night, the sun appeared as it never shone before, and the whole heaven became bright. And as lightnings come in a storm, so certain men of lofty stature, in beautiful array, and of indescribable glory, appeared in the air, and a countless host of angels, crying out and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men : Come up from Hades, ye who are in bondage in the depths of Hades! And at their voice all the mountains and hills were moved, and the rocks were rent, and great chasms were made in the earth, so that the very places of the abyss were visible. And amid the terror dead men were seen rising again, so that the Jews who saw it said, We beheld Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, who died some two thousand five hundred years before, and we beheld Noah clearly in the body. And all the multitude walked about and sang hymns to God with a loud voice, saying, The Lord our God, who hath risen from the dead, hath made alive all the dead, and Hades He hath spoiled and slain. Therefore, my lord king, all that night the light ceased not. But many of the Jews died, and were sunk and swallowed up in the chasms that night, so that not even their bodies were to be seen. Now I mean, that those of the Jews suffered who spake against Jesus. And but one synagogue remained in Jerusalem, for all the synagogues which had been against Jesus were overwhelmed. Through that terror, therefore, being amazed and being seized with great trembling, in that very hour, I ordered what had been done by them all to be written, and I have sent it to thy mightiness. THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF PILATE Now when the letters came to the city of the Romans, and were read to Cæsar with no few standing there, they were all terrified, because, through the transgression of Pilate, the darkness and the earthquake had happened to all the world. 7 Commonly called "the Paradosis of Pilate." It may be regarded as a historical continuation of the preceding, which it follows in the MS. without any title. And Cæsar, being filled with anger, sent soldiers and commanded that Pilate should be brought as a prisoner. And when he was brought to the city of the Romans, and Cæsar heard that he was come, he sat in the temple of the gods, above all the senate, and with all the army, and with all the multitude of his power, and commanded that Pilate should stand in the entrance. And Cæsar said to him, Most impious one, when thou sawest so great signs done by that man, why didst thou dare to do thus? By daring to do an evil deed thou hast ruined all the world. And Pilate said, King and Autocrat, I am not guilty of these things, but it is the multitude of the Jews who are precipitate and guilty. And Cæsar said, And who are they? Pilate saith, Herod, Archelaus, Philip, Annas, and Caiaphas, and all the multitude of the Jews. Cæsar saith, For what cause didst thou execute their purpose? And Pilate said, Their nation is seditious and insubordinate, and not submissive to thy power. And Cæsar said, When they delivered Him to thee thou oughtest to have made Him secure and sent Him to me, and not consented to them to crucify such a man, who was just and wrought such great and good miracles, as thou saidst in thy report. For by such miracles Jesus was manifested to be the Christ, the King of the Jews. And when Cæsar said this and himself named the name of Christ, all the multitude of the gods fell down together, and became like dust where Cæsar sat with the senate. And all the people that stood near Cæsar were filled with trembling because of the utterance of the word and the fall of their gods, and being seized with fear they all went away, every man to his house, wondering at what had happened. And Cæsar commanded Pilate to be safely kept, that he might know the truth about Jesus. And on the morrow when Cæsar sat in the capitol with all the senate, he undertook to question Pilate again. And Cæsar said, Say the truth, most impious one, for through thy impious deed which thou didst commit against Jesus, even here the doing of thy evil works was manifested, in that the gods were brought to ruin. Say then, who is He that was crucified, for His name hath destroyed all the gods? Pilate said, And verily His records are true; for even I myself was convinced by His works that He was greater than all the gods whom we venerate. And Cæsar said, For what cause, then, didst thou perpetrate against Him such daring and doing, not being ignorant of Him, or assuredly designing some mischief to my government? And Pilate said, I did it because of the transgression and sedition of the lawless and ungodly Jews. And Cæsar was filled with anger, and held a council with all his senate and officers, and ordered a decree to be written against the Jews, thus: To Licianus who holdest the first place in the East Country: Greeting. I have been informed of the audacity perpetrated very recently by the Jews inhabiting Jerusalem and the cities round about, and their lawless doing, how they compelled Pilate to crucify a certain god called Jesus, through which great transgression of theirs the world was darkened and drawn into ruin. Determine therefore, with a body of soldiers, to go to them there at once and proclaim their subjection to bondage by this decree. By obeying and proceeding against them, and scattering them abroad in all nations, enslave them, and by driving their nation from all Judea as soon as possible show, wherever this hath not yet appeared, that they are full of evil. And when this decree came into the East Country, Licianus obeyed, through fear of the decree, and laid waste all the nation of the Jews, and caused those that were left in Judea to go into slavery with them that were scattered among the Gentiles, that it might be known by Cæsar that these things had been done by Licianus against the Jews in the East Country, and to please him. And again Cæsar resolved to have Pilate questioned, and commanded a captain, Albius by name, to cut off Pilate's head, saying, As he laid hands upon the just man, that is called Christ, he also shall fall in like manner, and find no deliverance. And when Pilate came to the place he prayed in silence, saying, O Lord, destroy not me with the wicked Hebrews, for I should not have laid hands upon thee, but for the nation of lawless Jews, because they provoked sedition against me: but thou knowest that I did it in ignorance. Destroy me not, therefore, for this my sin, nor be mindful of the evil that is in me, O Lord, and in thy servant Procla who standeth with me in this the hour of my death, whom thou taughtest to prophesy that thou must be nailed to the cross. Do not punish her too in my sin, but forgive us, and number us in the portion of thy just ones. And behold, when Pilate had finished his prayer, there came a voice from heaven, saying, All generations and the families of the Gentiles shall call thee blessed, because under thee were fulfilled all these things that were spoken by the prophets concerning me; and thou thyself must appear as my witness at my second coming, when I shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and them that have not confessed my name. And the Prefect cut off the head of Pilate, and behold an angel of the Lord received it. And when his wife Procla saw the angel coming and received his head, she also, being filled with joy, forthwith gave up the ghost, and was buried with her husband. THE END BIBLIOGRAPHY The worth and spirit of the various apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings may be further gathered from the following works: B. PICK, "The Extra-canonical Life of Christ" (New York, 1903). H. J. WICKS, "The Doctrine of God in the Jewish Apocrypha" (Lon- G. H. Box, "The Ezra Apocalypse" (London, 1912). W. J. DEANE, "Pseudepigrapha" (Edinburgh, 1891). The texts themselves, usually with full discussions of them, have been translated into English as follows: R. H. CHARLES, "Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old E. C. BISSELL, "The Apocrypha of the Old Testament" (New W. B. STEVENSON, "Wisdom and the Jewish Apocryphal Writings" E. A. W. BUDGE, "Coptic Apocrypha" (London, 1913). M. D. GIBSON, "Apocrypha Arabica” (London, 1901). E. A. W. BUDGE, "History of the Blessed Virgin" (London, 1899). B. H. COOPER, "The Apocryphal Gospels" (London, 7th ed., 1910). See also the "Ante-Nicene Christian Library." |