“The mob wanted blood, though, and the “soldiers, too, had to have their bit of sport,” Shaw grumbles. Pilate, a spineless chief, gratified them.

…

It’s a reflective move, a step away from circumstances. Is Jesus guilty or innocent? That’s not important (“One Jew more or less—what does it matter?”). Do the Jewish leaders have a valid claim? Who cares?

…

He does so to discredit the truth that enables Jesus’s ­worshippers to “hear” him. “What is truth?” isn’t a question; it’s a dismissal. He doesn’t expect an answer; he wants to ­impart his disdain. To cast the dispute before him as a matter of “the truth” deserves nothing but “noble scorn.”

…

Pilate’s irony dissolves the historic reality before him into a show. While everyone else in the drama is committed to the outcome, Pilate stands apart, a disinterested observer, an anti-dogmatist wary of truth-seekers and religious types.”