Pontius Pilate
Jesus Before Pontius Pilate
In John 18:33-38 Jesus appeared before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea.
" Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him."
When Pilate asked Jesus "What is truth?" he spoke in Latin with the words QVID EST VERITAS?
Jesus did not answer. An anagram of what Pilate said is: EST VIR QVI ADEST, which means "It is the man who is (standing) here."
Jesus' Claim
In John 14:6 Jesus made an extraordinary claim.
" I am the Way, the Truth and the (Eternal) Life. No one comes to God the Father except through me."
Earlier in John 8:31-32 he had said to the Jews who had believed in him:
" If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jesus was saying that if we want to know what truth is, we need to come to him, because he is the truth that sets people free from sin, bondages of all kinds and death