wfn.org | Another Look at Pontius Pilate

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In note #5864 to PRESBYNEWS, PCUSA NEWS wrote:

20-April-2000
00161

	Another Look at Pontius Pilate

	History of key Holy Week figure is sketchy

	by Shelvia Dancy
	Religion News Service

WASHINGTON -- In the story of Jesus, Pontius Pilate is little more than a
footnote, his 15 minutes of fame stemming from a cameo appearance in the
Easter drama when he sentences the son of God to die on the cross -- a
decision that forms the crux of Christian belief that Jesus died on the
cross for the sins of humanity.

	His role in Jesus' death is nearly all that can be certain about this Roman
governor of Judea.  Still, Pilate's image has been endlessly re-fashioned in
the centuries since that fateful encounter with Jesus.

	From the penitent Christian convert of medieval legend to the saint of the
African Coptic tradition to the biblical boogeyman of the 20th century, his
image has constantly shifted.

	"We've been given so many versions of Pilate over the years, but yet we've
got so very little to go on," said Ann Wroe, an editor at the London
business magazine "The Economist," and author of the new "Pontius
Pilate"(Random House).

	"Pilate is so important to the whole redemption story that we've got to
make something out of him -- you can't have someone who is so key and not
know about his character.  We can't just let him go."

	Pontius' reputation took a beating as early as the first century from some
Jewish writers who thought Gospel writers treated the Roman governor with
kid gloves in biblical accounts of the crucifixion.

	"There was a sense that Pilate was well-treated in the Gospels at the
expense of the Jews," Wroe said.  "People wanted to show that Pilate had
more responsibility for Jesus' death than the Gospel writers let on."

	The specter of Pilate as biblical boogeyman blossomed within the past
century, said Wroe, as writers, theologians and even filmmakers seized upon
the story of Jesus and Pilate as a handy metaphor for the individual
battling authority.

	"In 20th century accounts Pilate is viewed with more and more disfavor,"
Wroe said. "Jesus is portrayed as a political rebel, a man struggling
against the state, and if you make Jesus a rebel of that sort then Pilate
has to represent all that is overweening about the state.  And in the 20th
century, states are much more huge and much more pervasive than before, so
Pilate has gradually taken on the role of the tyrant and oppressor.

	"The worker-priests in Soviet-controlled Europe and the liberation-theology
priests in Central America often compared themselves with the state in the
Jesus/Pilate way," she added.

	But Pilate wasn't always the designated bad guy; Coptic Christians of
Africa took a gentler view of the man and elevated Pilate and his wife to
sainthood.  The two are commemorated in St. Pilate and Procula Day on June
25.

	"According to the Gospels, Pilate's wife sent a message to Pilate saying
‘have nothing to do with this just man,'" said former California senator
James Mills, whose historical novel "Memoirs of Pontius Pilate" appeared in
March.  "That's why she was considered a saint by some, she recognized Jesus
was the Messiah."

	Coptic legend also reports that Pilate himself died by crucifixion -- upon
Jesus' cross, Wroe said.

	"Pilate was supposed to have been crucified because he had become a closet
Christian, together with his wife, and both the Romans and the Jews decided
to get rid of him," she said. "The story is that he was crucified not once,
but twice: he was cut down from the first cross and put on the actual cross
of Christ (which was still lying in the tomb) so that he could mirror his
sufferings in every detail.  A martyr's crown descended from heaven for him,
but before he could receive it he was summoned back to Rome, where he was
eventually beheaded."

	Such stories, she said, highlight the idea that mercy can be extended to
all -- even the murderer of Jesus.

	"Through these stories we get the feeling that anybody can be redeemed --
Jesus isn't going to leave anybody out in the great scheme, so even the man
who sent him to his death is capable of redemption," Wroe said.  "It's a
persuasive image, a comforting and powerful image.
There's the sense that grace is extended to everyone."

	In other legends, a remorseful Pilate takes his own life after realizing he
killed the son of God.

	"Very early church authorities referred to Pilate's suicide," Mills said,
noting that history left no real evidence of Pilate's fate.  "Some people
thought he committed suicide because he realized what he had done when he
ordered the crucifixion of Christ; he was in despair after
finally realizing the terrible thing he'd done."

	During the 19th century, Pilate found a sympathetic audience in many
British colonialists, Wroe said.

	"Perhaps the most interesting ‘kindly' view of Pilate is that of the
Victorian empire-builders in the 19th century," she said.  "They sympathized
with him because they understood themselves what it was like to run an
empire; they too often had to deal with ‘gurus and imams' who had a big
popular following but whose religion was a mystery to them."

	There was in fact a huge debate in the 1870s between John Stuart Mill and
Virginia Woolf's uncle, James FitzJames Stephen, as to whether Pilate was
right to crucify Jesus.

	"Mill said he wasn't; it was an affront to liberty.  But Stephen said he
was, because his first priority was to preserve the peace.  That would have
resonated with a lot of Victorians," she said.

	Whether saint or sinner, Pilate belongs as much to the 20th and 21st
centuries as he does to the first century, Mills said, noting not much other
than time separates Pilate from politicians of today.

	"Pilate was a pragmatic politician like the ones you see in every city
council," Mills said. "Pilate, like a lot of politicians today, would never
jeopardize his position by doing the right thing.  There are more
politicians who are like Pontius Pilate than not -- that is to say more
politicians who realize what the right thing would be in a given situation,
but decide to do something else."

	Ordinary folks too can easily identify with a man guided by his own
self-interests, a man who buckled under peer pressure even in the presence,
according to the story, of humanity's redemptor.  "He's a character ordinary
people can sympathize with a great deal," Wroe said.  "In the same position,
perhaps we'd behave the same way."

	And therein lies his appeal, and staying power.  "People readily sympathize
with him -- almost more than Jesus," Wroe said.  "Jesus is divine, so there
is an element of distance and you can only get so close.  In Pilate, here's
man full of dilemmas and power he doesn't know how to exercise, and we've
seen this type of man all through the centuries.  Everyone knows a Pilate."

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