The Pilate cycle is a group of various pieces of early Christian literature that purport to either be written by Pontius Pilate, or else otherwise closely describe his activities and the Passion of Jesus. Unlike the four gospels, these later writings were not canonized in the New Testament, and hence relegated to a status of apocrypha. Some writings were quite obscure, with only a few ancient textual references known today; they merely survived through happenstance, and may not have been particularly widely read by early Christians in the Roman Empire and Christians in the Middle Ages. Others were more popular. The most notable example was the Gospel of Nicodemus (or "Acts of Pilate"), which proved quite popular and influential in medieval and Renaissance Christianity.

The group is collectively known as the Pilate cycle by some scholars; this is not a term used by early Christians, many of whom might have had access to only one or two of these accounts at most. It is rather an umbrella designation used much later to collect the writings attributed to Pilate. None of these documents are considered by modern scholars to have been authentically written by Pilate or his contemporaries.

Pontius Pilate was the prefect (governor) of the Roman province of Judea approximately from 26 to 36 AD. He presided over the execution of Jesus, likely due to accusations that Jesus had called himself "King of the Jews", leading Pilate to believe he was possibly fomenting a rebellion against the Herodian dynasty to bring about a "Kingdom of God". His activities are described in the Christian gospels that were canonized in the New Testament. The gospels are generally agreed to have been written between 70 and 110 AD, and provide a snapshot of Christian traditions about Pilate in the decades after Jesus's death.

Christians in later centuries hungered for more information than the gospels provided, however. Just as infancy gospels expanded the stories of young Jesus, various texts were produced that expanded the story of Pilate, Jesus's trial, and Jesus's execution. These Passion Gospels satisfied a natural curiosity and desire to know more about Jesus's death and its aftermath. In addition to expanding the gospel story, many of these accounts seem to have had an apologetic motive as well. They aimed to reassure Christians that something amazing had happened in Judea during the time of Jesus, and reliable neutral parties such as Pilate confirmed it.

Attitudes about Pilate varied, and affected the style of literature produced. Loosely speaking, eastern Christians revered Pilate, such as the Syrian, Coptic, and Ethiopian traditions; the Coptic tradition even deems him a saint. A version of this can be seen as early as the Gospel of John, which portrays Pilate more positively than the synoptic gospels. Western Christians were more skeptical of Pilate; during various periods of persecution by the Roman Empire, Pilate was identified as the first persecutor. Western attitudes softened later in an attempt to show that Christianity need not be feared and that good Romans such as Pilate had acknowledged that Jesus was not a threat to Roman rule, and that the Jews were the real problem. After Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Western attitudes toward Pilate became more hostile again, as there was no longer a need to justify to pagan rulers that Christians were harmless and not criminals.

The first major scholarly collection of the Pilate cycle was by Constantin von Tischendorf, who published a series of collections of apocrypha in their oldest known versions, notably the Evangelia Apocrypha in 1853. Since Tischendorf's time, more works have been discovered, but much of the baseline terminology and assumptions were set by his pioneering work. More recent scholars to publish collections and translations include James Keith Elliott, Bart Ehrman, and Zlatko Pleše.

The Acta Pilati or Acts of Pilate is a Christian text that records Jesus's trial, execution, and resurrection and expands upon the details given from the gospels. It is by far the most popular and well-read of Pilate-related apocrypha, being compiled in the Gospel of Nicodemus (Evangelium Nicodemi) in the 9th century, which was a popular work among medieval European Christians. There are two main versions, usually referred to as A and B. It is unknown precisely when a form similar to the versions that survive was written. Justin Martyr makes a reference to an Acts of Pilate as early as 160 AD, although the version he knew may have been much different than later traditions, or else Justin may have simply assumed that some record must have existed. Scholars estimate that the versions that survive may have been finalized as late as the 5th or 6th centuries, although earlier dates from the 2nd–4th centuries are possible as well; in particular, a compelling hypothesis is that the Acts were first written in the early 4th century as a counterattack to a rival pagan Acts of Pilate. The work was originally written in Greek, although it implausibly claims to be translated from a Hebrew original within it. The authors appear to be familiar with all four of the canonical gospels, and include some material from each. While many of the other parts of the Pilate cycle survive on just a few ancient records, the Acts of Pilate was very popular; over 500 ancient manuscripts survive in a variety of languages and versions, indicating it was translated, copied, and modified many times across Christendom. It proved especially popular in Western Christianity, with many surviving copies of the Latin translation.

The versions identifying themselves as the Gospel of Nicodemus include a prologue where an author identifying himself as Ananias, a bodyguard of Pilate, claims to be translating a Hebrew work by Nicodemus. The main Acts of Pilates then proceeds to describe Jesus's trial; in it, Pilate is portrayed positively, as someone who recognizes Jesus's greater authority as king. The Jewish leaders accuse Jesus of being a sorcerer. Jesus is brought in to be questioned, and the Roman standards (aquila) bow down and worship him. Pilate finds nothing to charge Jesus with; various witnesses attest to Jesus's miracles of healing. Pilate says he is innocent of the matter, while the Jews quote the Gospel of Matthew's claim that they said "his blood be upon us and our children," a phrase repeated three times in the work. At Jesus's execution, the day turning to night is written off by the Jews as a natural eclipse of the sun. Jesus's resurrection proceeds similar to a harmonized account that attempts to combine all the gospel versions. Nicodemus searches for the resurrected Jesus, but instead finds only Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph, a rabbi named Levi, and other witnesses testify to Jesus's resurrection and divine nature.