Jesus' crucifixion account gets fresh look after ancient ring tied to Pilate is reinterpreted

New research about an ancient ring bearing an inscription linked to Pontius Pilate may reveal fresh clues about how the Roman governor wielded authority — nearly 2,000 years after he sentenced Jesus Christ to death.

The ring, discovered at Herodium, a mountaintop fortress in the Judean desert, in the 1960s, has long been known to archaeologists — but a new interpretation could help explain its connection to Pilate.

The 2,000-year-old ring sat in storage for over 50 years before researchers published details about it in 2018, according to a release from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

AUTHOR DINESH D'SOUZA CHALLENGES BIBLE SKEPTICS WITH 'STARTLING' ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES A later study challenged its connection to Pilate altogether, setting up the scholarly debate that Catherine Bonesho, a UCLA professor of ancient Judaism , addressed in a new study published in Palestine Exploration Quarterly.

Bonesho concluded that the ring's wording was a transliteration of the Latin PILATO — meaning "for Pilate" or "to Pilate" — into Greek letters.

This theory, Bonesho argued, better explains the inscription than the earlier interpretation that it was a misspelled or abbreviated Greek form meaning "belonging to Pilate." The professor argued the ring likely did not belong to Pilate himself, but may have been worn by a lower-status worker who was carrying out administrative business connected to him.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN AMULET UNEARTHED AFTER 1,500 YEARS MAY HOLD BIBLICAL SECRET "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 told UCLA officials in a press release.

"Looking at the poor quality of the ring, the Greek transliteration, the fact that those who used seal rings, like secretaries, are more likely to have been enslaved or formerly enslaved workers — all of that gives us insight into what was happening then," she added.

Fox News Digital reached out to Bonesho for further comment.

The research is "really interesting," Candida Moss, a historian of early Christianity , told Fox News Digital.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER Moss, the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham, said the new interpretation could help resolve a years-old puzzle: If the inscription refers to Pilate, why is the ring so cheaply made? "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 said.

Moss concurred that the ring may have been used by someone working under Pilate and acting with his authority.