The Shadow of Nazareth Jesus. Both Barrabas and Jesus are sentenced to die by crucifixion, but Jewish custom allows the release of a prisoner on the day of the Passover feast. Pontius Pilate, the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, has the authority to decide whether to free Barabbas or Jesus in honor of the Passover. However, Pilate is unwilling to make the decision himself, so he lets a crowd that has gathered before him choose who is to live. The crowd chooses Barabbas, who is set free, and Jesus, who is innocent of any wrongdoing, dies on the cross. Following the crucifixion,
Pontius Pilate's wife Pontius Pilate's wife Pontius Pilate's wife, otherwise unnamed in the Bible, appears in a single verse of the Gospel of Matthew, where she tries to persuade her husband not to condemn Jesus to death. She is named as Procla or Procula in early Christian tradition (later also "Percula", "Claudia Procula" or "Claudia Procles"). She is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. She is first named as Claudia in 1619, in the chronicle of "Pseudo-Dexter". In the New Testament, the only reference to Pontius Pilate's wife exists in a single sentence by Matthew: The