In this fictional account of Pilate's story of the trial, conviction, and death of Jesus, the author suggests that public officials are disposed to look for an easy way out of moral problems.
The Gospel of Pilate For two thousand years, the name of Pontius Pilate has been remembered with vile contempt. Cursed by countless generations for his one fateful decision, this otherwise obscure Roman bureaucrat has been forever damned in the eyes of history. Now, however, a subway construction project under the streets of modern Rome has inadvertently uncovered the archeological find of the millennium. Inside a long forgotten chamber beneath the ruins of Nero's Golden House, a confidential report to Emperor Tiberius has been discovered that could turn all of history on its head. In this fast-paced, action-packed, historical thriller, archeologist Dr. Thomas Lampton and his girlfriend, Victoria Alberghetti, will have their relationship tested, and their comfortable world turned upside down as a result of this astonishing find. After translating the ancient scrolls, Thomas uncovers the story - behind the story - of the most famous trial in history. A lifelong skeptic, reading the eyewitness account of the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, from Pontius Pilate's perspective, throws everything he thought he once knew into chaos. It also puts he and Victoria's lives in jeopardy. Men will kill to acquire these priceless documents. Powerful forces will stop at nothing to keep their explosive secrets hidden. Because now, after centuries of silence, Pontius Pilate will finally have his say. His answer to the most important question ever asked, what is truth, will shake the world to its very foundations.
Although this Gospel is, by some among the learned, supposed to have been really written by Nicodemus, who became a disciple of Jesus Christ, and conversed with him; others conjecture that it was a forgery towards the close of the third century by some zealous believer, who observing that there had been appeals made by the Christians of the former age, to the Acts of Pilate, but that such Acts could not be produced, imagined it would be of service to Christianity to fabricate and publish this Gospel; as it would both confirm the Christians under persecution, and convince the Heathens of the truth of the Christian religion. The Rev. Jeremiah Jones says, that such pious frauds were very common among Christians even in the first three centuries; and that a forgery of this nature, with the view above mentioned, seems natural and probable. The same author, in noticing that Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical history, charges the Pagans with having forged and published a book, called "The Acts of Pilate," takes occasion to observe, that the internal evidence of this Gospel shows it was not the work of any Heathen; but that if in the latter end of the third century we find it in use among Christians (as it was then certainly in some churches) and about the same time find a forgery of the Heathens under the same title, it seems exceedingly probable that some Christians, at that time, should publish such a piece as this, in order partly to confront the spurious one of the Pagans, and partly to support those appeals which had been made by former Christians to the Acts of Pilate; and Mr. Jones says, he thinks so more particularly as we have innumerable instances of forgeries by the faithful in the primitive ages, grounded on less plausible reasons. Whether it be canonical or not, it is of very great antiquity, and is appealed to by several of the ancient Christians.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “Sublime . . . The definitive study of Pilate.”—The Washington Post Book World “A masterwork . . . one of the most interesting and creative books I’ve read in a very long time.”—Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Obstacle Is the Way “Compelling, eloquent and vivid . . . In a superb blend of scholarship and creativity, Wroe brings this elusive yet pivotal figure to life.”—The Boston Globe One of Esquire’s Best Biographies of All Time • Finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize The foil to Jesus, the defiant antihero of the Easter story, mocking, skeptical Pilate is a historical figure who haunts our imagination. For some he is a saint, for others the embodiment of human weakness, an archetypal politician willing to sacrifice one man for the sake of stability. In this dazzlingly conceived biography, Ann Wroe brings man and myth to life. Working from classical sources, she reconstructs his origins and upbringing, his career in the military and life in Rome, his confrontation with Christ, and his long journey home. We catch glimpses of him pacing the marble floors in Caesarea, sharpening his stylus, getting dressed shortly before sunrise on the day that would seal his place in history. What were the pressures on Pilate that day? What did he really think of Jesus? Pontius Pilate lets us see Christ's trial for the first time, in all its confusion, from the point of view of his executioner.
The gospels and ancient historians agree: Jesus was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, the Roman imperial prefect in Jerusalem. To this day, Christians of all churches confess that Jesus died 'under Pontius Pilate'. But what exactly does that mean? Within decades of Jesus' death, Christians began suggesting that it was the Judaean authorities who had crucified Jesus--a notion later echoed in the Qur'an. In the third century, one philosopher raised the notion that, although Pilate had condemned Jesus, he'd done so justly; this idea survives in one of the main strands of modern New Testament criticism. So what is the truth of the matter? And what is the history of that truth? David Lloyd Dusenbury reveals Pilate's 'innocence' as not only a neglected theological question, but a recurring theme in the history of European political thought. He argues that Jesus' interrogation by Pilate, and Augustine of Hippo's North African sermon on that trial, led to the concept of secularity and the logic of tolerance emerging in early modern Europe. Without the Roman trial of Jesus, and the arguments over Pilate's innocence, the history of empire--from the first century to the twenty-first--would have been radically different.
Written by an L. A. County homicide detective and former atheist, Cold-Case Christianity examines the claims of the New Testament using the skills and strategies of a hard-to-convince criminal investigator. Christianity could be defined as a “cold case”: it makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little forensic evidence. In Cold-Case Christianity, J. Warner Wallace uses his nationally recognized skills as a homicide detective to look at the evidence and eyewitnesses behind Christian beliefs. Including gripping stories from his career and the visual techniques he developed in the courtroom, Wallace uses illustration to examine the powerful evidence that validates the claims of Christianity. A unique apologetic that speaks to readers’ intense interest in detective stories, Cold-Case Christianity inspires readers to have confidence in Christ as it prepares them to articulate the case for Christianity.
The Gospel of Nicodemus, otherwise known as the Acts of Pilate (Acta Pilati) is not assumed to have written by Pilate, but rather to have been compiled from the official acts which were preserved in the praetorium at Jerusalem. The original is said to have been written by Nicodemus in Hebrew. The work gained a wide readership in the Middle Ages, with its popularity shown by the number of languages and versions in which it exists. Currently, there are known copies in Greek, Coptic, Armenian and Latin. These Acts are composed of three sections. The first section relates to the trial of Jesus and is similar to Luke 23. The second part regards the Resurrection. Then in the third part, Christ's Descent into Hell (Descensus ad Infernos), for which there is no known Greek text. In it, Leucius and Charinus, two souls who are raised from the dead after the Crucifixion tell the Sanhedrin the circumstances of the descent of Christ into Limbo. This short book gives the full Acts of Pilate along with footnotes to referring Bible passages and includes the Latin text of "Descensus ad Infernos" as an appendix. The source text for this work is "Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, and Revelations" (1870) by Alexander Walker (1825-1903).
The Gospel of Nicodemus Formerly Called the Acts of Pontius Pilate Nicodemus The Suppressed Gospels and Epistles of the Original New Testament of Jesus The Christ Translated from the Original Tongues, With Historical References to their authenticity, by Archbishop Wake and other Learned Divines The Gospel of Nicodemus, also known as the Acts of Pilate, is an apocryphal gospel claimed to have been derived from an original Hebrew work written by Nicodemus, who appears in the Gospel of John as an associate of Jesus. The title "Gospel of Nicodemus" is medieval in origin. The dates of its accreted sections are uncertain, but scholars agree in assigning the resulting work to the middle of the fourth century AD. The section about Pilate is an older text found in the Greek Acts of Peter and Paul and is a purported official document from Pontius Pilate (or composed from reports at the praetorium at Jerusalem) reporting events in Judea to Emperor Tiberius, and referring to the crucifixion of Jesus, as well as his miracles
Darrell L. Bock suggests the real lost gospel is the one already found in the Bible and reminds everyone of what it means: good news. --from publisher description.