Question
Who ruled Judea when Jesus was crucified?
At the crucifixion, about AD 30 on the map's conventional date (AD 33 is also held), Judea was a Roman province governed by the prefect Pontius Pilate, who held office from about 26 to 36, under the emperor Tiberius (AD 14–37). Galilee, where Jesus came from, was not part of the province: it was ruled by Herod Antipas, the tetrarch, son of Herod the Great. The high priest in Jerusalem was Caiaphas.
Luke sets the scene when John the Baptist begins to preach: "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests". The fifteenth year of Tiberius is usually reckoned as AD 28/29. Judea had come under direct Roman rule in AD 6, when Augustus deposed Archelaus; Josephus says Pilate was sent after Gratus had governed eleven years and stayed ten years himself, and a stone found in the theatre at Caesarea, the governor's seat, names him prefect of Judea. The chief priests delivered Jesus "to Pontius Pilate the governor", and it was he who passed sentence; "We have no king but Caesar", they told him.
Herod Antipas ruled Galilee and Perea from his father's death, about 4 BC, and founded Tiberias about AD 20; when Pilate "knew that he belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time". Philip, tetrarch of the north-east, built Caesarea Philippi and died about AD 34. Caiaphas, son-in-law of Annas and "the high priest that same year", was high priest from about AD 18 to 36 or 37: Josephus says Gratus appointed him and Vitellius removed him. In 36 the legate Vitellius sent Pilate to Rome to answer for his rule, and Tiberius died in March 37 before he arrived.
Scripture: Luke 3:1–2; Matt 27:2; John 18:13; John 19:15; Luke 23:6–7; Luke 23:11–12; Matt 2:22
Sources
- Josephus, Antiquities 17.355; 18.1-2 (Judea a province, AD 6); 18.35 (Pilate after Gratus's eleven years); 18.89 (ten years in office); 18.85-89 (Vitellius sends Pilate to Rome); 18.36-38 (Tiberias founded)
- Josephus, Antiquities 18.35 and 18.95 (Caiaphas appointed by Gratus and deposed by Vitellius)
- The Pilate stone from the theatre at Caesarea
- Suetonius, Augustus 100.1; Tiberius 24.1; Tacitus, Annals 1.7 (the accession of Tiberius, AD 14)
- History Globe dated events (Judea a province AD 6; Tiberius succeeds Augustus AD 14; Pilate prefect c. AD 26; Antipas founds Tiberias c. AD 20; crucifixion c. AD 30; Pilate recalled c. AD 36)
- History Globe tour “The resurrection and the appearances” (the conventional year AD 30; AD 33 is also held)
- Josephus, Antiquities 18.106 (the death of Philip in the twentieth year of Tiberius)
- E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. G. Vermes and F. Millar, vol. 1 (1973), on the prefects of Judea and the sons of Herod
Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.