02x17 - Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness

[bunniefuu]

What does it all mean?

This is where the archeology has been found.

Oh, hi how are you?

Look at that.

I need a planter.

A shrine to a bellybutton.

Is this a rock of salt?

Look at that!

No one gets into this place?

Whoa, don't take me too far!

Now that's naked archeology.

[theme music]

We're in Caesarea, modern Israel.

This is Caesarea built by Herod the Great.

Behind me some of the greatest archaeological sites

in the world, the oldest hippodrome

you know this is where they raced Ben Hur style, chariots.

And this is connected to the story of Jesus.

How so?

After Herod d*ed and Judea stopped being ruled by Jews

it started being ruled by Romans,

and one of the most infamous of those Romans

stood right where I'm standing.

He was Pontius Pilate the man who sent Jesus to the cross.

I'm on a quest to find that man and figure out

what can we, and what can we not,

know about the historical Pontius Pilate.

[SIMCHA]According to the Gospels,

at Passover in the year the Jewish authorities

were worried about a Rabbi from Nazareth.

This man is stirring up the people

to rebel against our religion!

[SIMCHA] So they engineered his arrest

and sent him to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate.

Pilate brought him before a crowd of his fellow Jews,

and told them that...

I find no fault in this man.

[SIMCHA] And when the crowd

insisted that Jesus be crucified,

Pilate washed his hands of the whole affair.

The trouble is the Gospels aren't an eyewitness account.

Some of them were written in the late first century

by early Christian refugees,

after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Holy Temple.

And that was almost forty years after the crucifixion of Jesus.

Does it make sense that the Jewish crowd is screaming

for the blood of a fellow Jew...

He should be put to death!

[SIMCHA] And the one with doubts,

even remorse, is the Roman?

It almost sounds as though the Gospels have it backwards.

I want to know what archaeology has to say.

The trial of Jesus took place in Jerusalem,

but most of the time Pilate lived here.

Caesaria was the home of the Roman Governor,

a center of trade and a center for many of the Romans'

favourite leisure activities.

And here archaeologists uncovered an inscription.

Joseph Patrich showed me the "Pilate Stone",

on which the name of Pontius Pilate is clearly inscribed.

Am I right that ... this is really right?

The reference to Pontius Pilate found here

is the only undisputed connection

between a character in the Gospels,

in the Christian Bible and archaeology?

Yes you are right it is a real, a real touch with history.

It's a real synchronicity.

Yes.

[SIMCHA] Even more interesting to archaeologists

was the first word of the inscription: "Tiberieum".

The Tiberieum was a structure built under Pilate

as a tribute to the emperor Tiberius.

Archaeologists believe that the Tiberieum

may have been near the Amphitheater.

And what the structure was offers a clue

about the relationship between Pilate and the Jews.

According to the prevailing opinion the Tiberium

was a temple, or an altar dedicated to Tiberius.

He was sucking up to the emperor.

Well, I not use this term. But...

I just want to understand this

because I didn't understand it before.

The Stone is dedicatory and it attests to the fact

that Pontius Pilate built this Tiberium

in honour of the Emperor.

But you're saying there was a cult...

so it's not just paying homage to the powerful Emperor,

it's actually worshipping.

Exactly, exactly.

They were conceived, the Emperor's was

conceived as Gods in the east.

[SIMCHA] If the Emperor Tiberius

was worshipped as a god,

Pilate would have had more than a passing interest in Jesus.

The Gospels repeatedly say

that Pilate believed that Jesus had not committed a crime.

But the archaeology shows that Jesus

was a thr*at to the cult of the Emperor in Judea.

And Pilate would have needed no other reason

to crucify the man who was being called the Messiah.

I decided to follow the text back to the place

where the capture and trial of Jesus took place to see

what else the archaeology tells us.

And in Jerusalem right along the Stations of the Cross

there are tantalizing clues that the Gospels

might have gotten Pilate wrong.

[SIMCHA] The Gospels describe Pontius Pilate

as being reluctant to crucify Jesus

because he didn't think Jesus had committed a crime.

But the archaeology shows that for Pilate

the Roman emperor was a God,

and Jesus might have been a thr*at.

The Gospels also describe a large crowd of Jews

at Jesus's trial who demand the crucifixion.

Famously, Pilate washes his hands and says:

I am innocent of the blood of this just man.

[SIMCHA] Most people see the hand washing

as a symbolic act.

But to me it doesn't even seem Roman.

And in Jerusalem, there's evidence

of what the Hand-Washing is all about in every restaurant.

If Pontius Pilate was alive today

and he was in Jerusalem as he was then,

he'd come here to an Italian restaurant, right?

He misses Rome; he wants to have a pizza.

And why's this important?

I'll tell you what's important because something's wrong

with the text. He washes his hands of his sins.

What's he doing? That's not Roman, that's Jewish.

And I'll make the point; you can find naked archaeology

in the pizza place in Jerusalem today.

Come with me. This is for ritual washing.

Now the thing that Pontius Pilate does,

he'd never do it, it's in every Jewish restaurant.

Look at that. You're not washing your hands

you're washing your soul. It's a Jewish thing.

Like bagels and lox. And pizza now a days.

He couldn't have done it.

Someone messed with the text.

Maybe it was the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas

who washed his hands at the trial of Jesus,

disavowing Pilate's death sentence?

Deuteronomy : instructs Jews to wash their hands

in order to cleanse themselves of responsibility

for a m*rder that they could not prevent.

Why did the authors of the Gospels change the story?

And what about the rest of the trial?

The Gospel of John says that the trial of Jesus

took place at the "Praetorium", Latin for Headquarters.

It was here that Pilate, sitting on his judgement seat,

pointed to Jesus and mocked him,

saying "ECCE h*m*" or...

Behold the man.

[SIMCHA] The Gospels don't say where the Praetorium was,

but tradition tells us that it was the Antonia fortress

overlooking the Temple, where Romans soldiers

were garrisoned.

Archaeologists have uncovered what remains of the fortress,

Professor Helen Bond showed me where

tradition suggests the trial of Jesus took place.

Why would this be even associated with Jesus?

It's because this is all part of the Antonia Fortress.

It's the place where the Antonia Fortress was

and people started looking for a pavement

and the reason for that is that John's gospel says

that Pilate put his judgement seat on a pavement.

He calls it the lithostrotos.

[SIMCHA] "Lithostrotos" is the Greek word for "Pavement",

and there are certainly enough of those under the fortress.

But archaeologists soon discovered that the stones here

date to two hundred years after the trial of Jesus.

John's Gospel has another clue, an extra word:

"Gabbatha", which the text says is Hebrew

for "Lithostrotos". In fact it means more.

Now this is the actual quote in John

it says a when Pilate heard these words

he brought Jesus out and sat down in judgement seat

at a place called Lithostrotos, in Hebrew Gabbatha.

Except the problem is that's not a good translation

when you see in litho you think of in English Neolithic,

Stone Age right? In Hebrew,

gabba, gavour means high, high stone pavement

and not just a street or a pavement

and that makes more sense that Pilate

wouldn't take his seat and put it out on.

No he's not just out on the ground in the street.

Yeah I think some kind of high raised area

where people can see him too

because it's a public judgement.

[SIMCHA] There aren't any remains

of a raised pavement here,

so all that links the Antonia Fortress

to the trial of Jesus is tradition.

If Pilate tried Jesus here, Jesus would have

carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem

on his way to the crucifixion at Calvary.

Modern day pilgrims follow this route

starting at the Antonia fortress,

and proceeding along the Via Dolorosa

to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

But according to Professor Bond the long route itself

is evidence that the trial didn't take place here at all.

The whole idea of crucifixion

was that it was a very public,

very demeaning execution

but I think the Romans would have wanted to

get him on the cross quite quickly really.

I don't think they would have wanted to

parade him through a hugely busy city.

You want to get him on the cross

and then everybody sees him,

everybody sees his humiliation.

Anybody who claims to be a king

and if his followers you know you're all going to

end up like this sorry guy.

But I don't think they'd of risked

parading him round the town

before he was on the cross.

[SIMCHA] If Pilate was wary of a Jewish uprising

at the sight of Jesus being paraded through the streets

then it seems unlikely that he would have

allowed a Jewish crowd to gather

at the early morning trial.

The mob demanding crucifixion

may be another embellishment added

by the authors of the Gospels.

Are the Gospels shifting the blame

from Pilate to the Jews?

And where is the stone platform described in the Gospels?

I decided to look at the historical record,

and discovered that it points away from the tourists,

and right to the place where Jesus was tried.

[SIMCHA] The Gospels paint a pretty favourable portrait

of Pontius Pilate.

But I've found evidence that there may be more to the story

than the Gospels are telling.

If the Gospels tell us that Pilate was reluctant

to persecute a Jew, the historian Josephus

tells us he didn't start out that way.

Six years before the trial of Jesus,

Pilate arrived in Judea,

and he immediately offended the citizens of Jerusalem.

I asked Professor Joseph Patrich what happened.

Pilate brought secretly by night the standards

of the Army into Jerusalem.

The Standards are the big poles they march around

that we see that in old Hollywood films. Right?

Exactly...

They had on them images of the Emperor.

Images of the Emperor on the top

which were forbidden to be brought to Jerusalem...

So I just want to get this straight,

the Jews don't want those standards

with the images of the Emperor in Jerusalem.

Exactly.

It's against Jewish law.

It's against the law.

A delegation of citizens came to Caesaria

and protested for almost a week.

And even though Pilate eventually

gave in to their demands,

Pilate's response foreshadowed the brutality of his rule.

On the sixth day he ordered the army

to get hidden in the stadium.

Right over there.

Right over there.

So the army could att*ck the Jews in surprise

but the Jews were ready to die

and not to violate their law.

And then a Pilate gave up

and ordered the shield to be removed from Jerusalem.

They come here, he makes them wait five days,

he puts his army secretly over here to k*ll them.

Yes, he says to be inflexible, he was merciless,

he was obstinate. This brought a lot of friction.

[SIMCHA] If Pilate was unafraid to offend the Jews

at the beginning of his rule,

the Gospels imply that he changed.

In some accounts he even expresses regret

for crucifying Jesus.

In fact, the historical record shows that Pilate

rarely hesitated to crucify his enemies.

In Jerusalem, Helen Bond told me of another Messiah,

and this time, Pilate's hands were definitely dirty.

Jesus was not the only Messiah that Pilate got really mad at.

Yes that's right it was the Samaritan messiah this time

and Josephus tells a story, which is the Samaritans,

were expecting a different messiah to the Jews.

They thought their messiah was going to lead them

up their sacred mountain,

which is Mount Gerizzim,

but a load of people gathered at the bottom of the mountain

ready to, to climb up the mountain

and sort of proclaim this man the messiah,

but Pilate sent in the troops and blocked their way

up the mountain and k*lled quite a few of them

others ran away, others were imprison.

And did he k*ll the Samaritan messiah?

Yeah the ringleaders were all ex*cuted.

There and then you know I don't think.

Crucified?

Probably yes.

[SIMCHA] PIlate's treatment of the Samaritans

was so brutal that the Emperor himself

called Pilate back to Rome.

But in between the arrogant beginning

and the squalid end of his governorship,

Josephus and others tell of a series of flashpoints

between Pilate and the Jews.

Josephus also tells us that most of the time

the Roman Governors lived in Caesaria,

Herod's magnificent city by the sea.

But when they were in Jerusalem,

their headquarters was Herod's magnificent Palace,

not the Antonia Fortress.

Could this be the Praetorium, where Jesus was tried?

If you had to choose which is a more likely scenario,

this place for the Praetorium and the judgement of Jesus

or the other place where you have tradition and so on,

which would you choose and why?

I would choose this place, Herod's Palace.

This was the place to stay in town.

This was the most magnificent luxurious place

and it had amazing fortifications.

I don't think, I don't think Pilate

would have gone and stayed in the Antonia Fortress.

I think Pilate would've made this place his headquarters.

[SIMCHA] The most impressive tower in the Fortress

is Phasael tower.

The bottom two thirds are still the original stone

from the time of Pilate.

And the tower may be the only indisputable

physical connection to Jesus.

If Jesus was tried in this place he was very,

he could have been held in that tower.

Jesus would certainly have seen that tower

as he came in from Galilee

he would have seen there were three huge towers

on the edge of Jerusalem

so he would certainly have seen that.

It's again amazing that people are not aware

of the archaeology.

That should be a spot, you know,

on the Via de la Rosa if you will.

Yeah I know that's right perhaps if you were

reconstructing the Via de la Rosa nowadays

you might have a rather different route.

Maybe you could do a new one.

[SIMCHA] The Pilgrims and the tourists should be coming here.

But where is the raised stone pavement

where the trial took place?

The historical sources give one more hint.

And when archaeologists followed it,

they made an astonishing discovery.

Is this where we're talking about?

[police sirens]

[SIMCHA] I'm on the trail of the real Pontius Pilate.

So far I've discovered that the trial of Jesus

didn't take place where tradition says,

Pilate wasn't the guilt ridden governor

portrayed by the Gospels,

and if anyone was washing their hands

it was probably the Jewish High Priest,

not the Roman Governor.

It appears that the Gospels are shifting the blame

from Pilate to the Jews.

Herod's Palace in Jerusalem is the best candidate

for the Praetorium, where the trial took place.

And when archaeologists dug around

the outside walls of the structure,

they discovered a gate and the remains of a staircase.

And next to it, a raised pavement

from the time of Jesus.

I asked Professor Helen Bond what happened here....

I'll run to the Jesus spot.

[SIMCHA] And what it tells us about the Gospels.

So we're talking here.

Yes that's the one right up there.

I may be standing exactly where Jesus stood?

That's right, you could be standing

in exactly the spot where Jesus stood

after Pilate had brought him out.

And Pilate says to the assembled chief priests,

"Behold the man." And then Pilate says,

"Shall I execute your king?"

And the chief priests of course say,

"We have no king but Caesar."

The ultimate blasphemy and a terrible thing to say.

But do you think, is that later theology

trying to shift the blame from the Roman

to the Jews.

Yeah I think there's a huge amount of later theology here,

particularly in John's Gospel.

And he wants to put the blame fairly and squarely

on the shoulders of the Jewish chief priests.

[SIMCHA] If the trial was held here,

it suggests that Pilate was indeed wary

of the danger of a Jewish uprising.

In the early morning, outside the walls of the city,

there would have been no Jewish crowd gathered

to watch the trial of Jesus.

And no reason for Pilate to wash his hands.

And it turns out that in the Jewish ritual

of hand washing, lies the answer

to why early Christians told the story this way.

Here is Jesus presented to the crowd,

probably here. Here's Pilate standing,

maybe you know, where you're standing.

And then he does something very odd.

He washes his hands.

Some people may just look at it and say well,

he washes his hands. It's a metaphor.

But to me he's doing a Jewish ritual.

Well, I think you're exactly right,

I think that's exactly what Matthew wants his readers,

because remember they're Jewish Christians,

and they know what the washing of hands signifies.

But it's hugely ironic, you know,

that it should be the Jewish leader who's doing that,

but it's the Roman leader.

And then you have the Jewish crowd say,

"His blood be on us and on our children."

It's a terrible saying that has haunted Jews

for the last two thousand years.

And it's only found in Matthew's gospel.

The irony is Matthew's the most Jewish of the Gospels,

he might have just been having a kind of

an internal debate with fellow Jews,

never realizing that the words that he penned

would result in millions of deaths.

I think that's exactly right.

And you have to remember too

that in the late first century

Christians were the small guys.

You know they were the minority arguing against

the large group, the larger Jewish group.

Of course those texts look completely different

once Christians become the majority

and they're arguing about Jewish people

who are the minority now.

[SIMCHA] In the late first century

a tiny Jewish Christian group,

which was trying to convert Romans to their sect,

began to write down its stories.

In those stories they cast their fellow Judeans

as the villains, and lifted the burden of blame

from the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate.

But the archaeology suggests that the trial of Jesus

happened here.

And so there was no Jewish crowd

and no reluctant governor.

The evidence suggests that Pontius Pilate's hands

remained dirty, and that it was the writers

of the Gospels who cleaned them.

And yet, no matter how hard

the Gospels try to change the story,

the fact of the matter is:.

That Pontius Pilate was the only man

who had the authority, as well the psychological,

religious and political motivation to crucify Jesus.