PILATE
203
PILATE
feat the malice of the Jews and procure the liberation of Jesus.
If now we wish to sum up the judgment of Pilate's character, we easily see that he was one of that large class of men who aspire to public offices, not from a pure and lofty desire of benefiting the public and advancing the good of the world, but from selfish and personal consid- erations, from a love of distinction, from a love of power, from a love of self-indulgence ; being destitute of any fixed principles, and having no aim but office and influ- ence, they act right only by chance and when conven- ient, and are wholly incapable of pursuing a consistent course, or of acting with firmness and self-denial in cases in which the preservation of integrity requires the ex- ercise of these qualities. Pilate was obviously a man of weak, and therefore, with his temptations, of corrupt character. The view given in the Apostolical Consti- tutions (v, 14), where unmanliness (dvavepia) is as- cribed to him, we take to be correct. This want of strength will readily account for his failing to rescue Jesus from the rage of his enemies, and also for the acts of injustice and cruelty which he practiced in his gov- ernment—acts which, considered in themselves, wear a deeper dye than does the conduct which he observed in surrendering Jesus to the malice of the Jews. This same weakness may serve to explain to the reader how much influence would be exerted on this unjust judge, not only by the stern bigotry and persecuting wrath of the Jewish priesthood, but especially by the not con- cealed intimations which they threw out against Pilate that, if he liberated Jesus, he was no friend of Tiberius, and must expect to have to give an account of his con- duct at Rome. That this was no idle threat, noth- ing beyond the limits of probability, Pilate's subsequent deposition by Yitellius shows very plainly ; nor could the procurator have been ignorant either of the stern determination of the Jewish character, or of the offence he had by his acts given to the heads of the nation, or of the insecurity, at that very hour, when the contest between him and the priests was proceeding regarding the innocent victim whom they lusted to destroy, of his own position in the office which he held, and which, of course, he desired to retain. On the whole, then, view- in-- the entire conduct of Pilate, his previous iniquities as well as his bearing on the condemnation of Jesus — \iewing his own actual position and the malignity of the Jews — we cannot, we confess, give our vote with those who have passed the severest condemnation on this weak and guilty governor.
The number of dissertations on Pilate's character and all the circumstances connected with him, his "faci- nora," his "Christum servandi studium," his wife's dream, his supposed letters to Tiberius, which have been published during the last and present centuries, is quite overwhelming. On this point the student may consult with advantage dean Alford's Commentary; Ellicott, Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord, set. vii ■ Neander's Life of Christ, % 285(Bo'hn); Ewald, Geschichte, v, 30, etc. See also Mliller, Be enixiss. PH. Christ, servand. stud. (Hamb. 1751); Tobler, in Pfen- niger, Samml. z. christl. Mag. Ill, ii, (Zurich, 1782) ; Niemeyer, Charakt. i, 129 sq. ; Paulas, Comment. Hi, 697 sq. ; Liicke, on John xix. Comp. Schuster, in Eich- horn's Biblioth. d. bibl. Lit. x, 823 ; Olshausen, in an- swer to Tholuck's low valuation of Pilate, Comment, ii. 504 sq. The reader will find a discriminating analysis in Stier, RedenJesu, vi, 318-382 (ii, 619 sq. of the Ameri- can translation), and in Dr. Hanna's Last Day of Our Lord's Passion, p. 77-148. See also the Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Theol. 1871, vol. iv.
V. Apocryphal A ccounts. — We learn from Justin Mar- tyr (Apol. i, 76, 84), Tertullian (Apol. c. 21), Eusebius {Hist. Eccles. ii, 2), and others, that Pilate made an offi- cial report to Tiberius of our Lord's trial and condem- nation ; and in a homily ascribed to Chrysostom, though m.'?.rke.cl as sPurioi,s by his Benedictine editors {Horn. viii, in Pasch. viii, 908, D), certain viropvijpaTa
(Acta, or Commentarii Pilati) are spoken of as well- known documents in common circulation. That he made such a report is highly probable, and it may have been in existence in Chrysostom's time; but the Acta Pilati now extant in Greek, and two Latin epistles from him to the emperor (Fabric. Apocr. i, 237, 298; iii, 111, 456), are certainly spurious. The number of extant "Acta Pilati" in various forms, is so large as to show that very early the demand created a supply of docu- ments manifestly spurious, and we have no reason for looking on any one of those that remain as more au- thentic than the others. The taunt of Celsus that the Christians circulated spurious or distorted narratives under this title (Origen, c. Ce/s.'), and the complaint of Eusebius (Hist. Pedes, ix, 5) that the heathens made them the vehicle of blasphemous calumnies, show how largely the machinery of falsification was used on either side. Such of these documents as are extant are found in the collections of Fabricius, Thilo, and Tischendorf. Some of them are but weak paraphrases of the Gospel history. The most extravagant are perhaps the most interesting, as indicating the existence of modes of thought at variance with the prevalent traditions. Of these anomalies the most striking is that known as the Paradosis Pilati (Tischendorf, Evang. Apoc. p. 426). The emperor Tiberius, startled at the universal dark- ness that had fallen on the Roman empire on the day of the crucifixion, summons Pilate to answer for having caused it. He is condemned to death, but before his execution he prays to the Lord Jesus that he may not be destroyed with the wicked Hebrews, and pleads his ignorance as an excuse. The prayer is answered by a voice from heaven, assuring him that all generations shall call him blessed, and that he shall be a witness for Christ at his second coming to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. An angel receives his head, and his wife dies filled with joy, and is buried with him. Startling as this imaginary history may be, it has its counterpart in the traditional customs of the Abyssinian Church, in which Pilate is recognised as a saint and martyr, and takes his place in the calendar on the 25th of June (Stanley, Eastern Church, p. 13 ; Neale, Eastern Church, i, 806). The words of Tertullian, describing him as "jam pro sua conscientia Christianus" (Apol. c. 21), in- dicate a like feeling, and we find traces of it also in the Apocryphal Gospel, which speaks of him as "uncir- cumcised in flesh, but circumcised in heart" (Evang. Nicocl. i, 12, in Tischendorf, Evang. Apoc. p. 236).