Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate (in Latin "Pilatus - owner of a javelin of honor (Latin ) "), was born around 10 BC. AD. His birthplace is unknown ( Rome , the region of Abruzzo or Lugdunum ( Lyon )) .
He is known for, as the New Testament , ordered the crucifixion of Jesus. What gave it exceptional for a mere celebrity governor of a small province. Until 1961, it was thought that the title was procurator of Judea ( ).
Summary |
An inscription found at Caesarea in 1961 and the Gospels , texts of Flavius Josephus (Jewish War, Book II, IX .2-4 and Jewish Antiquities, Book XVIII, IIs) and those of Philo of Alexandria attest to its existence. Like its predecessor Valerius Gratus, Pontius Pilate was the title of Prefect of Judea, that confirms the registration of Caesarea.
The emergence of Pilate in the Jewish Antiquities of Flavius Josephus also confirms that he was prefect of Judea:
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Yet the Gospels attributed to Matthew and Luke, and Philo of Alexandria in Legation to Caius, a short sentence in Tacitus and Flavius Josephus in his other work called the Jewish War , gave him the title of Procurator (). It should be noted that the Gospel attributed to Mark , who nevertheless provided the basis for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke , does not have this error because there is simply called: Pilate. It is the same in the Gospel attributed to John and one assigned to Peter.
For the historian Jean Pierre Lmonon, the function of governors played for the emperor Claude which strengthened the power of the procurators. He explained the difference in interpretation of the title given to Pilate .
In the Annals , Tacitus writes that the emperor Claude took a Senatufconfultum which strengthened the power of attorney and that "in the course of this year (to 45), Claude was heard repeating often that the judgments of his procurators were have the same force as if it was he who had spoken. " . In Histories another of his works that we partially succeeded, the same Tacitus wrote: "Claude .
In Josephus it is in effect to 46 the governors of Judea took the title of procurator.
It is unlikely that all these authors from different cultural backgrounds, writing in different countries or even in different languages, have all made the same mistake. The most probable is that thinking correct an error, the monks over the centuries have copied these works have harmonized the title of Pontius Pilate, based on the reference work for them: the Gospels.
The texts of Flavius Josephus relates that Pontius Pilate had repressed so bloody two Jewish revolts (see below). It could also be motivated to avoid another "tumult". Her bitter reflection, "What is truth? "In fact some authors, including Ernest Renan , one of the most human presented in the Gospels, because of his doubt sincere, then it is rather the faith or indifference that is described in other protagonists.
"2. Pilate, Tiberius sent as procurator into Judea, introduced by night to Jerusalem, covered with a veil, the effigies of Caesar, called signs. The day came, the show stirred up among the Jews an uproar: the people present were aghast, seeing this as a violation of their laws, which do not raise their image in town, the indignation of the townspeople communicated itself to the people of the campaign, which ran in all directions. Jews mutinied around Pilate, Caesarea, to beg him to remove the signs of Jerusalem and maintain the laws of their ancestors. As Pilate refused, they went to bed around his house and stayed there prostrate, motionless, for five full days and five nights.3. The day after, Pilate sat on his tribunal in the great stadium and called the people under the pretext of answering him: then he gave the soldiers under arms the appropriate signal to identify Jews. When they saw the troops massed around them in three rows, the Jews were silent before this unexpected sight. Pilate, after declaring he would kill them if they did not receive the images of Caesar, beckoned the soldiers to draw their swords. But the Jews, as a mutual agreement, fell to the ground in tight rows and craned their necks, declaring their readiness to die rather than violate the law. Struck with amazement as ardent religious zeal, Pilate gave the order to immediately remove the signs of Jerusalem.
4. A little later he lifted another riot by exhausting for the construction of an aqueduct, the sacred treasure called Korbnas; water was taken from a distance of 400 stadia. At this news, the people indignant: it spread around the court, shouting to Pilate, who was then in Jerusalem. The latter, providing for sedition, had been careful to mingle with the multitude a body of soldiers armed but dressed in civilian clothes, and, while forbidding them to use the sword, ordered them to beat protesters with clubs. From his high court agreed he gave a sign. Jews perished in large numbers, one below the beating, crashing into each other in flight. The crowd, stunned by the massacre, was silent. "
- Flavius Josephus, Jewish War, Book II
Pilate in the Gospels
According to the Gospels , Jesus is brought before Pilate by the Jewish religious leaders of the Sanhedrin for him to judge and condemn.
Indeed, the night before Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane , by a mob armed with sticks and swords, sent by the high priests . Jesus was betrayed by the kiss of Judas. He was then dragged to the former high priest Anne , head of the priestly clan, then to his son, the high priest Caiaphas who urgently convened the Grand Council or Sanhedrin. He then made a trial around a charge of blasphemy. But the country was occupied by the Romans, we must get another trial, this time before the tribunal of the prefect of Rome, Pontius Pilate, to achieve a death sentence.
It thus presents Jesus to Pilate as a Galilean, dangerous rebel, whose pretensions to royalty threaten the power of the emperor Tiberius.
The person interviewed, Pontius Pilate sees no grounds for conviction. Believing probably have found a way to save Jesus , he moved the crowd to release a prisoner on the occasion of the Passover , according to a custom alleged by the Gospels , , which could be in reality, according to some anthropological studies echo of an ancient Roman custom mentioned by Philo of Alexandria . But, unlike what he expected, the crowd shouted "Free Barabbas , "the name of another defendant whose trial Pilate instructed at the same time, presented by the Gospels as a rioter and a murderer. Another approximation has been made with the Babylonian feast Sacea . Thus the Gospel of Matthew says (27:24 ):
"And Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but rather he was an uproar, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying:" I am innocent of the blood of this just, you there notice. "
Pilate, the Apocrypha and the legend
Little knowledge about Pontius Pilate reached, but the stories abound. The Gospels give few details about Pilate, legends are born around this key figure of the dramatic episodes of the Passion.
Eusebius of Caesarea (in Historia Ecclesiae), cites stories apocryphal evoking the misery of Pilate in the reign of Caligula (AD 37 - 41). Exile in Gaul, he would eventually committed suicide in the Rhone at Vienna. A monument of the city, "Pilate's tomb," in fact a monument marking the center of the Roman circus , evoke the story. Others attribute the name also of massive Pilat , which begins in Vienna at the origin.
Other stories come from dubious sources. According Mors Pilati ("Death of Pilate") his body was first thrown into the Tiber. The water reacted so strongly to evil spirits, that his corpse was taken to Vienna and thrown into the Rhone. Here too the water and her body had reacted to being drowned in Lake Geneva in Lausanne. According to this tradition, the decomposed body was finally buried at the foot of the Pilatus overlooking Lucerne and Lake Lucerne.
Legend has it that every Friday, the body emerges from the lake and washes his hands.
Churches, Ethiopian Orthodox and Coptic celebrate Pontius Pilate as holy. According to this tradition, he had converted to Christianity in secret, under the influence of his wife Claudia Procula. They are both celebrated on June 25
The Orthodox Church honors only Claudia, October 27.
Acts of Pilate
According to different traditions, it would then be converted and died a martyr , or would have been punished by Tiberius and executed. A document called acts of Pilate was considered from the outset as apocryphal.
Posterity
The character of Pontius Pilate has inspired many works. We can quote the Gospel according to Pilate of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt , The procurator of Judea from Anatole France or Pontius Pilate Roger Caillois , alternate history in which the author imagines that Pilate pardoned Jesus and transforms the world history.
Similarly, the character of Pontius Pilate is one of the central figures in the novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov , where a character is sad, deeply human, overwhelmed by his office and leaving crucify Jesus against the heart that is described.
In film, Pontius Pilate was the subject of many incarnations in films about the Passion of Jesus: Jean Gabin in Golgotha, Rod Steiger in Jesus of Nazareth by Franco Zeffirelli , David Bowie in The Last Temptation of Christ by Martin Scorsese , or Michael Palin in Monty Python's Life of Brian. In 1962 , Gian Paolo Callegari realized Ponzio Pilato depicting the life of Pilate with Jean Marais in the role of the prefect of Judea.
In the book Blood Brother of Eric Giacometti and Jacques Ravenna , the authors mock the fantasies of Judeo-Masonic conspiracy by embroidering on the fact that Pilate is portrayed as a Freemason who has conspired with the Jews to crucify Christ.
Notes
- Felix Benoit , in his secret Lyon, echoed by historians and other scholars of Lyon nineteenth century to evoke the birthplace of Pontius Pilate. He was born in -19 in the district of Fourviere to Lugdunum , now Lyons , where his father had served as a senior official in Rome.
- For the Christian writer Eusebius of Caesarea ( Ecclesiastical History (Book II, VII), Pontius Pilate did not live long after his disgrace and would have killed while Caligula was emperor (37 - 41)
- Guy Couturier (Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Montreal), "The inscription of Pontius Pilate , interbible.org, 16 March 2007.
- Ferdinand Delaunay historical writings of Philo of Alexandria (1867)
- (Jewish Antiquities XVIII-II-2)
- Jean Pierre Lmonon "Pontius Pilate" 1981, reprinted in 2007
- Tacitus - ANNALS XII - 60
- IMPLIED STORIES Book V - 9
- Mt 26.47
- The Bible, John Chapter 18 "I find in him no grounds for conviction. But it's a custom for you that I release someone for Easter. Do you want me to release to you the king of Jews? "
- In reality, this custom is attested by any historian: "The trouble is that the privilegium Pascalis (made to release a prisoner on the day of Passover), the privilege of Passover is attested nowhere else in the Gospels. If its Latin name gives it an air of authenticity, no piece of archive, no Roman historian does not confirm the existence of this alleged "custom" imperial or in Judea or in any province. "
- Gerard Mordillat, Jerome Prieur, Jesus Jesus cons
- Jesus against Jesus, Gerard Mordillat, Jerome Prieur, ed. Seuil, p. 241.
- Christ and the mock-king
- Barabbas With regard to the Roman custom of Selecting a mock king Who should die, and Another Who Should Represent The local deity and Have All the privileges of a sacred person, compare Philo, "In Flaccum," etc. ...
- King tortured , of Salomon Reinach , "Even more unusual was the feast of the SACA, which lasted five days in Babylon. Like Rome, the slaves become masters and, in every house, dressed as a slave and king styled ZOGANAS exercised ephemeral power. In addition, a condemned man was dressed as a king and allowed to behave accordingly, to the point of use of royal concubines, at the end of the festival, he was stripped of its finery, flogged and hanged or crucified. These details were borrowed by Athenaeus and Dion to authors of previous centuries into the Christian era. "
- Quote of the New Testament comes from the translation of John Nelson Darby
Bibliography
History
- Mireille Hadas-Lebel , Rome, Judea and Jews, ed. Picard, 2009
- Jean-Pierre Lmonon , Pontius Pilate, ed. Workshop, 2007
- Jean-Pierre Lmonon , Pilate and the government of Judea: Texts and Monuments, ed. J. Gabalda, 1981
Trial and literature
- Anne Bernet , Memoirs of Pontius Pilate, Editions Perrin, 1998.
- Anatole France , The procurator of Judea , 1892, (edition Wikisource ).
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