The Report of Pontius
Pilate
Procurator of Judaea Sent to Rome
to Tiberius Caesar.
SECOND GREEK FORM.
To the most mighty, venerable, awful, most divine, the august,--Pilatus
Pontius, the governor of the East: I have to report to thy reverence,
through this writing of mine, being seized with great trembling
and fear, O most mighty emperor, the conjuncture of the present
times, as the end of these things has shown. For while I, my
lord, according to the commandment of thy clemency, was discharging
the duties of my government, which is one of the cities of the
East, Jerusalem by name, in which is built the temple of the
Jewish nation, all the multitude of the Jews came together, and
delivered to me a certain man named Jesus, bringing against him
many and groundless charges; and they were not able to convict
him in anything.
And one heresy of theirs against him was, that he said that the
Sabbath was not their right rest. And that man wrought many cures,
in addition to good works. He made the blind see; he cleansed lepers;
he raised the dead; he healed paralytics who could not move at
all, except that they only had their voice, and the joining of
their bones; and he gave them the power of walking about and running,
commanding them by a single word. And another mightier work he
did, which was strange even with our gods: he raised up a dead
man, Lazarus, who had been dead four days, by a single word ordering
the dead man to be raised, although his body was already corrupted
by the worms that grow in wounds; and that ill-smelling body lying
in the tomb he ordered to run; and as a bridegroom from the bridal
chamber, so he came forth out of the tomb, filled with exceeding
fragrance.
And some that were cruelly vexed by demons, and had their dwellings
in deserts, and ate the flesh of their own limbs, and lived along
with reptiles and wild beasts, he made to be dwellers in cities
in their own houses, and by a word he rendered them sound-minded;
and he made those that were troubled by unclean spirits to be intelligent
and reputable; and sending away the demons in them into a herd
of swine, he suffocated them in the sea. Another man, again, who
had a withered hand, and lived in sorrow, and had not even the
half of his body sound, he rendered sound by a single word.
And a woman that had a flow of blood for many years, so that,
in consequence of the flowing of her blood, all the joinings of
her bones appeared, and were transparent like glass; and assuredly
all the physicians had left her without hope, and had not cleansed
her, for there was not in her a single hope of health: once, then,
as Jesus was passing by, she took hold of the fringe of his clothes
behind, and that same hour the power of her body was completely
restored, and she became whole, as if nothing were the matter with
her, and she began to run swiftly to her own city Paneas. (1)
And these things indeed were so. And the Jews gave information
that Jesus did these things on the Sabbath. And I also ascertained
that the miracles done by him were greater than any which the gods
whom we worship could do.
Him then Herod and Archelaus and Philip, and Annas and Caiaphas,
with all the people, delivered to me to try him. And as many were
exciting an insurrection against me, I ordered him to be crucified.
And when he had been crucified, there was darkness over the whole
earth, the sun having been completely hidden, and the heaven appearing
dark though it was day, so that the stars appeared, but had at
the same time their brightness darkened, as I suppose your reverence
is not ignorant of, because in all the world they lighted lamps
from the sixth hour until evening. And the moon, being like blood,
did not shine the whole night, and yet she happened to be at
463
the full. And the stars also, and Orion, made a lament about the
Jews, on account of the wickedness that had been done by them.
(1)
And on the first of the week, about the third hour of the night,
the sun was seen such as it had never at any time shone, and all
the heaven was lighted up. And as lightnings come on in winter,
so majestic men of indescribable splendour of dress and of glory
appeared in the air, and an innumerable multitude of angels crying
out, and saying: Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace,
among men goodwill: come up out of Hades, ye who have been kept
in slavery in the underground regions of Hades. And at their voice
all the mountains and hills were shaken, and the rocks were burst
asunder; and great chasms were made in the earth, so that also
what was in the abyss appeared. And there were seen in that terror
dead men raised up,
(2) as the Jews that saw them said: We have seen Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, that died two thousand
five hundred years ago; and we have seen Noah manifestly in the
body. And all the multitude walked about, and sang praises to God
with a loud voice, saying: The Lord our God that has risen from
the dead has brought to life all the dead, and has plundered Hades,
and put him to death.
All that night therefore, my lord, O king, the light ceased not.
And many of the Jews died, and were engulphed and swallowed up
in the chasms in that night, so that not even their bodies appeared.
Those, I say, of the Jews suffered that had spoken against Jesus.
And one synagogue was left in Jerusalem, since all those synagogues
that had been against Jesus were engulphed.
From that fear, then, being in perplexity, and seized with much
trembling, at that same hour I ordered what had been done by them
all to be written; and I have reported it to thy mightiness.
|
