comes out of this written inscription, it s not just this figure in the gospels. reporter: the israel museum here in jerusalem is a treasure house of artifacts from the first century. to visit here as a religious pilgrim or historian is to discover crucial evidence of the end of jesus life. the left side of the pilot stone was chiseled away to fit into the theater, but the inscription is clear, tibirum, pontius pilot, perfection ous judea, a stone thought to be dedicated to pontius pilot. this is the only physical object from the time of pilot which has his name. reporter: the gospel of luke tells his story. pilot was called to jerusalem amid the uproar over the ministry of jesus. are you the king of the jews, pilate asks in the scripture?
determination changed history. the roman governor, mon shows pilot was called on to decide the faith of jesus of nazareth. he would be a harsh judge. he was a brutal, we hear about massacres and the bloodshed that was connected to the time that he had the rule of judea. he was not a nice person. reporter: we come to the amphitheater with dr. shimon gibson, an archaeologist who spent more than 20 years conducting excavations in the holy land. in 1961 archaeologists discovered proof of pilot s existence. you wouldn t think that at this spot under this wooden stance, this description was found, a latin inscription mentioning pontius pilot. this is one of the pivotal moments which changes everything because suddenly pontius pilot
the jewish circles at the time, and there were others that were like him. so that s why, and i think the film does a good job of this, really going through the two versions of how he s portrayed where there is competing agendas, competing history and uncertainty about it all. to a lot of christians hearing what that historian gibson said will be a new reckoning, because they have been taught and it has been reinforced that what happened was pontius pilate said to the jews, do you really want me to kill this guy, and he washed his hands and left it up to them, which is something that is at odds with the reckoning you just heard of what kind of a person pontius pilate was, and he was very activist in his violence and decision making. one of the things that s so interesting these are theological debates that i m certainly not going to resolve, but the historical piece is so enter interesting, going to israel where the romans have this unbelievable port. you get the sense he s the