

Matthew 27 opens on a morning. Religious leaders have taken counsel against Jesus, and verse two names the Roman official they hand him to: Pontius Pilate.

Pilate probably based himself at Caesarea. Herod the Great built the city and its theatre between about 22 and 10 BC, and by AD 6 it had replaced Jerusalem as the province's capital.

The block is modest: limestone, roughly 82 by 65 centimetres, and damaged.

It lay near the ancient theatre, still attached to a staircase. Builders had reused it as a step in the 4th century, long after it was first carved.

The Latin is only partly intact, so scholars supply missing letters, shown in brackets. Reconstructed, it is a dedication to the Divine Augusti, naming Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea. A prefect was the Roman official over a province.

Why it matters: it is an authentic first-century Roman inscription naming Pilate, the earliest surviving and only contemporary record of him. Otherwise he is known from the New Testament, Josephus, Philo and Tacitus.

The limits matter too. Some letters are conjectural, and the temple and the Tiberius link are only probable or possible. The stone confirms the man, indirectly. It does not mention Jesus's trial.

Today the original is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Plaster-cast replicas are in Milan's Archaeological Museum, and at Caesarea itself.

A name carved in stone, in the city where he likely ruled. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today. Follow Bible Evidence for more.