vid

Justin's 1st Apology, chapter 35:
Wikipedia has:

Any further info or thoughts on meaning of "Acts of Pilate" in Justin?

aa5874

"Acts of Pilate" must have been some written text of which only ONE reference was made in the writings attributed to Justin Martyr.

Roger Pearse

There are two further testimonia in Tertullian to what is presumably the same text.

Tertullian, Apologeticum, chapter 5, verse 2:

Chapter 21, verse 24:

I have always felt that all this suggests the existence of an apocryphon of very early date, a folk-story, rather than the preservation of the genuine official acta.

The story in 5:2 reads strangely, but I have sometimes felt that it might be a too-compressed version of a real event. The context in Tertullian is in applications for recognition by new cults. A cult not so recognised was illegal. But most cults were legal by professing syncretism with the state cults, and the Romans were happy with this. We see in the Acts of the Apostles repeated attempts by Jewish leaders to get Christianity treated as illegal; and it is certain that at some point in the middle of the first century Christianity did become illegal in just this way. Is this from that period? Did someone indeed arrange for the issue to come up before the senate, in some deliberately exaggerated way, specifically in order to get Christianity officially made illegal in this procedural way? And when Tiberius realised that a political maneouvre was going on, perhaps at Jewish instigation (for who else would care), did he make clear (in his usual charming way) that he wasn't going to have any such prosecutions or get dragged into Jewish quarrels? I don't know, of course -- just imagination.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

stephan huller

I think the fact that the Emperor Maximinus prescribed them for reading in schools under the emperor Maximinus during the persecutions of Diocletian actually speaks strongly for their antiquity. There must have been some record which 'smart people' pointed to as some proof about embarrassing circumstances surrounding the Passion.

vid

Justin's Acts of Pontius Pilate apparently said that Christ raised the dead, healed all diseases, according to chapter 48:

aa5874

And an INVESTIGATION under Tiberius by the "CIA" was carried which proved Jesus was God.

Tertullian, Apologeticum, chapter 5, verse 2:

Roger Pearse

Ah, this is to confuse two different documents. A set of "Acts of Pilate" were faked up during that persecution, as "proof" that the Christians were scum. (I seem to recall that Eusebius talks about this in Contra Hieroclem, but my memory is playing up and I am not sure).

Nor was this the only such episode. I seem to recall that Christian girls were accused by the state of all being whores, an accusation that simply produced widespread ridicule of the imperial government (since everyone knew the opposite was the case) and was swiftly withdrawn as counter-productive. The imperial government was engaged in disinformation as part of the persecution, in other words.

What we're discussing here is a document from the 2nd century at the latest.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

vid

So, let's recap what we know about this "Acts". It should contain claims that:
- Christ ressurected man, Christ healed diseases (1Apol, 48)
- Jews crucified Christ, Christ has risen from dead (1Apol, 35)
- Christ was divine (Apol 5.2)
- Pilate himself was Christian (Apol 21.24)

Based on this, the short "Report of Pilate" found as appendix to Acts of Peter and Paul might very well be the document Justin mentions.

Roger Pearse

I don't think these fingerprints are enough to slim down things like that. Any account of events with a novelised approach will contain all these elements.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

stephan huller

Roger, I hope we can be objective enough to acknowledge that it is a matter of perspective as to which version of the Acts of Pilate was authentic. It might even be that both texts were related to a lost text that information which could be used to advance the claims of either side.

My assumption however that Maximinus just wanted to justify the contemporary persecutions. As Christianity grew in numbers it became more difficult to simply beat the hell out of members of the faith without justification. The Acts of Pilate he was using likely merely served as an example of why Christians had to be punished. I don't know for certain that Pilate actually wrote such a document. But if he did, it would have been more easily accessed by the Emperor than any single member of a persecuted religion.

Again we are forced into a position similar to contestants on Let's Make a Deal (i.e. choosing between two unknown commodities). Nevertheless as Celsus could develop a treatise arguing that Christians were Galilean insurgents from Judaism, I would imagine that he got his ideas from some ancient text, perhaps even some text associated with Pilate mentioning the 'Christian plague' in Judea at the time which was still accessible to Maximinus

Who can be certain about any of these things. But if any party could find an official document from Roman antiquity one would think the Imperial government would be closer to it. Besides, the Imperial government only needed to show that Pilate felt justified in punishing members of the faith. It would be very unlikely that Pilate would have anything could to say about Christians if he sent a 'report' sent to a superior. Maximinus wouldn't have had to embellish anything. The point would be - Christians were execrable enemies of the state that deserved the strongest punishments. There might have been some dispassionate reporting about Jesus or the general nature of the movement (which Justin might have found useful) but if such a text existed, Pilate couldn't have only said good things about the movement.