All these points are very interesting and worthy of study and thought, but these points also remain: Jews remind themselves every year "Slaves were we in Egypt," and no real Jews would ever say: "We are children of Abraham and we were never enslaved." The Synoptics contain several references to tax collectors and John not a single one. Josephus indeed does not say who was the leader of the great Jewish protest in Caesarea, and rather gives the impression that it was spontaneous and acephalous, but this is rather hard to believe. A brief mention of the Crucifixion of Jesus by Pilate follows, which may or may not be a useful hint. 

Besides the tax collectors, John also omits the Baptism of Jesus, the Temptation, the Transfiguration, the Kiss of Judas, the Tears of Peter, the institution of the Eucharist, etc. 

Roman historians are just as bad as the Gospel writers when it comes to confusing Procurators and Prefects. The archaeological evidence says that Pilate was a Prefect, but both Tacitus and the Gospels call him a Procurator, just to confuse us, perhaps. Das Baz, 18 April 2006, 10:51 AM.