Zora

"Following is from documents of records of the Roman Senate.

As to what Pontius Pilate says in regard to my cowardice and disobedience in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, I will say in my own defence: I was informed by all the Jews that this was the same Jesus that my father aimed to destroy in his infancy; for I have it in my father's private writings and accounts of his life, showing that when the report was circulated of three men inquiring where was he that was born King of the Jews, he called together the Hillel and Shammai schools, and demanded the reading of the sacred scrolls; that it was decided he was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea, as read and interpreted that night by Hillel. So when my father learned that there was a birth of a male child in Bethlehem under very strange circumstances, and he could not learn who nor where the child was, he sent and had the male children slain that were near his age. Afterward he learned that his mother had taken him and fled into the wilderness. For this attempt to uphold the Roman authority in the land of Judea the world has not ceased to curse him to this day; and yet the Caesars have done a thousand worse things, and done them a thousand times, and it was all well. Just think how many lives have been lost to save the Roman Empire; while those infants were only removed in their innocence from the evil to come. The proper way to judge of action is to let the actor judge, or the one with whom the action terminates. If this should be done, and there is a life of happiness beyond for innocence to dwell in, those infants as well as the Rachels should be thankful to my father for the change. Again, my lords, Pilate is a higher officer than I; and you know in our law the lower court always has the right to appeal to the higher. As to Pilate's saying that Jesus was a Galilean, he is mistaken. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, as the records show. And as to his citizenship, he had none. He wandered about from place to place, having no home, making his abode principally with the poor. He was a wild fanatic, who had taken up the doctrines of John (but not his baptism), and was quite an enthusiast. He had learned sooth-saying, while in Egypt, to perfection. I tried to get him to perform some miracle while in my court, but he was too sharp to be caught in a trap; like all necromancers, he was afraid to show off before the intelligent. From what I could learn he had reprimanded some of the rich Jews for their meanness, and his reproaches were not out of the way, from what I heard they would have been much better men if they had practised what he preached." author was supposed to be Herod Antipas


I found the above online at some Bible Study site, and wondered what the historical truth regarding this "letter" actually is. Does any historian know about this? Is this the actual text of an original letter, or one of those interpolated forgeries for which the church is so famous? I am not a big "scholar" so a simple answer will be fine.

Asha'man

In all the discussion of evidence for a historical Jesus, this testimony has never been mentioned. Therefore, I can only assume that no scholar considers it worth mentioning as even having a remote possability of being authentic.

I'd say total Fraud.

Peter Kirby

It is a modern production existing only in English.

best,
Peter Kirby

Peter Kirby

Here is the site that carries the article on the Internet:

BibleProbe

best,
Peter Kirby

graymouser

The discussion on citizenship (at the time a special privelege for non-Romans) is the biggest dead giveaway; Jesus "of Nazareth," a despiser of the wealthy and powerful as per the Gospels, would never have been expected by anyone to be a citizen of the Roman Empire.

Also, the term "necromancer" is especially ludicrous with regard to any Jesus; necromancers specifically channeled the dead, and Jesus wouldn't have been accused of that type of act so casually.

It's an amusing forgery, though.

-Wayne

Toto

What a strange site - a Messianic Jewish site.

This page and this discuss the authenticity or lack thereof for that document.

That particular strange new gospel is here:
Pilate's Court, and the Archko Volume

Zora

Sorta what I thought, but I couldn't find much online except the BibleProbe site that even mentioned it. Now I see why.

Kosh

You mean the Baptists, er uh, "Messianic Jews" are being disengenious? Where is Magus to defend them?

Asha'man

Ok, so the christian forgery mill was really active in the beginning, and they seem to be active now. Just curious, have they ever slowed down their work, perhaps sometime in the dark ages?