Loading...In my previous post I explained and provided a translation of the intriguing apocryphal letter that Pontius Pilate (allegedly) wrote to the Emperor Tiberius to explain why he had crucified the Son of God. Later, another Christian author wrote a fictional account of what happened next. Tiberius did not take kindly to Pilate’s horrible crime and … well, it ends up not going well for the governor of Judea. But on the upside … he converts!
Here is my introduction to the text and a fresh translation of it from the Greek, as found in the collection of apocryphal Gospels I did with my colleague Zlatko Plese, The Other Gospels (Oxford University Press).
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Introduction
The Handing Over of Pilate
(Paradosis Pilati)
The “Handing Over of Pilate” is a fictitious account of Pilate being recalled to Rome and censured by the Emperor Tiberius for his role in having the divine man, Jesus, crucified. Pilate pays the ultimate price for his heinous behavior by
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Since Pilate served as governor of Judea for about ten years, I wonder whether his recall to Rome should necessarily be understood as a punishment. Also, would Rome normally have allowed this kind of direct appeal or complaint against a provincial governor? In some Asian political contexts, a person who appealed directly against an official might have been executed instead.
As I understand it, Tiberius died before Pilate arrived in Rome, so I wonder what actually happened to him afterward. My impression is that Pilate may have gone on to another assignment somewhere else in the empire — or at least returned to ordinary administrative life — and that he may have completely forgotten about Jesus afterward.
In this case it was definitely a punishment. He was arrested and executed in Rome. But this is not a historical account — it’s fiction.
is there a basis for thinking that the beginning of antisemitism is in the early Christian writings blaming the Jews for crucifying Jesus?
I’ll be dealing with that in a later post. The *roots* of antisemitism are connected with that, but strictly speaking “anti-semitism” is a very modern phenomenon. These authors are opposing Jews for their religious beliefs, practices, and culture, not for their Jewish bloodlines, as in modern anti-semitism.. I’ll explain in my post.
“Was Pontius Pilate crying during this event?”
I don’t think so.
What strikes me here is less that the tradition magnifies Christ (your descriptive point holds) than the direction in which it does it. At the name of Christ the idols fall to dust and the crowd goes home shaking. The canonical passion narratives decline that move: Pilate stays ambiguous, Rome is not converted, and not one god falls.
So the legend does not simply add detail. It adds a particular kind of detail: the visible knockout, the proof no one can refuse. It drifts toward compulsion. I am not reading the author’s intention off the result; I mean only the shape the text gives us on the page.
It also magnifies Christ by maligning the Jews, a cost I am setting aside here only to keep to one thread.
What interests me is that this direction looks anything but random. It shows where the later text moves: away from what the Gospels leave open. I have started a forum thread working that out, and would value pushback, yours included, either here or there.
https://ehrmanblog.org/forum/early-christian-apocrypha/the-handing-over-of-pilate-and-a-second-face-of-one-assumption/#p47511
Respectfully,
Tjalling
Dr. Ehrman: What has always fascinated me is the scene between Pilate and Jesus at his trial. In the Gospels, they are clearly speaking to one another. It would appear that a lot of scholars say they were speaking to each other in Greek; the late Dr. Michael Heiser attempted to convince me of this when I emailed him a number of years ago. I do not see any evidence that Jesus knew Greek. Would you agree? If so, what language did Christ and Pilate speak to each other in?
No, I don’t think Jesus knew Greek. Given his environment growing up, I think it’s highly unlikely. If they did have a conversation at his trial (if there was a trial), they would have had a translator. OR, Pilate just heard that he wsa calling himself the King and ordered him crucified without a “trial.” I tend to think the latter. There wsa no one there taking notes, so the idea that anyone would have an idea what was said, if anything was said, is rather remote.
I studied this long ago, but remembered Pilate to Tiberius as reading like the last part of a gospel account. Are there resources on line where I can find these documents?
Also, what do you know about The Acts of Pontius Pilate spoken about in Justin: Apology, 35,48? Some information talks about it being the gospel of Nicodemus, but I thought that Nicodemus was a 4th or 5th century spurious writing, therefore this couldn’t be what Justin was referring to writing two to three centuries earlier. I found something long ago in the Encyclopedia Britannica, but can’t seam to find it now. I did find this: http://www.britannica.com/topic/commentarii
and this: Commentarii principis
“The ancient Romans were scrupulously careful to preserve the memory of all remarkable events which happened in the city; and this was done either in their ‘Acts of the Senate’ (Acts Senatus), or in the ‘Daily Acts of the People’ (Acta Diurna Populi), which were diligently made and kept at Rome. Justin Martyr, in his first Apology, presented to Antoninus Pius and the senate of Rome, mentioned the crucifixion of Jesus and adds, ‘And you may know this from the ‘Acts of Pontius Pilate’.”
Any information is appreciated.
I’ve published a translation of all the Pilate Gospels, along witht he Acts of Pilate/Gospel of Nicodemus, with introductoins to each text in my collection, done with Zlatko Plese, called The Other Gospels. Pilate to Tiberius appears to be a stand-alone compositoin. The Acts of Pilate is the first part of what later Came to becalled the Gospel of Nicodemus. The second part, which wsa added later, is an account of the Harrowing of Hell. None of these is probably the works mentioned by Justin by Tertullian later), and it’s not clear if these writers actually had seen some of these texts in an earlier or completely different form, or if they had just heard rumors about them.