Loading...I was recently asked about a letter allegedly written by Pontius Pilate to the Emperor Tiberius, explaining why he crucified the Son of God. Outside of academic circles, this apocryphal letter is not well known. For that matter, it’s not well known even within academic circles. Most New Testament scholars don’t know it exists. But it does!
It is part of a group of texts that scholars (the ones who study these things) sometimes call the “Pilate Gospels.” There are a number of these writings — all of them legendary/apocryphal, of course. This particular letter is called the Anaphora Pilati (= The Report of Pilate) . I made a new translation of the text from the Greek, along with a brief explanation of what it is all about, in the the book I co-edited with my colleague Zlatko Pleše, The Other Gospels. Here is the introduction (edited a bit) and translation. If you’re interested in this kind of thing, check out the book itself!
(in my next post I’ll give Tiberius’s [alleged] reply!)
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Introduction
The “Report” of Pontius Pilate to the Emperor Tiberius (the “Anaphora Pilati”) relates the events of Jesus’ trial, death, and resurrection from
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I tend to think that Pilate had active reasons for executing Jesus. After all, it seems very likely that Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem had already caused some disturbance, including the incident in the Temple. From Pilate’s perspective, if there was even a possibility of public unrest or sedition, executing a relatively minor figure like Jesus may not have required much hesitation.
Therefore, while I do think some Jewish leaders were involved in the events that led to Jesus’ death, both in terms of motive and political pressure, the primary responsibility seems to belong to Rome. It was the Roman authorities who had the political power, the military force, and the legal authority to crucify him.
For that reason, I find it strange and tragic that later Christians came to direct so much hostility toward the Jewish people rather than toward Rome. Historically speaking, it seems that Rome should have borne the greater blame, while later Christian anti-Jewish attitudes developed in a way that is very difficult to justify. It also seems somewhat ironic that the headquarters of the largest Christian body in the world is now located in Vatican City, within Rome itself.
Can you talk some about the disciples doubting? We are trying to figure out what happened in Matthew (28;17), where some disciples doubted. What were they doubting at that point? They already went to where the Angel instructed the women to go, and the text didn’t say they started doubting until they saw Jesus. “When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.”
Thanks!
What’s especially interesting is that in virtually every instance that someone finds the tomb empty or has Jesus appear and speak to them, they doubt. Especailly curious is Acts 1:3 — Jesus spent 40 days proving to them with many proofs that he was a live. Uh… what kinds of proofs did they need if he wsa in front of them talking to them? And it took 40 days?
My view is that the Gospel writers knew that some (a number?) (many?) of the disciples really did doubt that Jesus had been raised — that is, they didn’t believe it. I think a couple or a few followers (and Paul) later said they saw Jesus alive, and some of the others believed it , but not all of them. That would explain the doubt traditions in so many layers of our sources.
Wow! Think he was trying to convince Tiberius to be a Christian? 🙂
Not remotely possible that such an over the top bit of propaganda was actually written by the actual Pilate.
Agree?
Completely.
I am amazed by how easily it seems to be to fabricate these forgeries. Of course, fiction is a legitimate art form, whose origin is not considered malicious. At its worst, it employs deceptive tricks to sell books. Quite acceptable, as we know beforehand that it is fiction. All good yarns are accepted in the name of expression and entertainment. But when one encounters so many such forged texts, professing history and truth, yet so intent in plugging propaganda at the dire expense of an entire people, one who “coincidentally” refuted the conmen’s claims, it leaves a sour taste in those who approach Christian writings with the utmost respect and genuine curiosity, and raises fundamental questions about what has been named a religion of love where hatred, revenge and resentment have brought horrifying historic results. The realisation of such propensities mars one’s understanding of Paul’s writings and the Gospels themselves, sowing doubt about the entire enterprise, as the missionary zeal was so obsessive, even as Jesus was not its originator. In five Gospel mentions of preaching to others, four were directed to ” the lost sheep of Israel”. The one and only, surely interpolated, miss-ionising to all nations sounds as legitimate as “Pilate’s literature” does.
Dear Dr Ehrman,
To us moderns this of the resurrection of Jesus is clearly fictional. But to contemporaries of the writer, it might have been considered factual given their beliefs. How does this affect the way we should think of the many accounts of miracles described in the NT gospels and the book of Acts?
I’d say to about 2 billion people in the world it still seems like factual! But yes, the problem that those of us who believe in science and, say, the laws of nature have with the resurrection affact all the other miracles as well.
Well, Pilate would NEVER have called Tiberius a king.
I wonder about the authenticity, but the “fragrance” mention is interesting!
Ea’s son Asar/Asalluhi is mostly just an Ea copy with the water of life that gives everlasting life, but his unique bits include *fragrance*, a crown of thorns at Eridu, and the washing off of sin in the river.
Lazarus’ name to me could read something like “My God is Asar”? And Bethany, “House of Anu”, Bethlehem “House of Lahmu,” Mount Sinai (Sin) and Mount Nebo (Nabu). Meaning that Nabataeans (like Chuza, Herod the Great ‘s mom Cypros and Herod Antipas’ first wife, Phaesalis) might have transported revived Mesopotamian knowledge like the Antiquarian Revival of Seleucid Uruk with them.
After discovering that, I’m even more convinced Pilate is in on a Mesopotamian Substitute King Ritual/Sar Puhi (Simon of Cyrene being the substitute in Matthew 27:32.) The washing of hands in a basin is part of Asalluhi ritual. That isn’t Lahmu “The Hairy One” style, so this could be why John the Baptist’s Mandaeans don’t follow it.
I think Pilate may be undermining Tiberius to bring in the pro Syrio-Palestine Caligula.
how did pontius pilate know this: “We have seen Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, & the 12 patriarchs, who died more than 2500 years ago. & we clearly saw Noah in the body.”
were years then calculated
google ai: The quote you are referencing comes from the Anaphora Pilati (The Report of Pontius Pilate to Tiberius), which is a famous piece of apocryphal Christian literature. BRILL REFERENCE WORKS
The Anaphora Pilati is a pseudepigraphical text—a Christian forgery—that scholars generally date to the 4th, 5th, or 6th centuries, hundreds of years after Pilate and Tiberius were dead.
The Forger’s Mistake
The concept of tracking a calendar based on the creation of the world or the lifespans of biblical patriarchs—known as Anno Mundi (“in the year of the world”)—did not emerge as a consensus among Jews until relatively recent times, long after Pilate was dead. THETORAH.COM
The author of the Anaphora Pilati made a critical error. By having a 1st-century Roman governor use a long-term theological timeline (“2500 years ago”), the later Christian author accidentally projected their own religious math backward onto an ancient Roman bureaucrat who would have only cared about who the current consuls were.