Portrait of Pilate in The Passion of the Christ

Thanks to Jeff Peterson for the link to this piece on NRO:

Portrait of Pilate
Critics miss the point in Gibson's portrayal of Pontius Pilate
John O'Sullivan

. . . . Pilate is portrayed as a sympathetic character, they argue, who wants to spare the innocent Christ but who yields to the demands of Caiaphas and the mob that He should be crucified. Caiaphas, however, harbors no such reluctance. He agitates clearly for Christ's death. And this is undoubtedly what Gibson's film shows — just as it is also undoubtedly the account in the Gospels.

But is it anti-Semitic? For what the critics miss is that this account makes Pilate a far worse villain than Caiaphas. After all, Caiaphas believed that Christ had committed the ultimate sin of blasphemy by claiming to be the Son of God. As a leading representative of religious laws that condemned adulterers to death by stoning, he was almost bound to call for His execution. Caiaphas is making a terrible mistake. He may also have corrupt political motives for his actions. But he is plainly sincere in believing that, however conveniently, he has the law of God on his side.

Pilate is on much weaker ground. He condemns to death a man he believes to be innocent — and he does so, moreover, in a shifty manner that seeks to fix all guilt for the murder on Caiaphas and the mob and to exculpate himself.

From the standpoint of the New Testament, according to the traditional teaching of the Christian church, and in Mel Gibson's movie, Pilate is by far the greater villain. And if any charge of bigotry can be sustained against Gibson, it is that of anti-Romanism since in addition to Pilate's murderous cowardice, the Roman soldiers are shown gleefully enjoying their torture of Christ . . . . .

It's an interesting potential corrective to the claim that Pilate is exonerated either in the film or in the Gospels, though it does not engage with the key points made by many Biblical scholars, viz. the difference between the portrait of Pilate in the Gospels and his portrait in Philo and Josephus; the historical problems associated with Caiaphas apparently manipulting Pilate; and the specific issue of "innocence" and "guilt", the terms around which the issues is debated.