THE LETTERS OF PILATE 1

LETTER OF KING HEROD TO PILATE THE GOVERNOR

Herod to Pontius Pilate the Governor of Jerusalem: Peace.

I am in great anxiety. I write these things unto thee, that when thou hast heard them thou mayest be grieved for me. For as my daughter Herodias, who is dear to me, was playing upon a pool of water which had ice upon it, it broke under her, and all her body went down, and her head was cut off and remained on the surface of the ice. And behold, her mother is holding her head upon her knees in her lap, and my whole house is in great sorrow. For I, when I heard of the man Jesus, wished to come to thee, that I might see Him alone, and hear His word, whether it was like that of the sons of men. And it is certain that because of the many evil things which were done by me to John the Baptist, and because I mocked the Christ, behold I receive the reward of righteousness, for I have shed much blood of others' children upon the earth. Therefore the judgments of God are righteous; for every man receives according to his thought. But since thou wast worthy to see that God-man, therefore it becometh you to pray for me.

My son Azbonius also is in the agony of the hour of death. And I too am in affliction and great trial, because I have the dropsy; and am in great distress, because I persecuted the introducer of baptism by water, which was John. Therefore, my brother, the judgments of God are righteous.

And my wife, again, through all her grief for her daughter, is become blind in her left eye, because we desired to blind the Eye of righteousness. There is no peace to the doers of

1 These letters exist in a Syrian MS. of probably the sixth century and in a Greek MS. probably of the fifth.

22 Peter ii. 13.

evil, saith the Lord. For already great affliction cometh upon the priests and upon the writers of the law; because they delivered unto thee the Just One. For this is the consummation of the world, that they consented that the Gentiles should become heirs. For the children of light shall be cast out, for they have not observed the things which were preached concerning the Lord, and concerning his Son. Therefore gird up thy loins, and receive righteousness, thou with thy wife remembering Jesus night and day; and the kingdom shall belong to you Gentiles, for we the chosen people have mocked the Righteous One.

Now if there is place for our request, O Pilate, because we were at one time in power, bury my household carefully; for it is right that we should be buried by thee, rather than by the priests, whom, after a little time, as the Scriptures say, at the coming of Jesus Christ, vengeance shall overtake.

Fare thee well, with Procla thy wife.

I send thee the earrings of my daughter and my own ring, that they may be unto thee a memorial of my decease. For already do worms begin to issue from my body, and lo, I am receiving temporal judgment, and I am afraid of the judg ment to come. For in both we stand before the works of the living God; but this judgment, which is temporal, is for a time, while that to come is judgment forever.

End of the Letter to Pilate the Governor.

LETTER OF PILATE TO HEROD

Pilate to Herod the Tetrarch:

Peace.

Know and see, that in the day when thou didst deliver Jesus unto me, I took pity on myself, and testified by washing my hands (that I was innocent), concerning Him who rose from the grave after three days, and had performed thy pleasure in Him, for thou didst desire me to be associated with thee in His crucifixion. But I now learn from the executioners and from the soldiers who watched His sepulcher, that He rose from the dead. And I have especially confirmed what was told me, that He appeared bodily in Gali

lee, in the same form, and with the same voice, and with the same doctrine, and with the same disciples, not having changed in anything, but preaching with boldness his resurrection, and an everlasting kingdom.

3

And behold, heaven and earth rejoice; and behold, Procla my wife is believing in the visions which appeared unto her, when thou sentest that I should deliver Jesus to the people of Israel, because of the ill-will they had.

4

Now when Procla, my wife, heard that Jesus was risen, and had appeared in Galilee, she took with her Longinus the centurion and twelve soldiers, the same that had watched at the sepulcher, and went to greet the face of Christ, as if to a great spectacle, and saw Him with His disciples.

Now while they were standing, and wondering, and gazing at Him, He looked at them, and said to them, What is it? Do ye believe in Me? Procla, know that in the covenant which God gave to the fathers, it is said that everybody which had perished should live by means of my death, which ye have seen. And now, ye see that I live, whom ye crucified. And I suffered many things, till that I was laid in the sepulcher. But now, hear Me, and believe in My Father - God who is in Me. For I loosed the cords of death, and brake the gates of Sheol; and My coming shall be hereafter.

And when Procla my wife and the Romans heard these things, they came and told me, weeping; for they also were against Him, when they devised the evils which they had done unto Him. So that, I also was on the couch of my bed in affliction, and put on a garment of mourning, and took unto me fifty Romans with my wife and went into Galilee.

And when I was going in the way I testified these things; that Herod did these things by me, that he took counsel with me, and constrained me to arm my hands against Him, and to judge Him that judgeth all, and to scourge the Just One, Lord of the just. And when we drew nigh to Him, O Herod, a great voice was heard from heaven, and dreadful thunder, and the earth trembled, and gave forth a sweet smell, 3 Literally," renewed anything."

4 Literally, "his wife": a manifest error.

like unto which was never perceived even in the temple of Jerusalem. Now while I stood in the way, our Lord saw me as He stood and talked with His disciples. But I prayed in my heart, for I knew that it was He whom ye delivered unto me, that He was Lord of created things and Creator of all. But we, when we saw Him, all of us fell upon our faces before His feet. And I said with a loud voice, I have sinned, O Lord, in that I sat and judged Thee, who avengest all in truth. And lo, I know that Thou art God, the Son of God, and I beheld Thy humanity and not Thy divinity. But Herod, with the children of Israel, constrained me to do evil unto Thee. Have pity, therefore, upon me, O God of Israel!

And my wife, in great anguish, said, God of heaven and of earth, God of Israel, reward me not according to the deeds of Pontius Pilate, nor according to the will of the children of Israel, nor according to the thought of the sons of the priests; but remember my husband in Thy glory!

Now our Lord drew near and raised up me and my wife, and the Romans; and I looked at Him and saw there were on Him the scars of His cross. And He said, That which all the righteous father hoped to receive, and saw not—in thy time the Lord of Time, the Son of Man, the Son of the Most High, who is forever, arose from the dead, and is glorified on high by all that He created, and established forever and ever.

1.5 Justinus, one of the writers that were in the days of Augustus and Tiberius and Gaius, wrote in his third discourse: Now Mary the Galilean, who bare the Christ that was crucified in Jerusalem, had not been with a husband. And Joseph did not abandon her; but Joseph continued in sanctity without a wife, he and his five sons by a former wife; and Mary continued without a husband.

2. Theodorus wrote to Pilate the governor: Who was the man, against whom there was a complaint before thee, that he was crucified by the men of Palestine? If the many demanded this righteously, why didst thou not consent to their righteousness? And if they demanded this unrighteously,

The figures 1, 2, 3, denote extracts added to the main letter.

how didst thou trangress the law and command what was far from righteousness?

Pilate sent to him: Because he wrought signs I did not wish to crucify him: and since his accusers said, He calleth himself a king, I crucified him.

3. Josephus saith: Agrippa, the king, was clothed in a robe woven with silver, and saw the spectacles in the theater of Cæsarea. When the people saw that his raiment flashed, they said to him, Hitherto we feared thee as a man: henceforth thou art exalted above the nature of mortals. And he saw an angel standing over him, and he smote him as unto death."

LETTER OF PILATE

Which he wrote to the Roman Emperor, concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Cæsar the emperor: Greeting. Upon Jesus Christ, whom I fully made known to thee in my last, a bitter punishment hath at length been inflicted by the will of the people, although I was unwilling and apprehensive. In good truth, no age ever had or will have a man so good and strict. But the people made a wonderful effort, and all their scribes, chiefs, and elders agreed to crucify this ambassador of truth, their own prophets, like the Sibyls with us, advising the contrary; and when he was hanged supernatural signs appeared, and in the judgment of philosophers menaced the whole world with ruin. His disciples flourish, not belying their master by their behavior and continence of life; nay, in his name they are most beneficent. Had I not feared a sedition might arise among the people, who were almost furious, perhaps this man would have yet been living with us. Although, being rather compelled by fidelity to thy dignity, than led by my own inclination, I did not strive with all my might to prevent the sale and suffering of righteous blood, guiltless of every accusation, unjustly, indeed, through

6 This extract from Josephus (Antiquities XIX. 8) is abridged from the account of Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. ii. 10).