Article: Discovery Gives Proof of Existence of Pontius Pilate, Which Some Had Doubted

[mdgspencer]

see The archaeological evidence of Pontius Pilate

There were those who doubted the actual existence of this figure important in the Gospels, until what was found in 1961.

 

[Dan_Defender]

Yes before the Pilate Stone ‘scholars’ were fond of denying his existence, now they are mostly reduced to silence.

 

[patrick457]

To be fair, I don’t think Pilate’s existence was in serious doubt even before the Pilate Stone was discovered - he was mentioned by Philo and Josephus after all in contexts not related to Jesus. (What the stone gave us is physical testimony that there was a guy named ‘Pontius Pilatus’ in Judaea in the 1st century.)

What these people doubted was Pilate’s involvement in Jesus’ death, and since these people are often the same people who believed that Jesus did not really exist as a person but was just a made-up fictional character almost nobody took (or takes) them seriously.