CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA & ESSAYS
THE DEATH OF PILATE
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The piece on Pilate is unsupported by the several Roman Historians of that period (Sertonious and Tacitus being the best known), and by Josephus who wrote a history of that region.  But it is an interesting fiction.  And just as they thought it fitting that Jesus would be greater than any of the Old Testament prophets, so to did they believe that those who sinned against Christ had horrible deaths.  Similar stories were circulated about the death of Herod the Great and about Judas.

THE DEATH OF PILATE, WHO CONDEMNED JESUS

AND when Tiberius Caesar, the emperor of the Romans, was labouring under a grievous disease, and understanding that there was at Jerusalem a certain physician, Jesus by name, who by a single word cured all infirmities, he, not knowing that the Jews and Pilate had put Him to death, ordered a certain friend of his named Volusianus: Go as quickly as possible across the seas; and thou shalt tell Pilate, my servant and friend, to send me this physician, that he may restore me to my former health. And this Volusianus, having heard the

emperor's command, immediately departed, and came to Pilate, as he had been

commanded. And he related to the same Pilate what had been entrusted to him by

Tiberius Caesar, saying: Tiberius Caesar, the emperor of the Romans, thy

master, having heard that in this city there is a physician who by his word

alone heals infirmities, begs thee earnestly to send him to him for the curing

of his infirmity. Pilate, hearing this, was very much afraid, knowing that

through envy he had caused Him to be put to death. Pilate answered the same

messenger thus, saying: This man was a malefactor, and a man who drew to

himself all the people; so a council of the wise men of the city was held, and

I caused him to be crucified. And this messenger returning to his inn, met a

certain woman named Veronica, who had been a friend of Jesus; and he said: O

woman, a certain physician who was in this city, who cured the sick by a word

alone, why have the Jews put him to death? And she began to weep, saying: Ah

me! my lord, my God and my Lord, whom Pilate for envy delivered, condemned,

and ordered to be crucified. Then he, being exceedingly grieved, said: I am

vehemently grieved that I am unable to accomplish that for which my lord had

sent me. And Veronica said to him: When my Lord was going about preaching, and

I, much against my will, was deprived of His presence, I wished His picture to

be painted for me, in order that, while I was deprived of His presence, the

figure of His picture might at least afford me consolation. And when I was

carrying the canvas to the painter to be painted, my Lord met me, and asked

whither I was going. And when I had disclosed to Him the cause of my journey,

He asked of me the cloth, and gave it back to me impressed with the image of

His venerable face. Therefore, if thy lord will devoutly gaze upon His

face, he shall obtain forthwith the benefit of health. And he said to her: Is a picture of such a sort procurable by gold or silver? She said to him: No; but by the pious influence of devotion. I shall therefore set out with thee, and shall carry the picture to be seen by Caesar, and shall come back again.

Volusianus therefore came with Veronica to Rome, and said to Tiberius the emperor: Jesus, whom thou hast been longing for, Pilate and the Jews have delivered to an unjust death, and have through envy affixed to the gibbet of the cross. There has therefore come with me a certain matron, bringing a picture of Jesus himself; and if thou wilt devoutly look upon it, thou shall immediately obtain the benefit of thy health. Caesar therefore ordered the way to be strewn with silk cloths, and the picture to be presented to him; and as soon as he had looked upon it, he regained his former health.

Pontius Pilate, therefore, by the command of Caesar, is taken and brought

through to Rome. Caesar. hearing that Pilate had arrived at Rome, was filled

with exceeding fury against him, and caused him to be brought to him. But

Pilate brought down with him the seamless tunic of Jesus; and he wore it on

him in presence of the emperor. And as soon as the emperor saw him, he laid

aside all his anger, and forthwith rose up to meet him. Nor was he able to

speak harshly to him in anything; and he who seemed so terrible and fierce in

his absence, now in his presence is somehow found to be mild. And when he had

sent him away, immediately he blazed out against him terribly, crying out that

he was a wretch, inasmuch as he had not at all shown him the fury of his

heart. And immediately he made him be called back, swearing and declaring that

he was the son of death, and that it was infamous that he should live upon the

earth. And as soon as he saw him, he forthwith saluted him,

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and threw away all the ferocity of his mind. All wondered; and he himself wondered that he should thus blaze out against Pilate when he was absent, and that while he was present he could say nothing to him roughly. Then, by a divine impulse, or perhaps by the advice of some Christian, he caused him to be stripped of that tunic, and immediately resumed against him his former

ferocity of mind. And when at this the emperor wondered very much, it was told

him that that tunic had belonged to the Lord Jesus. Then the emperor ordered

him to be kept in prison, until he should deliberate in a council of the wise

men what ought to be done with him. And a few days after, sentence was

therefore passed upon Pilate, that he should be condemned to the most

disgraceful death. Pilate, hearing this, killed himself with his own knife,

and by such a death ended his life.

When Caesar knew of the death of Pilate, he said: Truly he has died by a most disgraceful death, whom his own hand has not spared. He is therefore bound to a great mass, and sunk into the river Tiber. But malignant and filthy spirits in his malignant and filthy body, all rejoicing together, kept moving themselves in the waters, and in a terrible manner brought lightnings and tempests, thunders and hail-storms, in the air, so that all men were kept in horrible fear. Wherefore the Romans, drawing him out of the river Tiber, in derision carried him down to Vienna, and sunk him in the river Rhone. For Vienna is called, as it were, Via Gehennoe, the way of Gehenna, because it was then a place of cursing. But there evil spirits were present, working the same things in the same place. Those men therefore, not enduring such a visitation of demons, removed froth themselves that vessel of malediction, and sent him to be buried in the territory of Losania. And they, seeing that they were troubled by the aforesaid visitations, removed him from themselves, and sunk him in a certain pit surrounded by mountains, where to this day, according to the account of some, certain diabolical machinations are said to bubble up.

 

There is a problem among the zealots of faith.  As they say, Shit floats.  So the zealots (most of whom are fundamentalists) dominate religious bureaucracies.  True to their low window on the world, they find it part of their religious duty to decorate the windows of others with that which they feel will further their true faith. 

 

In the course of serving Jehovah, they have destroyed many of the manuscripts of the Greeks and Romans, find in them no service to Jehovah.  They burnt the library at Alexandria, killed millions of people, and in the 16th century killed 1/4th of the population of Europe in their bloody reformation (a university level history book of that name is worth reading).  What does not serve Jehovah at best is tolerated; what is contrary to Jehovah is repressed or destroyed.

 

One of their services to Jehovah was for a priest to be present at the deathbed of noted free thinkers, and then to importune that person, often not of clear mind, for to agree to undergo a confession and absolution so that his soul could enter heaven.  If that person refused, the priest would nevertheless publish a report that the sinner confessed.  This was the case with Voltaire.  Yet it seems that the Church did not believe its published account of Voltaire undergoing last rites, for they refused his body burial on sacred ground--a thing they would by their own rules permit if Voltaire had undergone last rites.  David Hume took the precaution (for they might claim to be where they werent) and had Boswell, the famed biographer of Samuel Johnson present, so that he would attest in his journal that no priest was present and Hume did not find Jehovah on his last day. 

 

The zealots are not satisfied with falsifying the record of the departed; they also distort the words and beliefs of the living.  They like to claim support of eminent men who keep their beliefs to themselves.  Einstein is one of those men.  Most people who have an opinion, believe Einstein to have a strong religious conviction.  He admits to being an Agnostic, only because he holds that an Atheist is one who goes public about his non-belief, and Einstein will not do that.  And beyond that, zealots exert social pressures to persuade those who have come to the skeptical conclusion that it would be prudent to bite their tongue.  Hume did not publish his best shots, nor did Mark Twain, until death put them beyond the vengeance of the church.