Was Jesus an Historical Figure?

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Two reasons may be cited for why this is a non-issue:

1.    Evidence indicates that there was a certain fluidity in the usage of these terms.

2.    Tacitus may have been anachronizing on purpose.

We should first consider the difference between these two titles. A procurator, as the word implies, was a financial administrator who acted as the emperor's personal agent. A prefect was a military official.

1.    What evidence is there for the easy interchange of these terms? Meier notes that in a "backwater province" like Judea, there was probably not much difference between the two roles. This assertion is backed up by literary evidence. Philo and Josephus were not consistent in the usage of the terms either: Josephus calls Pilate a "procurator" in Antiquities 18.5.6, the story about Pilate bringing images into Jerusalem. (It has not been suggested, but we may wonder if, in a backwater like Judea, Pilate may have held both titles!) In practical terms, "both the procurators and prefects in Judea had the power to execute criminals who were not Roman citizens." Practically, in this context, "A difference that is no difference, is no difference."

2.    Tacitus may have used an anachronistic term for his own reasons. The first reason may have been to avoid confusion. Sanders cites inscriptional evidence that the position held by Pilate was called "prefect " in 6-41 A.D., but "procurator" in the years 44-66, so he deduces that Tacitus was simply using the term with which his readers would be most familiar. (This is a far better point than we may realize: Being that Tacitus' readers were - like he had been - members of the Senate and holders of political office, we must suppose that this "error" escaped not only Tacitus' attention, but theirs as well. We may as well suggest that a United States Senate historian's error of the same rank would pass without comment.

The second reason for this use of terminology may be deliberate anachronizing on Tacitus' part. Kraus and Woodman note that Tacitus often uses "archaizing, rare, or obsolete vocabulary" and also "avoids, varies, or 'misuses' technical terms." They do not cite the prefect/procurator issue specifically, but it is worth asking, in light of this comment, if the usage might not have been simply part of Tacitus' normal practice. 

All of the above, therefore - along with the fact that this is not cited by Tactiean scholars as a problem - shows that there is certainly no grounds for charging Tacitus with error or degrading the reference to Jesus because of the alleged procurator/prefect mixup.