Jesus' Crucifixion Account Gets Fresh Look After 2000-Year-Old Ring was Found
- A UCLA professor published a new study on a 2,000-year-old ring found at Herodium that carries an inscription tied to Pontius Pilate
- The ring sat in storage for over 50 years before researchers first published findings about it in 2018, and its true meaning has sparked scholarly debate ever since
- A historian of early Christianity said the ring could shed new light on a specific detail in the biblical account of Jesus' crucifixion
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A newly published study on an ancient ring discovered at Herodium, a fortress in the Judean desert, is offering a fresh reading of an inscription that researchers believe connects the artefact to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus Christ to crucifixion.
Catherine Bonesho, a professor of ancient Judaism at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), published the research in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly.
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Accordign to Fox News, she argued that the inscription on the ring is a Greek transliteration of the Latin word PILATO, meaning "for Pilate" or "to Pilate," rather than a misspelled or abbreviated Greek phrase meaning "belonging to Pilate," as earlier researchers had proposed.
A ring that spent decades in storage
The ring was first unearthed at Herodium during excavations in the 1960s but spent more than 50 years in storage before details were formally published in 2018. A subsequent study challenged the case for a Pilate connection entirely, leaving the question open for further investigation.
Bonesho concluded that the ring's poor quality and wording together suggest it did not belong to Pilate personally. Instead, she argued, it was likely worn by a lower-ranking worker carrying out administrative tasks on his behalf.
"Understanding the ring gives us more insight into what the Roman administration of early Roman Judea looked like in terms of how authority was distributed into the lower echelons of the political structure," Bonesho said in a UCLA press release.
She added that the cheap construction, the use of Greek transliteration, and the likelihood that seal ring users were enslaved or formerly enslaved workers all point to how Roman bureaucratic authority operated at the time.
What the ring could mean for biblical history
Candida Moss, the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham and a historian of early Christianity, said the new reading could help resolve a longstanding puzzle about the ring's poor craftsmanship.
"This isn't an expensive ring, the kind of thing that you would expect the person who is the governor of the whole area to have," Moss told Fox News Digital.
Moss agreed with Bonesho that the ring was probably used by a subordinate who acted with Pilate's authority when conducting official business.
She said the find may also cast light on a specific detail in the Gospel of John, which records that Pilate personally wrote the inscription placed on the cross of Jesus, identifying him as "King of the Jews."
"I think the ring helps us understand why the Bible says that Pilate wrote the inscription that was put on the cross of Jesus, even though we know as historians that he couldn't possibly have written it himself," Moss said. "He delegated that work to someone else."
Nigerian carpenter who called himself Christ
Legit.ng earlier reported Many Nigerians are familiar with the name Jesus of Oyingbo; it was a household name in the 90s, particularly in Lagos. He had claimed to be a saint and described himself as Jesus Christ who had returned.
Source: Legit.ng
