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I AM in great anxiety. I write these things unto thee,
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 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, 0 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 judgment to come. For
in both we stand before the works of the living God; but this judgment, which is tempora1, is for a time, while that to come
is judgment for ever.
End of the Letter to Pilate the Governor.
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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 sepulchre that he rose from the dead.
And I have especially confirmed what was told me, that he appeared bodily in Galilee,
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.
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.
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 sepulchre, 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 every body 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 sepulchre. 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, 0 Herod, a great voice was heard from heaven, and dreadful thunder, and the earth trembled,
and gave forth a sweet smell, 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, 0 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, 0 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 be said, That which all the righteous fathers 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 for ever, arose from the dead, and is glorified on high by all that he created,
and established for ever and ever.
1. Justinus, one of the writers that were in the days of Augustus and Tiberius and Gaius, wrote in his third discourse: Now
Mary the Gali1aean, 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, how didst thou transgress 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 spectacle in the theatre of Caesarea.
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.
End of the Letter of Pilate to Herod.
THE EPISTLE OF PONTIUS PILATE,
WHICH HE WROTE TO THE ROMAN EMPEROR CONCERNING OUR
LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar 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 super- natural 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 the maliciouness of men, and yet, as the Scriptures interpret, to their own destruction.
Farewell. The 5th of the Calends of April.
THE REPORT OF PILATE THE GOVERNOR,
CONCERNING OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST; WHICH WAS SENT To
AUGUSTUS CAESAR, IN ROME.
IN those days, when our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate, the governor of Palestine and Phoenicia, the
things here recorded came to pass in Jerusalem, and were done by the Jews against the Lord. Pilate therefore sent the same
to Caesar in Rome, along with his private report, writing thus:
To the most potent, august, divine and awful Augustus Caesar, Pilate, the administrator
of the Eastern Province:
I have received information, most excellent one, in consequence of which I am seized
with fear and trembling. For in this province which I administer, one of whose cities is
called Jerusalem, the whole multitude of Jews delivered unto me a certain man called Jesus, and brought many accusations against
him, which they were unable to establish
by consistent evidence. But they charged him with one heresy in particular, namely,
That Jesus said the Sabbath was not a rest, nor to be observed by them. For he performed
many cures on that day, and made the blind see, and the lame walk, raised the dead,
cleansed lepers, healed the paralytic who were wholly unable to move their body or
brace their nerves, but could only speak and discourse, and he gave them power to walk
and run, removing their infirmity by his word alone.
There is another very mighty deed which is strange to the gods we have:
he raised up a man who had been four days dead, summoning him by his word alone,
when the dead man had begun to decay, and his body was corrupted by the worms which had been bred, and had the stench of a
dog; but, seeing him lying in the tomb be commanded him to run, nor did the dead man at all delay, but as a bridegroom out
of his chamber, so did he go forth from his tomb, filled with abundant perfume. Moreover, even such as were strangers, and
clearly demoniacs, who had their dwelling in deserts, and devoured their own flesh, and wandered about like cattle and creeping
things, he turned into inhabiters of cities and by a word rendered them rational, and prepared them to become wise and powerful,
and illustrious, taking their food with all the enemies of the unclean spirits which were destructive in them, and which he
cast into the depth of the sea.
And, again, there was another who had a withered hand, and not only the hand
but rather the half of the body of the man was like a stone, and be had neither the shape
of a man nor the symmetry of a body: even him He healed with a word and rendered whole.
And a woman also, who had an issue of blood for a long time, and whose veins and arteries were exhausted, and who did not
bear a human body, being like one dead, and daily speechless, so that all the physicians of the district were unable to cure
her, for there remained unto her not a hope of life; but as Jesus passed by she mysteriously received strength by his shadow
falling on her, from behind she touched the hem of his garment, and immediately, in that very hour, strength filled her exhausted
limbs, and as if she had never suffered anything, she began to run along towards Capernaum, her own city, so that she reached
it in a six days' journey.
And I have made known these things which I have recently been informed of,
and which Jesus did on the Sabbath. And he did other miracles greater than these, so that I have observed greater works of
wonder done by him than by the gods whom we worship.
But Herod and Archelaus and Philip, Annas and Caiaphas, with all the people,
deivered him to me, making a great tumult against me in order that I might try him.
Therefore, I commanded him to be crucified, when I had first scourged him, though I
found no cause in him for evil accusations or dealings.
Now when he was crucified, there was darkness over all the world and the sun was
obscured for half a day, and the stars appeared, but no lustre was seen in them;
and the moon lost its brightness, as though tinged with blood; and the world of the departed was swallowed up;so that the
very sanctuary of the temple, as they call it, did not appear to the Jews themselves at their fall, but they perceived a chasm
in the earth, and the rolling of successive thunders.
And amid this terror the dead appeared rising again, as the Jews themselves bore witness,
and said that it was Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, and Moses,
and Job, who had died before, as they say, some three thousand five hundred years.
And there were very many whom I myself saw appearing in the body,
and they made lamentation over the Jews, because of the transgression which was
committed by them, and because of the destruction of the Jews and of their law.
And the terror of the earthquake continued from the sixth hour of the preparation until
the ninth hour; and when it was evening on the first day of the week, there came a
sound from heaven, and the heaven became seven times more luminous than on all other days.
And at the third hour of the night the sun appeared more luminous than it had ever shone, lighting up the whole hemisphere.
And as lightning - flashes suddenly come forth in a storm, so there were seen men, lofty in stature, and surpassing in glory,
a countless host, crying out, and their voice was heard as that of exceedingly loud thunder, Jesus that was crucified is risen
again: come up from Hades ye that were enslaved in the subterraneous recesses of Hades.
And the chasm in the earth was as if it had no bottom; but it was so that the very foundations of the eaith appeared, with
those that shouted in heaven, and walked in the body among the dead that were raised. And He that raised up all the dead and
bound Hades said, Say to my disciples,
He goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see Him.
And all that night the light ceased not shining. And many of the Jews died in the chasm of the earth, being swallowed up,
so that on the morrow most of those who had been against Jesus were not to be found. Others saw the apparition of men rising
again whom none of us had ever seen. One synagogue of the Jews was alone left in Jerusalem itself, for they all disappeared
in that ruin.
Therefore being astounded by that terror, and being possessed with the most dreadful
trembling, I have written what I saw at that time and sent it to thine excellency; and I
have inserted what was done against Jesus by the Jews, and sent it to thy divinity,
my lord.
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