Loading...Why did early Christians portray Pontius Pilate, who ordered Jesus’ crucifixion, as increasingly innocent in Jesus’ death? Was it be blame Jews for being “Christ killers”?
In a couple of recent posts I’ve talked about a couple of the “Pilate Gospels” — apocryphal accounts of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion — in which Pilate himself is shown to be innocent and “the Jews” (either their leaders or the entire people) were at fault for the execution of the son of God. These accounts may have started to appear in the second century, but the texts we have now are from later periods when anti-Jewish hatred in some parts of the Christian church had become standard rhetoric, sometimes leading to violence.
This rhetorical strategy did not
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Sadly, it is still not uncommon today to have people explain to their children and others that the Jews were the ones who killed Jesus. I know I heard that comment numerous times as a child in the mid-west. The pushback against that narrative is practically non-existent as there is very little ‘biblical’ evidence that people are aware of to be able refute it.