But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, ‘Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. (Mark 15: 11-15)

Pontius Pilate is unusual in the gospels for his questions. What do you wish me to do? Why, what evil has he done? What have you done? (John 18: 35) Are you the King of the Jews? (Matthew 23:3)

The questions are disinterested. He is not asking Jesus to heal. He is not asking a question that might lead to a newly profound personal insight. Pilate is not using his questions to trap Jesus. The Prefect is asking the sort of questions that any reasonable person might ask. But disinterested questions are unusual.

In response to one of Pilate's questions the gospel of John has Jesus reply, "Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice." Pilate responds with yet another question, "What is truth?" (John 18: 38) Many have read this as an inauthentic and sneering retort to Jesus.

None of the gospels mention a translator. It is very unlikely that Pilate was speaking Aramaic. It is more likely that Pilate and Jesus were speaking to each other in Greek.

The gospel has Pilate ask "What is alethia (truth)?" The Greek suggests, how do we see, what is light, what is revealed? I do not hear a sneer in the Prefect's question. Rather, I hear the resignation that might be in the tone of a blind man asking, "How can I see what you see?"

Pilate believed that truth was beyond his reach. Instead, it was standing beside him.