Loading...I have been talking about how Pontius Pilate becomes increasingly innocent over time in Christian accounts of the death of Jesus. One of my arguments is that the motive behind this exoneration of the Roman governor is an attempt to blame “the Jews” for killing their own messiah. This exoneration increases over time and after a while stops being at all subtle.
Check out this non-canonical account that allegedly gives Pilate’s own version of the matter. This is in an apocryphal text called the Anaphora Pilati (= The Report of Pilate – a report he allegedly sent to the emperor Tiberius). You can find this text in the book I co-edited with my colleague Zlatko Pleše, The Other Gospels. Here is the introduction taken from there and my translation of the text itself (it’s preserved in Greek)
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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 the perspective of the Roman governor. We learn that despite his many divine deeds, Jesus was condemned by the Jews, who compelled Pilate to have him crucified. But in the presence of many supernatural signs, Jesus was raised from the dead, leading to the damnation of his Jewish opponents. The obvious motives behind the account are to celebrate Jesus’ miraculous character, to exonerate Pilate for his death, and in so doing to inculpate the Jews.
The first half of the document…
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Goes to show that long before Facebook people were willing to swallow incredible stories as long as they supported their own views. And the fact that multiple manuscripts of this survived suggests to me that it was well-known and circulated document among the Christians.
This is what we today would call “fan fiction”.
I wonder how many Christians must have sincerely believed that this “Report of Pilate” was the “Gospel truth”.
I do too!
So early medieval fake news. Indeed, this text displays the not so subtle in the remark, “all the synagogues that opposed Jesus were engulfed.” It’s kind of interesting how “urban legend” with its unconscious or semi-conscious, maybe even innocent folklore at times simply shifts to outright political/cultural propaganda. At least that seems like one way to read it. Maybe it’s all the same or of one piece. –Dan
Do you know if last night’s debate is available online or will be posted?
I’ll be posting it next week, if all goes to plan.
At KSU? While in the area you might have had a chance to cruise by SunTrust Park and the Battery, and maybe some friendly soul there would have bid you “OffSeason’s Greetings, Professor!” And along with the debate you could post a pic of yourself standing by the Bobby Cox statue. ????
It is a hard to believe this account. The first question I have is a follows: Why was not Pilate and his administration aware of such a man performing incredible supernatural acts long before the man was brought to him? Since we know, according to some accounts in the Gospels, Jesus fame spread through the region like Wildfire, the Roman government infrastructure should have become aware of him very quickly.
Even if Pilate was not aware of the individual miracles, the large scale feedings of thousands of people in the desert would have been a significant event to be brought to his attention. This is simply because a crowd of 5,000 – 15,000 would have alerted the Roman army of a possible insurrection. That many subjected people coming together is a dangerous occurrence when one is occupying a territory.
However, in the Gospels and this account, Pilate has never heard of Jesus. That ignorance is quite dissonance given the vigilance of Roman occupation forces to keep apprised of the issues going on in the region — especially spectacular ones like Jesus allegedly performed
Yes, it’s completely legendary.
Does the fact that there are references to “Hades” and the “netherworld” instead of Satan and hell help us to date and determine who actually wrote this? They appear to know ancient Jewish biblical figures, something I can’t see Pilate knowing or caring about.
I don’t think we can determine where the stories came from, but yes, they are clearly based on a knowledge (of some kind) of the biblical accounts.
Bart, my question is not directly related to the above. Given that the Jewish people were under Roman rule at the time: who gave Paul the authority to persecute the Christian church prior to his conversion? Did the Roman authorities have a say in the matter, or did they turn a blind eye and leave him to get on with it?
In the book of Acts it was the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. That seems unlikely though — they had no authority over Jews in other locations (such as Damascus). I’m not sure he was “authorized” by anyone. He himself never says he was. My guess is that he was simply doing this on his own authority — possibly beating up followers of Jesus whenever he found them.
If we assume that the details of Paul’s life as recounted in the NT are true, such as, for example, that Paul studied under Gamaliel, then Paul could have been a typical zealous 20-something Pharisaic student, and those types tend to be, shall we say, bullies. It’s not uncommon for young men, caught up in the fervor of a religious movement, to be intolerant of — if not out-right hostile towards — other religious schools or beliefs. For instance, the name of the Taliban literally comes from the Arabic word for student — talib. That is, the Taliban started out as normal, young male students of Islam, who became radicalized. Reading about the milieu in which Paul would have grown up and studied, one gets the sense that it was not unsimilar to, for example, a modern day Muslim madrasa. Incidentally, the Arab word madrasa comes from the same Semitic root as the Hebrew midrash, which means to study or examine. The notions of religious study and radical religious movements, therefore, are often interwined. It’s embedded within the Semitic cultures in which Judaism and Islam formed. Part of this appears to have been carried into Christianity as attacks on so-called heresies, culminating in the Inquisitions and Crusades, both movements spearheaded by radicalized, highly religious young men.
With regard to Tischendorf, for those new to the blog, there is a really good Smithsonian Channel presentation of the “Bible Hunters, Episode 1” about Tischendorf and his discovery of Codex Sinaiticus, our oldest text of the New Testament. It is quite a story. The Smithsonian Channel reruns this series from time to time and the History Channel website will list the times. Tischendof was really a fascinating man. Dr. Ehrman also discussed him on the blog 0n 6/12/15. There are probably other ways of watching or obtaining this documentary. These days there always are many ways to find such stuff.
Ha! I didn’t know that! I should watch it.
I dunno. It appears to me Christian anti Semitism is an attack on the Jewish God, not on the human Jews. This business with Pilate is an extension of the basic logic.
Maimonides’ list of 613 commandments lists #51 as, Kill any sorcerer. Presumably this is God speaking, telling his people how to preserve their holiness.
Seems to me it is God, not the Jews, who wants Jesus, the miracle worker (the sorcerer) killed.
I need to check thru the whole Maimonides list (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/613_commandments),but I suspect there are several commands from God that make the actions of the Jews against Jesus appear lawful.
Anti-semitism is usually understood as a hateful (and often violent) opposition to Jews because of their Jewish (= semitic) ethnicity and heritage.
“(6) Still, Herod, Archelaus, Philip, Annas, and Caiaphas, along with all the people, handed this man over to me for questioning. And because many stirred up a rebellion against me, I ordered him to be crucified.”
As far as I’m concerned, this excerpt alone renders the entire “Report of Pontius Pilate” a joke.
The majority of the report is a personal defense by Pilate of not just Jesus the man, but Jesus as someone with even greater powers than any god worshiped in Rome at the time. It is clear that Pilate admired Jesus for his great works and humanitarian service and that he held him in great reverence.
What’s interesting is how is it that the Roman governor Pilate, who held all power in that region with the backing of the entire Roman army, so easily gave in to political pressure from Jewish leaders and had Jesus crucified? If he truly did so, this is proof that Pilate was a man of very shallow principles that feared the very people he was charged to rule over. By the minimum qualifications for a Roman governor, Pilate had no business being in the position of governor. It’s a wonder, if this letter was actually received by Tiberius Caesar in Rome, that Tiberius didn’t have Pilate removed from office and executed for being such a weak leader in the face of a trivial domestic disturbance.
I don’t for a minute believe this accounting is factual and believe it’s more in-line with pro Christian propaganda than anything to do with an accurate historical account.
Yes, no one thinks it’s factual. It’s just an extremely interesting legend.
Bart,
I don’t know if you’ll read this, but I was wondering if Pilate spoke Aramaic. Were Roman authorities required to learn the language of those they ruled over? The reason I asked is if he didn’t, then he would have required a translator when questioning Jesus (unless Jesus spoke Latin as well as Aramaic) and when conversing with the Jewish leaders and the “crowd” as well. If indeed a translator was involved then would he not be an “earwitness” to the proceedings? Furthermore, would his memory not be subject to possible “distortion” (I’m reading Jesus Before the Gospels) if he was used as a source for the gospels?
He may have picked up a bit, but no, he would have mainly spoken Latin, and presumably Greek. He must have had translators on hand.
I really appreciate you taking the time to post manuscripts like this (in English) for us to consider.
This story reminds me of the gospel of Peter, where Pilate washes his hands, but the Jews don’t. And I think this protectionist mindset is further reflected in the early documents of the church councils, where the deep distrust of Judaism is so blatantly obvious.
Bart, while you say that no one thinks it’s factual, nevertheless *someone* actually wrote it and, presumably, thought that others would believe it. I wonder whether the author himself believed it.
The very idea that a Christian might put words into someone else’s mouth or report as true things that did not happen is — outrageous! 🙂
Clearly it must have been a Jew who wrote this, trying to make early Christians look like credulous, bungling fools — because they all (the Jews, every last one of them, even the babies) want to discredit Jesus, his teachings and his followers. 🙂 🙂
Dr Ehrman,
You mentioned a letter of Pilate to Claudius, and I’m curious: besides likely being the first likely “letter from Pilate” (so I’ve read at least), so we have any other info on this letter? Dating? I’d imagine that the academic majority say this the letter is a forgery?
It is definitely a forgery; no one doubts it. It is very difficult to date, but it may derive froom the 4th or 5th century. I have a translation of it (and the other letters allegedly connected with Pilate) in my book The Other Gospels (co-edited with Zlatko Plese)
Thank you sir!
I guess I’m curious: do historians have any idea what it is that Justin Martyr or Tertullian were referencing when they mentioned letters from Pilate, essentially, confirming the biblical story?
Thank you for your time
They almost certainly were referencing rumors they had heard, that they didn’t realize were rumors…