- Title: The Man Who Killed Christ
- Date: 10th April 2004
- Summary: A film that challenges us to question the gospel accounts of Christ's trial and Crucifixion and the role of the man at the eye of the storm: Pontius Pilate. In 26AD, Pilate was sent by Emperor Tiberius to police the troublesome Roman province of Judea. For ten years he ruled with great success, but his career is remembered only for the part he played in one of the most infamous events in human history: the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. With testimony from some of Britain's most eminent theological and Roman scholars, including the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, Biblical expert Professor John Barclay, Roman expert Professor Michael Whitby and Pilate specialist Dr Helen Bond, this film reassesses Pilate's actions and motives before and during Christ's trial and Crucifixion. As Mel Gibson's controversial Hollywood epic, The Passion of the Chris t, once again raises the question of the culpability of the Jews in Christ's death, this film argues that it is Pilate and Rome who must shoulder most of the blame. In addition to its expert testimony, Pilate: The Man Who Killed Christ draws on evidence from all of the classical sources available, and not just the Gospels, to reveal a steely man of Roman power, whose own interests were indeed best served by Christ's death. He was not a hapless pawn forced to play a role in great events that went against his wishes or conscience. He was an arch pragmatist who saw in the Crucifixion of Christ the priceless opportunity to finally bring the Jewish authorities under the yolk of Rome. Judea was a volatile region in the Roman Empire, and relations between the Romans and the Jews were usually fraught. To combat this, Pilate cultivated cordial relations with the Jewish aristocracy, the high priests of the temple and leaders of the Jewish community. Through them, he could dictate and enforce the rule of law, and maintain a level of security and passivity in Judea. It was therefore in Pilate's and Rome's best interest to see that the priests were respected and their authority accepted. When a revolutionary preacher from Galilee arrived and began to speak out against the temple priests for violating God's laws, it directly challenged Pilate's carefully nurtured realpolitik. Jesus was a threat to Pilate, not just the high priests. More than that, when the two men came face to face at the trial, two cultures collided. Pilate's deeply-held Roman beliefs challenged by Christ's messianic vision of the future. Christ was not just a threat to stability in Judea; he threatened the very certainties that underpinned the Roman Empire. Pilate as one of its most loyal servants had no qualms in acting as he did. Because of centuries of selective interpretation of the Gospels, the Jews have been blamed for the death of Christ, whilst Pilate, in comparison, has been exonerated by virtue of his perceived helplessness. But he was not helpless in determining Christ's fate, he had the power to decide between life and death and he had motive to choose death. Centuries of anti-Semitism have traded on the Jew's culpability in Christ's death, while Pilate has actually been canonised by the Coptic Church. Pilate: The Man Who Killed Christ forces us to think again.
- Description:Pilate's biography provides an unrivalled snapshot of 1st Century Judea: the realpolitik of Roman governance and the factional nature of Jewish society. At the heart of this programme is the story of Christ's trial and execution,re-imagined from Pilate's point of view. The Roman Prefect saw no reason to condemn him to death and equally little reason to jeopardise the peace by making a stand.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:October Films Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:10/04/2004
- Rights:Worldwide
- Decade: 2000s