Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| The Report of Pilate the Procurator Concerning Our Lord Jesus Christ: First Greek Form.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
The Report of
Pilate the Procurator Concerning Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sent to the August2014
Cæsar in Rome.
————————————
First Greek Form.
In those days, our Lord Jesus
Christ having been crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of
Palestine and Phœnicia, these records were made in Jerusalem as to
what was done by the Jews against the Lord. Pilate therefore,
along with his private report, sent them to the Cæsar in Rome,
writing thus:—
To the most mighty, venerable, most divine, and
most terrible, the august2015
Cæsar, Pilate
the governor of the East sends greeting. I have, O most
mighty, a narrative to give thee, on account of which I am seized with
fear and trembling. For in this government of mine, of which one
of the cities is called Jerusalem, all the people of the Jews have
delivered to me a man named Jesus, bringing many charges against him,
which they were not able to convict him of by the consistency of their
evidence. And one of the heresies they had against him was, that
Jesus said that their Sabbath should not be a day of leisure, and
should not be observed. For he performed many cures on that
day: he made the blind receive their sight, the lame walk; he
raised up the dead, he cleansed the lepers; he healed paralytics that
were not at all able to make any movement of their body, or to keep
their nerves steady, but who had only speech and the modulation of
their voice, and he gave them the power of walking and running,
removing their illness by a single word. Another thing again,
more powerful still, which is strange even with our gods: he raised up
one that had been dead four days, summoning him by a single word, when
the dead man had his blood corrupted, and when his body was destroyed
by the worms produced in it, and when it had the stink of a dog.
And seeing him lying in the tomb, he ordered him to run. Nor had
he anything of a dead body about him at all; but as a bridegroom from
the bridal chamber, so he came forth from the tomb filled with very
great fragrance. And strangers that were manifestly demoniac, and
that had their dwelling in deserts, and ate their own flesh, living
like beasts and creeping things, even these he made to be dwellers in
cities, and by his word restored them to soundness of mind, and
rendered them wise and able and reputable, eating with all the enemies
of the unclean spirits that dwelt in them for their destruction, which
he cast down into the depths of the sea. And again there was
another having a withered hand; and not the hand only, but rather the
half of the body of the man, was petrified, so that he had not the form
of a man, or the power of moving his body. And him by a word he
healed, and made sound. And a woman that had an issue of blood
for many years, and whose joints2016
| 2016 Codex A has a
better reading—arteries. [Thems.
here referred to is in Paris, of the fourteenth century (a.d. 1315).—R.] | and veins
were drained by the flowing of the blood, so that she did not present
the appearance of a human being, but was like a corpse, and was
speechless every day, so that all the physicians of the district could
not cure her. For there was not any hope of life left to
her. And when Jesus passed by, she mysteriously received strength
through his overshadowing her; and she took hold of his fringe behind,
and immediately in the same hour power filled up what in her was empty,
so that, no longer suffering any pain, she began to run swiftly to her
own city Kepharnaum, so as to accomplish the journey in six
days.
And these are the things which I lately had in my mind
to report, which Jesus accomplished on the Sabbath. And other
signs greater than these he did, so that I have perceived that the
wonderful works done by him are greater than can be done by the gods
whom we worship.
And him Herod and Archelaus and Philip, Annas and
Caiaphas, with all the people, delivered to me, making a great uproar against me
that I should try him. I therefore ordered him to be crucified,
having first scourged him, and having found against him no cause of
evil accusations or deeds.
And at the time he was crucified there was
darkness over all the world, the sun being darkened at mid-day, and the
stars appearing, but in them there appeared no lustre; and the moon, as
if turned into blood, failed in her light. And the world was
swallowed up by the lower regions, so that the very sanctuary of the
temple, as they call it, could not be seen by the Jews in their fall;
and they saw below them a chasm of the earth, with the roar of the
thunders that fell upon it.2017
| 2017 The text here is
very corrupt. | And in that
terror dead men were seen that had risen, as the Jews themselves
testified; and they said that it was Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and
the twelve patriarchs, and Moses and Job, that had died, as they say,
three thousand five hundred years before. And there were very
many whom I also saw appearing in the body; and they were making a
lamentation about the Jews, on account of the wickedness that had come
to pass through them, and the destruction of the Jews and of their
law.
And the fear of the earthquake remained from the
sixth hour of the preparation until the ninth hour. And on the
evening of the first day of the week there was a sound out of the
heaven, so that the heaven became enlightened sevenfold more than all
the days. And at the third hour of the night also the sun was
seen brighter than it had ever shone before, lighting up all the
heaven. And as lightnings come suddenly in winter, so majestic
men appeared2018
| 2018 Or, so men appeared
on high. | in glorious
robes, an innumerable multitude, whose voice was heard as that of a
very great thunder, crying out: Jesus that was crucified is
risen: come up out of Hades, ye that have been enslaved in the
underground regions of Hades. And the chasm of the earth was as
if it had no bottom; but it was as if the very foundations of the earth
appeared along with those that cried out in the heavens, and walked
about in the body in the midst of the dead that had risen. And he
that raised up all the dead, and bound Hades, said: Say to my
disciples, He goes before you into Galilee; there shall you see
him.
And all that night the light did not cease
shining. And many of the Jews died, swallowed up in the chasm of
the earth, so that on the following day most of those who had been
against Jesus could not be found. Others saw the appearing of
those that had risen, whom no one of us had ever seen.2019
| 2019 This sentence also is
very corrupt. | And only one2020
| 2020 Another and more
probably reading is, not one. [So B, a Parisms. of the fourteenth century.—R.] |
synagogue of the Jews was left in this Jerusalem, since all disappeared
in that fall.
With that terror, being in perplexity, and seized with a
most frightful trembling, I have written what I saw at that time, and
have reported to thy majesty. Having set in order also what was
done by the Jews against Jesus, I have sent it, my lord, to thy
divinity.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
