Judgment of Pilate. Biblical scenes in painting
“Now we will always be together,” a tattered vagabond philosopher told him in a dream, who, for some unknown reason, stood on the road of a rider with a golden spear. - Once one - then, then, right there and the other! If they remember me, they will immediately remember you too!
That's right, thanks to Jesus, the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate entered history forever.
The Gospels depict a Roman ruler who fell victim to circumstances, forced under the pressure of the high priests and the crowd to send the Jewish preacher Yeshua HaNozri to a painful death. The authors of the New Testament (except for the clearly anti-Roman book of Revelation, written in the heat of righteous anger, after terrible persecution of the Church), like the famous Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, tried to avoid sharp corners in order to survive in the cruelest world, where any criticism of the Roman authorities was regarded as an appeal to disobedience and punished death penalty. The Christian editors of the Gospel of Matthew completely absolve Pilate of executing Jesus:
“Pilate, seeing that nothing helps, but confusion increases, took water and washed his hands before the people, and said: I am innocent of the blood of this Righteous One; see you. And answering, all the people said, His blood is on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:24-25).
To condemn the entire Jewish people in the death of Yeshua is stupid. More than 99.9% of the Jews who lived at that time were not present in the ill-fated Jerusalem square, which accommodated several hundred people. And the children of those who shouted: "Crucify", all the more not to blame, since everyone is responsible for their sins (Ezek. ch. 18).
However, it is worth recalling that Jerome of Stridon, a fourth-century author, speaks of translating the Gospel of Matthew from Hebrew into Greek. Probably, it was in the process of translation that such frank anti-Jewish passages arose, which are very characteristic of the second half of the second century. The original, in order not to reveal a lie, was destroyed.
“In the gospel used by the Ebionites and Nazarenes, and which we recently translated from Hebrew into Greek, and which is considered by many to be the authentic (gospel) of Matthew, a man with a withered hand is called a stonemason, who appealed for help with these words: I was a stonemason and earned a living with my own hands, I ask You, Jesus, restore me to health, so that I do not beg in disgrace for alms ”(Jerome. Com. in Natth. 12.13).
The fifth procurator of Judea and Samaria, Pontius Pilate, according to Josephus Flavius, decided "to start by demonstrating his contempt for Jewish laws." He ordered that standards with the image of Caesar be brought to Jerusalem. He went to work as a "thief at night", not wanting excessive indignation of the inhabitants of the city. Oddly enough, the Jewish elders showed a fair amount of prudence and kept the people from violent actions. The Jews tried to explain to the procurator, begging him to refrain from violating the status quo, the position of which condemned to death even a Roman citizen who entered the sacred territory (250 × 250 m) and thereby violated the sanctity of the Temple. In 1870 and in 1936, two tablets in Greek and Latin were discovered in Jerusalem with a warning: non-Jews, on pain of death, are forbidden to climb the Temple Mount.
So, the people came to the Caesarian residence of the procurator and settled in the stadium, which has been well preserved to this day.
The Jews, almost two thousand years before the famous Gandhi, offered passive resistance to the invaders: to the threat of putting them to death, they "bared their necks and answered that they would rather die than allow their holy and wise laws to be desecrated." The procurator did not give the order to cut off the demonstrators' heads. Flavius writes that "Pilate could not help but admire the loyalty of the Jews to their law and ordered the standards to be returned to Caesarea." It is hard to believe the historian's account of Pilate's delight in the meekness of the Jews and their readiness to yield to the mob that frustrated his plan. But the fact remains - Pilate ordered the removal of the Roman standards from the holy city. Maybe he was advised not to aggravate relations with the natives, since Jerusalem was on the verge of rebellion.
Pilate once again tried to impose alien rules on the Jews. Philo of Alexandria tells of Agrippa's letter to the emperor Gaius, nicknamed Caligula. Pilate hung in Jerusalem on the palace of Herod "golden shields with inscriptions" that offended the Jews. A delegation led by four princes from the family of Herod asks not to bring the Jews to rebellion. They demand Pilate's authority for his actions and threaten to appeal to the emperor, whom they pointedly refer to as their master. This threat worried Pilate, who feared that Tiberius would become aware of his atrocities.
“One of the people of Tiberius was Pilate, who became the governor of Judea, and now, not so much for the honor of Tiberius, but for the sake of upsetting the people, he dedicated gilded shields to Herod's palace in Jerusalem; there were no images on them, nor anything else blasphemous, with the exception of a brief inscription: they say, dedicated such and such in honor of such and such. When the people understood everything - and the matter was serious, then, putting forward the four sons of the king, who were not inferior to the king in either dignity or fate, and his other offspring, as well as simply powerful persons, he began to ask to correct the matter with shields and not touch the ancient customs, which were kept for centuries and were inviolable both for kings and autocrats. He began to persist, for he was by nature cruel, self-confident and implacable; then a cry arose: “Do not revolt, do not start a war, do not destroy the world! Dishonoring the ancient laws does not mean honoring the autocrat! May Tiberius not be a pretext for attacking an entire people, he does not want to destroy any of our laws. And if you want, then say it directly by order, by letter or in some other way, so that we no longer bother you, we would elect ambassadors and ask the lord ourselves. The latter was especially embarrassing for Pilate, he was afraid that the Jews would not really send an embassy and find other aspects of his reign, telling about bribes, insults, extortion, outrages, anger, incessant executions without trial, terrible and senseless cruelty. And this man, whose irritation exacerbated his natural anger, found himself in difficulty: he did not dare to remove what had already been consecrated; besides, he did not want to do anything to please his subjects; but at the same time he was well aware of the consistency and constancy of Tiberius in these matters. The audience realized that Pilate regretted what he had done, but did not want to show it, and sent a most tearful letter to Tiberius. He, having read it, as soon as he did not name Pilate, as soon as he did not threaten him! The degree of his anger, which, however, was not easy to kindle, I will not describe - the events will speak for themselves: Tiberius immediately, without waiting for the morning, writes an answer to Pilate, where he scolds and reproaches him for the impudent innovation, and orders him to immediately remove the shields and send them to Caesarea, the one that stands on the coast and is named after your grandfather, and there they consecrate them to the temple of Augustus, which was done. Thus, neither the honor of the autocrat was shaken, nor his usual attitude towards the city” (“On the Embassy to Guy” 38).
Now about the trial of Jesus. The preacher was arrested, most likely not by the Roman legionaries, but by the temple guards, interrogated in the house of Hanan (Anna). This high priest acquired a bad reputation among the Jews:
“Curse on the house of Boef; curse on their spears! Curse on the house of Hanan (Anna); curse on his malicious hissing! Curse the house of Kanfera, curse their beautiful feathers! Curse on the house of Ismail ben (son) Fabi, curse on their fists! For they are high priests, and their sons are in the treasury (in charge of money). And their sons-in-law are among the rulers, And their servants beat people with stakes ”(Haggadic legend).
During the interrogation in the house of the high priest, judging by the Gospels, they tried to accuse Jesus of defiling the Temple, but they failed to prove his guilt, so he was handed over to the court of the Roman prefect, because many heard that Jesus was called: “King of the Jews”, which was a crime before Rome. According to the reports of ancient Jewish historians, Pontius Pilate was a cruel, stubborn man who did not disdain bribes, executing the unfortunate without trial or investigation.
How would he deal with a man who was accused by the Jewish high priests loyal to Rome of not recognizing the authority of Caesar? Could he execute him, or could he, if guilt is not proven, release him? Something similar happened thirty years later with another preacher. A certain Yeshua (an interesting coincidence, the name of Jesus sounded exactly like Yeshua) announced that God would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. The Jewish authorities arrested the troublemaker and handed it over to the Roman procurator, who, after scourging, released the preacher, considering him a holy fool:
“Even more significant is the following fact. A certain Yeshua, the son of Anan, a simple man from the village, four years before the war, when deep peace and complete prosperity reigned in the city, arrived there by that holiday, when, according to custom, all Jews build tabernacles to honor God, and near the temple he suddenly began to proclaim "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice crying over Jerusalem and the temple, a voice crying over bridegrooms and brides, a voice crying over all the people!" Day and night he exclaimed the same thing, running through all the streets of the city. Some noble citizens, annoyed at this ominous cry, seized him and punished him with blows very cruelly. But without saying anything in his defense, and especially against his torturers, he continued to repeat his former words. Representatives of the people thought, as it was in reality, that this man was led by some higher power, and they brought him to the Roman procurator, but even there, being torn to the bone by whips, he did not utter a request for mercy, not a tear, but most in a plaintive voice he repeated only after each blow: “Woe to you, Jerusalem!” When Albin was called that, the procurator interrogated him: “Who is he, where does he come from and why is he crying so much,” he did not give any answer to this and continued to call grief on the city as before. Albinus, believing that this man was possessed by a special mania, let him go ”(Jude. War book 6. Ch. 5:3).
Mark and Matthew report that Pilate also scourged Jesus: “When he flogged Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified” (Mark 15:15; Matt. 27:26). And by the way, Jesus of Nazareth spoke about the destruction of the Temple and predicted grief for Jerusalem (Matt. 23:2; Matt. 24:2)
Let's say Pilate sympathized with Jesus, then why did he give the order to beat him half to death and bring him to a cruel, painful execution?
Maybe the evangelists are right after all, and Pilate considered the crime of Jesus not worthy of a painful death? Enough with him and punishment with a Roman whip-multi-tailed with weighting agents woven into it, tormenting flesh to the bone. And after the execution (if he survived), he intended to release Jesus, but, heeding the demands of the crowd, dissatisfied with insufficient punishment, he gave the order to execute the preacher. “And Pilate determined to be at their request” (Luke 23:24).
John details the trial of Jesus. Pilate, wishing to save Jesus from death, punishes him and leads the beaten, bloody man to the high priests and the crowd, hoping that the conflict has been settled. However, the crowd, seeing the one with whom they linked their hopes for liberation, in such a deplorable state, became indignant. The chief priests threatened Pilate to inform Caesar about what had happened, because according to Roman laws, Jesus should be crucified as a state criminal. And so the procurator gives the order to execute the preacher.
In principle, the tradition in special cases to listen to the demand of the people could exist, gladiatorial games are a vivid example when it depends on the will of the crowd who lives and who dies.
Why did the Sanhedrin, which started the proceedings, by the way, in violation of existing Jewish legal norms, hand over Jesus to the authorities of Rome? After all, the Court had the authority to execute, remember Stephen, accused of blasphemy, and the murder of Jesus' brother James. Moreover, Jesus could have been killed on the orders of the tetrarch Herod, who, according to the Pharisees, wanted to destroy him (Luke 13:31). However, Herod not only did not put Jesus to death, but did not even punish him. Possible reason- Jesus is the prey of Rome. The appointment of someone as king of Judea under the laws of the Roman Empire was an integral part of the rights of Caesar. By Senate decree, at the suggestion of Octavian Augustus, Herod the Great was appointed king; later, by decree of the emperor Claudius, - Agrippa. Anyone who, without the approval of the emperor, declared himself king, was considered a violator of the main law of the empire “On lèse majesté” (the law of Octavian Augustus) and was subject to torture so that the defendant would confess and betray his comrades. This was followed by execution by crucifixion - for the law did not know a lesser penalty for this crime.
“For he had already restored the law of insult to majesty, which, bearing the same name in the past, pursued a completely different one: it was directed only against those who harmed the army by betrayal, civil unity by unrest, and, finally, the greatness of the Roman people by bad administration of the state ”(Tacitus. Annals. Book I 72).
In a report to Emperor Trajan (111-113 AD) from one of the Roman judges, Pliny the Younger of Asia Minor, interesting details are given about the fight against "evil superstition":
“I ask them if they are Christians. If they confess, I repeat the question two more times and explain that this crime is punishable by death. If they still do not renounce their religion, I order them to be executed. Those who deny that they are Christians or have ever been Christians, and repeat after me the incantations of the gods and worship your, emperor, image, making a libation of wine and incense, and in the end, cursing Christ, i.e. those who do what no Christian would agree to do even under torture, I justify and release. Those who first confessed to belonging to Christianity, and then renounced their words, these I torture in order to find out the truth.
Some historians argue that there were no two punishments at once, beating or execution, one or the other, so Luke's account of Pilate's attempt to save Jesus is credible.
However, this is not quite true. In Roman law, two types of scourging were adopted.
The first is investigative flagellation: torture to force the accused to tell the truth. “Litigation without scourging was considered an exception to general rule". The second scourging is part of the general punishment of the sentence. The laws of the XII tables commanded “to put in chains and, after scourging, to put to death the one who set fire to buildings or stacks of bread stacked near the house, if [the guilty] did this intentionally. [If the fire occurred] by accident, i.e. by negligence, the law prescribed [that the guilty] compensate for the damage, and in case of his insolvency he was subjected to a lighter punishment ”(Gaius, I. 9. D. XLVII. 9).
It is possible that such a rule applied not only to arsonists, but also to offenders of the emperor's majesty.
Could Jesus have been tortured? Quite. Pilate asks, "Are you the King of the Jews?" (John 18:33). Jesus, like a real Jew, answers the question with a question: “Are you saying this on your own, or have others told you about me?” (John 18:34). Such an answer did not bring clarity, so it could be followed by torture, which John kept silent about.
Paul's letter to Timothy speaks of Jesus' confession of faith before Pontius Pilate. The apostle knew, as a result of which conversation the preacher, who did not renounce his convictions, was crucified.
“Wage the worthy battle of faith, master the eternal life to which you have been called! After all, you worthily confessed your faith before numerous witnesses. And now I conjure you by God, who gives life to all, and by Christ Jesus, who worthily testified to the same faith before Pontius Pilate” (1 Tim. 6:12-13).
It is quite possible that Jesus wanted to explain to the prefect that he did not claim secular power: "My kingdom is not of this world" - and he cites the proof: "If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight for me" (John 18 :36). Jesus does not deny that he is the king, but not of this world, because none of his alleged subjects stood up for him.
However, such a revelation could serve as a judgment, because Jesus, in his own words, claimed divine royal authority, which only the emperor had and no one else.
Pilate repeats the question a second time, sounding like a sentence: “So, are you the King?” Jesus replies, "My kingdom is the kingdom of truth." To which Pilate, who did not delve into the words of Jesus, says with a touch of disdain: "What is truth." There is no point in explaining, Jesus, as in the case of Herod, does not answer the procurator.
Eusebius of Caesarea, a Christian historian (c. 263-340 AD), blames Pontius Pilate for the death of Jesus, calling the action of the procurator villainous. Eusebius reports the suicide of Pilate under Emperor Gaius (37-41 AD), referring to some Greek writers:
“It is worth noting that the same Pilate, who lived in the time of the Savior, fell, according to legend, under [emperor] Guy into such troubles that he was forced to commit suicide and own hand punish himself: God's judgment, apparently, was not slow to overtake him. This is told by Greek writers who celebrated the Olympics and the events that took place in each of them. But Pilate, the viceroy who passed judgment on Christ, after he had caused and suffered many disturbances in Jerusalem, was overwhelmed by such anxiety emanating from Gaius that, having pierced himself with his own hand, he sought in imminent death a reduction in torment. Pilate did not go unpunished for his villainous crime - the murder of our Lord Jesus Christ: he laid hands on himself.
It is useful to talk about a significant archaeological find confirming the existence of Pontius Pilate.
In 1961, during excavations in Caesarea (Israel), conducted by Italian archaeologists, a fragment of a granite slab with a Latin inscription containing the names of Tiberius and Pilate was found on the territory of the ancient theater. The inscription, apparently consisting of four lines, is badly damaged by time; the first three lines are partially preserved, while the last line is almost completely destroyed - one letter is barely readable there.
. . . . . . . . . .]STIBERIEVM
PON]TIVSPILATVS
PRAEF]ECTVSIVDAE . . .
According to A. Frov, the first line can be restored as s (ibus) Tiberieum - "Caesarean, that is, Caesarian Tiberieum." In the second line, tius Pilatus was preceded by his personal name (praenomen), which remained unknown to us. The third line reads his position: ectus Iudae - "prefect of Judea." In the fourth, the letter “E” is restored, which was part of a certain word, for example [d]e. Apparently, this is a dedicatory inscription installed by the Roman governor in the so-called Tiberium, a religious building in honor of the emperor Tiberius, which was located in front of the theater building. It is worth paying attention to the title "Prefect of Judea". Prior to the discovery of the Caesarean inscription, it was believed that Jesus' judge, according to the Annals of Tacitus, was a procurator. In the Gospels, he appears under the title of "ruler". Josephus Flavius calls him a ruler, a commissioner, a manager.
In Greek literature contemporary to the Gospels, the prefect is the governor of the imperial province (praefectus civitatis) invested with military authority. As for the term "manager", he often meant the imperial procurator (procurator Caesaris), authorized to collect taxes. Both of these positions were held by persons from the equestrian class. Since Judea was not an independent province, but was part of the senatorial province of Syria as a separate region, the position of procurator was more suitable for Pilate. However, due to the special military-political situation in Judea, Pilate was also endowed with the functions of a prefect.
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The Judgment of Pilate is one of the Passion of Christ.
gospel narrative
Pilate's trial of Jesus is described in all four evangelists:
Gospel | Court Description |
---|---|
From Matthew (Matthew 27:11-14) | …and having bound Him, they took Him away and handed Him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor… And Jesus stood before the governor. And His ruler asked: Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus said to him: You speak. And when the chief priests and elders accused Him, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to him: Do you not hear how much they testify against you? And he did not answer him a single word, so that the ruler was very surprised. |
From Mark (Mark 15:1-5) | Immediately in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the entire Sanhedrin held a meeting, and, having tied Jesus, they took him away and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked Him: Are you the King of the Jews? And he said to him in answer: You speak. And the chief priests accused Him of many things. Pilate asked Him again: You don't answer anything? you see how many accusations are against you. But Jesus made no answer to that either, so Pilate marveled.. |
From Luke (Luke 23:1-7) | And all the multitude of them rose up, and led Him to Pilate, and began to accuse Him, saying: We found that He corrupts our people and forbids giving tribute to Caesar, calling Himself Christ the King. Pilate asked Him: Are you the King of the Jews? He said to him in reply: You speak. Pilate said to the chief priests and the people: I find no fault in this man. But they persisted, saying that He was stirring up the people by teaching all over Judea, from Galilee to this place. Pilate, hearing about Galilee, asked: Is He a Galilean? And knowing that he was from the province of Herod, he sent him to Herod, who in those days was also in Jerusalem. |
From John (John 18:29-38) | Pilate went out to them and said: What do you accuse this Man of? They said to him in reply: If He had not been a villain, we would not have betrayed Him to you. Pilate said to them: You take him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews said to him: We are not allowed to put anyone to death, so that the word of Jesus, which He spoke, may come true, making it clear by what death He will die. Then Pilate entered the praetorium again, and called Jesus, and said to Him: Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him: Are you saying this on your own, or have others told you about Me? Pilate answered: Am I a Jew? Your people and chief priests delivered you to me; what did you do? Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight for me, so that I would not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate said to Him: So You are the King? Jesus answered: You say that I am the King. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth? And having said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in Him.. |
Jesus Christ at the Trial of Pontius Pilate
The Jewish high priests, having condemned Jesus Christ to death, could not carry out the sentence themselves without its approval by the Roman governor. According to the evangelists, after the night trial of Christ, they brought him in the morning to Pilate in the praetorium, but they themselves did not enter it. not to be defiled, but to be able to eat the passover».
rossan codex, , Public DomainAccording to all the evangelists, the main question that Pilate asked Jesus was:
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
This question was due to the fact that a real claim to power as the King of the Jews, according to Roman law, qualified as a dangerous crime.
The answer to this question was the words of Christ - " you say”, which can be considered as a positive answer, since in Hebrew the phrase “you said” has a positive-constative meaning. In giving this answer, Jesus emphasized that not only did he have a royal lineage, but also, as God, he has authority over all kingdoms. The most detailed dialogue between Jesus Christ and Pilate is given in the Gospel of John.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge (1831–1894), Public DomainEvangelist Matthew reports that during the trial of Jesus, Pilate's wife sent a servant to him to say:
“Do nothing to the Righteous Tom, because today in my sleep I suffered much for Him” (Matt. 27:19).
According to the apocrypha, Pilate's wife was called Claudia Procula and she later became a Christian. In the Greek and Coptic churches, she is canonized, her memory is celebrated on November 9 (October 27, old style).
Jesus Christ at the trial of Herod Antipas
Only the Evangelist Luke reports about bringing Jesus to Herod Antipas. Pilate, learning that Jesus from the province of Herod, sent him to Herod, who in those days was also in Jerusalem(Luke 23:7).
Herod Antipas heard a lot about Jesus Christ and longed to see him, hoping to witness one of his miracles. Herod asked Jesus many questions, but he did not answer them. After, as Luke says,
“Herod and his soldiers, having humiliated Him and mocked Him, dressed Him in bright clothes and sent Him back to Pilate. And that day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for before they had been at enmity with each other.
(Luke 23:11-12)
It should be noted that the Romans dressed in white (light) clothes candidates for any commanding or honorary position.
Thus, Herod, having dressed Jesus in this way, wanted to express that he perceives him only as a funny pretender to the Jewish throne and does not consider him a dangerous criminal.
This is probably how Herod Pilate understood it, since he referred before the chief priests to the fact that Herod did not find anything worthy of death in Jesus.
Desecration of Jesus Christ
After Pilate brought Jesus out to the people for the first time, who demanded His execution, he, having decided to arouse compassion for Christ among the people, ordered the soldiers to beat Him.
They took Jesus into the courtyard and took off his clothes and beat him. Then they dressed Him in the jester's attire of the king: purple (a cloak of royal color), put a wreath woven from thorns (“crown”) on His head, giving a cane, a branch (“royal scepter”) in His right hand.
After that, the soldiers began to mock him - they knelt down, bowed and said: “ Hail, King of the Jews! and then they spat on him and beat him with a cane on his head and face (Mark 15:19).
Shakko, CC BY-SA 3.0When studying the Shroud of Turin, identified with the burial shroud of Jesus Christ, it was concluded that Jesus received 98 blows (while the Jews were allowed to inflict no more than 40 blows - Deut. 25: 3): 59 blows of a scourge with three ends, 18 - with two ends and 21 - with one end.
Christ in front of the crowd
Pilate twice brought Jesus out to the people, declaring that he did not find in Him any guilt worthy of death (Luke 23:22). The second time this was done after His torture, which was intended to arouse the pity of the people, showing that Jesus had already been punished by Pilate.
“Pilate went out again and said to them: Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, so that you may know that I find no fault in Him. Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the scarlet robe. And he said to them: Behold, Man!
(John 19:4-5)
In Pilate's words, behold, Man!"You can see his desire to arouse compassion among the Jews for the prisoner, who, after being tortured, does not look like a king and does not pose a threat to the Roman emperor. The very sight of Christ after the mockery of him became the fulfillment of one of the prophecies of the 21st messianic psalm:
Quentin Masseys (1456/1466–1530), Public Domain« I'm a worm, not a man, reproach among people and contempt among the people"(Ps. 21:7).
The people neither for the first nor the second time showed leniency and demanded the execution of Jesus in response to Pilate's proposal to release Christ, following the old custom:
« Do you have a custom for me to let you go alone at Easter; Do you want me to let you go of the King of the Jews?».
At the same time, according to the Gospel, the people began to shout even more let him be crucified. Seeing this, Pilate passed a death sentence - he sentenced Jesus to be crucified, and he himself
« washed his hands before the people, and said: I am innocent of the blood of this righteous».
To which the people exclaimed:
« His blood is on us and on our children» (Matthew 27:24-25).
Having washed his hands, Pilate performed the ritual washing of hands, customary among the Jews, as a sign of non-participation in the murder being committed (Deut. 21:1-9).
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Apocryphal tales
Pilate's judgment is described in the apocryphal "". In it, in addition to the information contained in the canonical Gospels, the author makes additions that emphasize the messianic status of Christ (for example, an episode with the worship of Christ with a banner in the hands of standard-bearers). Pilate's trial begins with a dispute about the legality of the birth of Jesus, which ends with a dialogue between Pilate and 12 men who were at the betrothal of the Virgin Mary and who testified to the legality of the birth of Jesus:
“(And) Pilate said to them: “Why do they want to kill Him?”
They told him: "They have anger against him, for he heals on Saturdays."
Pilate said: “Do they want to kill Him for good deeds?”
They said to him: "Yes, sir."
Pilate, angry, went out of the praetorium and said: "The sun is my witness - I will declare to everyone that I have not found a single sin in this man."
The Gospel of Nicodemus quotes Jesus' answer to Pilate's question, "What is truth?" (the question according to the Gospel of John remained unanswered): “Jesus said: ‘Truth is from heaven. Pilate said to Him: “Is there no truth in earthly things?” Jesus said to Pilate: “Pay attention - the truth is on earth among those who, having power, live by the truth and do righteous judgment.”
Witnesses in defense of Christ at the trial are the miraculously healed by him sick: paralyzed, born blind, Veronica, a bleeding wife; the people of Jerusalem remember the miraculous resurrection.
In response to this, Pilate, on the occasion of the feast, invites the people to release Christ or Barabbas of their choice, and in the future the apocrypha repeats the canonical Gospel text, with the exception of bringing Jesus out to the people after the reproach.
In fine arts
In the iconography of Jesus Christ there is an image of him after the tortures, dressed in purple and crowned with a crown of thorns. In this form, he is depicted in front of the crowd to which Pilate ordered him to be led out. From the words of Pilate, spoken to the people, this iconographic type got its name - Ecce Homo ("behold, the Man").
There are images where Jesus simply stands in front of Pilate during interrogation, as well as scenes of scourging. More rare subjects include compositions with Jesus at the trial of Herod Antipas.
Various details in the images of the court scene are given a symbolic meaning. So the twilight around the throne of Pilate symbolizes the darkness of paganism, and the bright light of the praetorium where Christ is taken to be mocked is the light of the Christian faith; the dog at the throne of Pilate is a symbol of wickedness.
Pontius Pilate
He is often depicted sitting on a throne with the attributes of royal power (in a crown, diadem or laurel wreath), which he, as a Roman governor, did not really have.
In the scene of the washing of hands, Pilate is depicted sitting in a judge's chair, one servant pours water on his hands, next to him may be a servant conveying to him the request of Claudia Procula, his wife, or holding out a scroll with her message.
Jesus Christ
The iconography depends on the scene in which Christ is depicted: the bound hands are typical for his first appearance before Pilate, after the trial of Herod Antipas white clothes appear on him, after the scolding - purple and a crown of thorns.
Herod Antipas
Always depicted in accordance with his royal status, crowned and seated on a throne.
Nearby is placed the figure of a warrior with white robes prepared for Christ.
The description of Pilate's trial of Jesus is given by all four evangelists:
Gospel | Court Description |
---|---|
From Matthew (Matt.) |
…and having bound Him, they took Him away and handed Him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor… And Jesus stood before the governor. And His ruler asked: Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus said to him: You speak. And when the chief priests and elders accused Him, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to him: Do you not hear how much they testify against you? And he did not answer him a single word, so that the ruler was very surprised. |
From Mark (Mk.) |
Immediately in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the entire Sanhedrin held a meeting, and, having tied Jesus, they took him away and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked Him: Are you the King of the Jews? And he said to him in answer: You speak. And the chief priests accused Him of many things. Pilate asked Him again: You don't answer anything? you see how many accusations are against you. But Jesus made no answer to that either, so Pilate marveled.. |
From Luke (OK. ) |
And all the multitude of them rose up, and led Him to Pilate, and began to accuse Him, saying: We found that He corrupts our people and forbids giving tribute to Caesar, calling Himself Christ the King. Pilate asked Him: Are you the King of the Jews? He said to him in reply: You speak. Pilate said to the chief priests and the people: I find no fault in this man. But they persisted, saying that He was stirring up the people by teaching all over Judea, from Galilee to this place. Pilate, hearing about Galilee, asked: Is He a Galilean? And knowing that he was from the province of Herod, he sent him to Herod, who in those days was also in Jerusalem. |
From John (In.) |
Pilate went out to them and said: What do you accuse this Man of? They said to him in reply: If He had not been a villain, we would not have betrayed Him to you. Pilate said to them: You take him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews said to him: We are not allowed to put anyone to death, so that the word of Jesus, which He spoke, may come true, making it clear by what death He will die. Then Pilate entered the praetorium again, and called Jesus, and said to Him: Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him: Are you saying this on your own, or have others told you about Me? Pilate answered: Am I a Jew? Your people and chief priests delivered you to me; what did you do? Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight for me, so that I would not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate said to Him: So You are the King? Jesus answered: You say that I am the King. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth? And having said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in Him.. |
Jesus Christ at the Trial of Pontius Pilate
The Jewish high priests, having condemned Jesus Christ to death, could not carry out the sentence themselves without its approval by the Roman governor. According to the evangelists, after the night trial of Christ, they brought him in the morning to Pilate in the praetorium, but they themselves did not enter it " not to be defiled, but to be able to eat the passover».
According to all the evangelists, the main question that Pilate asked Jesus was: Are you the King of the Jews?". This question was due to the fact that a real claim to power as the King of the Jews, according to Roman law, qualified as a dangerous crime. The answer to this question was the words of Christ - " you say”, which can be considered as a positive answer, since in Hebrew the phrase “you said” has a positive-constative meaning. In giving this answer, Jesus emphasized that not only did he have a royal lineage, but also, as God, he has authority over all kingdoms. The most detailed dialogue between Jesus Christ and Pilate is given in the Gospel of John (see quote above).
Jesus Christ at the trial of Herod Antipas
Only the Evangelist Luke reports about bringing Jesus to Herod Antipas. Pilate, learning that Jesus from the province of Herod, sent him to Herod, who in those days was also in Jerusalem(OK. ). Herod Antipas heard a lot about Jesus Christ and longed to see him, hoping to witness one of his miracles. Herod asked Jesus many questions, but he did not answer them. After, as Luke says,
It should be noted that the Romans dressed in white (light) clothes candidates for any commanding or honorary position. Thus, Herod, having dressed Jesus in this way, wanted to express that he perceives him only as a funny pretender to the Jewish throne and does not consider him a dangerous criminal. This is probably how Herod Pilate understood it, since he referred before the chief priests to the fact that Herod did not find anything worthy of death in Jesus.
Desecration of Jesus Christ
After Pilate brought Jesus out to the people for the first time, who demanded His execution, he, having decided to arouse compassion for Christ among the people, ordered the soldiers to beat Him. They took Jesus into the courtyard and took off his clothes and beat him. Then they dressed Him in the jester's attire of the king: purple (a cloak of royal color), put a wreath woven from thorns (“crown”) on His head, giving a cane, a branch (“royal scepter”) in his right hand. After that, the soldiers began to mock him - they knelt down, bowed and said: “ Hail, King of the Jews!”, and then they spat on Him and beat Him with a cane on the head and face (Mk.).
Christ in front of the crowd
Pilate twice brought Jesus out to the people, declaring that he did not find in Him any guilt worthy of death (Luke). The second time this was done was after His torture, which was intended to arouse the pity of the people, showing that Jesus had already been punished by Pilate.
In Pilate's words, behold, Man!"You can see his desire to arouse compassion among the Jews for the prisoner, who, after being tortured, does not look like a king and does not pose a threat to the Roman emperor. The very sight of Christ after the mockery of him became the fulfillment of one of the prophecies of the 21st messianic psalm: I'm a worm, not a man, reproach among people and contempt among the people"(Ps.).
The people neither for the first nor the second time showed leniency and demanded the execution of Jesus in response to Pilate's proposal to release Christ, following the old custom: Do you have a custom for me to let you go alone at Easter; Do you want me to let you go of the King of the Jews?". At the same time, according to the Gospel, the people began to shout even more let him be crucified. Seeing this, Pilate passed a death sentence - he sentenced Jesus to be crucified, and he himself " washed his hands before the people, and said: I am innocent of the blood of this righteous". To which the people exclaimed: His blood is on us and on our children"(Matt.). Having washed his hands, Pilate performed the ritual washing of hands, customary among the Jews, as a sign of non-participation in the murder being committed (Deut.).
Apocryphal tales
Pilate's trial is described in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. In it, in addition to the information contained in the canonical Gospels, the author makes additions that emphasize the messianic status of Christ (for example, an episode with the worship of Christ with a banner in the hands of standard-bearers). Pilate's trial begins with a dispute about the legality of the birth of Jesus, which ends with Pilate's dialogue with 12 men who were at the betrothal of the Virgin Mary, and who testified to the legality of the birth of Jesus:
The Gospel of Nicodemus quotes Jesus' answer to Pilate's question " what is truth?” (the question according to the Gospel of John remained unanswered): “Jesus said:“ Truth is from heaven“. Pilate said to him: Is there no truth in earthly things? Jesus said to Pilate: Listen - the truth is on earth among those who, having power, live by the truth and create a righteous judgment“».
Witnesses in defense of Christ at the trial are the miraculously healed by him sick: relaxed, born blind, Veronica, bleeding wife; the people of Jerusalem remember the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus. In response to this, Pilate, on the occasion of the feast, invites the people to release Christ or Barabbas of their choice, and in the future the apocrypha repeats the canonical Gospel text, with the exception of bringing Jesus out to the people after the reproach.
In fine arts
In the iconography of Jesus Christ, there is an image of him after the tortures, dressed in purple and crowned with a crown of thorns. In this form, he is depicted in front of the crowd to which Pilate ordered him to be led out. From the words of Pilate, spoken to the people, this iconographic type got its name - Ecce Homo (« behold, Man»).
There are images where Jesus simply stands in front of Pilate during interrogation, as well as scenes of scourging. More rare subjects include compositions with Jesus at the trial of Herod Antipas.
Various details in the images of the court scene are given a symbolic meaning. So the twilight around the throne of Pilate symbolizes the darkness of paganism, and the bright light of the praetorium where Christ is taken to be mocked is the light of the Christian faith; the dog at the throne of Pilate is a symbol of wickedness.
Characters
Pontius Pilate
He is often depicted sitting on a throne with the attributes of royal power (in a crown, diadem or laurel wreath), which he, as a Roman governor, did not really have. In the scene of the washing of hands, Pilate is depicted sitting in a judicial chair, one servant pours water on his hands, next to him may be a servant conveying to him the request of Claudia Procula, his wife, or holding out a scroll with her message.
Jesus Christ
The iconography depends on the scene in which Christ is depicted: the bound hands are typical for his first appearance before Pilate, after the trial of Herod Antipas white clothes appear on him, after the scolding - purple and a crown of thorns.
Herod Antipas
Always depicted in accordance with his royal status, crowned and seated on a throne. Nearby is placed the figure of a warrior with white robes prepared for Christ.
see also
Write a review on the article "The Judgment of Pilate"
Notes
Links
- Averky (Taushev), archbishop.
|
An excerpt characterizing the Judgment of Pilate
At such moments, a feeling akin to the pride of the victim gathered in the soul of Princess Marya. And suddenly, at such moments, in her presence, this father, whom she condemned, either looked for glasses, feeling near them and not seeing, or forgot what was happening just now, or made a wrong step with weakened legs and looked around to see if anyone had seen him weakness, or, worst of all, at dinner, when there were no guests to excite him, he would suddenly doze off, letting go of his napkin, and leaning over the plate, his head shaking. “He is old and weak, and I dare to condemn him!” she thought with self-loathing at such moments.In 1811, a French doctor, who quickly became fashionable, lived in Moscow, huge in stature, handsome, amiable, like a Frenchman and, as everyone in Moscow said, a doctor of extraordinary art - Metivier. He was received in the homes of high society not as a doctor, but as an equal.
Prince Nikolai Andreevich, who laughed at medicine, recent times, on the advice of m lle Bourienne, he admitted this doctor to him and got used to him. Metivier visited the prince twice a week.
On Nikolin's day, on the prince's name day, all of Moscow was at the entrance to his house, but he ordered no one to be received; but only a few, a list of which he handed over to Princess Mary, he ordered to be called to dinner.
Metivier, who arrived in the morning with congratulations, as a doctor, found it decent de forcer la consigne [to break the ban], as he said to Princess Mary, and went in to the prince. It so happened that on this birthday morning the old prince was in one of his worst moods. He spent the whole morning walking around the house, finding fault with everyone and pretending that he did not understand what was said to him, and that they did not understand him. Princess Mary was firmly aware of this state of mind of quiet and preoccupied grouchiness, which was usually resolved by an outburst of rage, and as before a loaded, cocked gun, she walked all that morning, waiting for the inevitable shot. The morning before the doctor's arrival had gone well. Missing the doctor, Princess Marya sat down with a book in the living room by the door, from which she could hear everything that was going on in the study.
At first she heard Metivier's voice alone, then her father's voice, then both voices spoke together, the door flung open and on the threshold appeared the frightened, beautiful figure of Metivier with his black crest, and the figure of the prince in a cap and robe with a face disfigured by rage and lowered pupils of the eyes.
- Do not understand? - shouted the prince, - but I understand! French spy, Bonaparte slave, spy, get out of my house - get out, I say - and he slammed the door.
Metivier, shrugging his shoulders, went up to Mademoiselle Bourienne, who had come running at a cry from the next room.
“The prince is not quite well,” la bile et le transport au cerveau. Tranquillisez vous, je repasserai demain, [bile and congestion to the brain. Calm down, I'll come tomorrow,] - said Metivier and, putting his finger to his lips, hurriedly left.
Footsteps in shoes were heard outside the door and shouts: “Spies, traitors, traitors everywhere! There is no moment of peace in your house!”
After the departure of Metivier, the old prince called his daughter to him and all the strength of his anger fell upon her. It was her fault that a spy was allowed to see him. .After all, he said, he told her to make a list, and those who were not on the list should not be allowed in. Why did they let this bastard go! She was the cause of everything. With her he could not have a moment of peace, he could not die in peace, he said.
- No, mother, disperse, disperse, you know it, know it! I can't do it anymore," he said and left the room. And as if afraid that she might not be able to somehow console herself, he returned to her and, trying to assume a calm look, added: “And don’t think that I said this to you in a moment of my heart, but I am calm, and I thought it over; and it will be - disperse, look for a place for yourself! ... - But he could not stand it, and with that anger that only a person who loves can have, he, apparently suffering himself, shook his fists and shouted to her:
“And if only some fool would marry her!” - He slammed the door, called m lle Bourienne to him and fell silent in the office.
At two o'clock the chosen six persons gathered for dinner. The guests - the famous Count Rostopchin, Prince Lopukhin with his nephew, General Chatrov, the old, comrade of the prince, and young Pierre and Boris Drubetskoy - were waiting for him in the living room.
The other day, Boris, who came to Moscow on vacation, wished to be introduced to Prince Nikolai Andreevich and managed to win his favor to such an extent that the prince made an exception for him from all the unmarried young people whom he did not accept.
The prince's house was not what is called "light", but it was such a small circle, which, although it was not heard in the city, but in which it was most flattering to be accepted. Boris realized this a week ago, when in his presence Rostopchin told the commander-in-chief, who called the count to dine on Nikolin's day, that he could not be:
- On this day, I always go to venerate the relics of Prince Nikolai Andreevich.
“Oh, yes, yes,” answered the commander-in-chief. - What he?..
The small society, gathered in the old-fashioned, high, with old furniture, drawing room before dinner, looked like a solemn meeting of the council of the court. Everyone was silent, and if they spoke, they spoke quietly. Prince Nikolai Andreevich came out serious and silent. Princess Mary seemed even more quiet and timid than usual. The guests were reluctant to address her, because they saw that she had no time for their conversations. Count Rostopchin alone kept the thread of the conversation, talking about the latest urban or political news.
Lopukhin and the old general occasionally took part in the conversation. Prince Nikolai Andreevich listened as the supreme judge listened to the report that was being made to him, only occasionally stating in silence or in a short word that he took note of what was being reported to him. The tone of the conversation was such that it was understandable that no one approved of what was being done in the political world. Events were recounted, apparently confirming that things were going from bad to worse; but in every story and judgment, it was amazing how the narrator stopped or was stopped each time at the border where the judgment could relate to the face of the Emperor.
At dinner, the conversation turned to the latest political news, about the seizure of the possessions of the Duke of Oldenburg by Napoleon, and about the Russian note hostile to Napoleon sent to all European courts.
“Bonaparte treats Europe like a pirate on a conquered ship,” said Count Rostopchin, repeating a phrase he had already spoken several times. - You are only surprised at the patience or blindness of sovereigns. Now it comes to the pope, and Bonaparte no longer hesitates to overthrow the head of the Catholic religion, and everyone is silent! One of our sovereign protested against the seizure of the possessions of the Duke of Oldenburg. And then ... - Count Rostopchin fell silent, feeling that he stood at the point where it was no longer possible to condemn.
“They offered other possessions instead of the Duchy of Oldenburg,” said Prince Nikolai Andreevich. - Just as I resettled the peasants from the Bald Mountains to Bogucharovo and Ryazan, so he dukes.
- Le duc d "Oldenbourg supporte son malheur avec une force de caractere et une resignation admirable, [The Duke of Oldenburg endures his misfortune with remarkable willpower and resignation to fate,] said Boris, respectfully entering into a conversation. He said this because he was passing through from Petersburg had the honor of introducing himself to the duke.” Prince Nikolai Andreevich looked at the young man as if he wanted to tell him something about this, but changed his mind, considering him too young for that.
“I read our protest about the Oldenburg case and was surprised at the bad wording of this note,” said Count Rostopchin, with the casual tone of a person judging a case he is well acquainted with.
Pierre looked at Rostopchin with naive surprise, not understanding why he was worried about the bad wording of the note.
“Isn’t it all the same how the note is written, Count?” he said, “if its content is strong.
- Mon cher, avec nos 500 mille hommes de troupes, il serait facile d "avoir un beau style, [My dear, with our 500 thousand troops it seems easy to be expressed in a good style] - said Count Rostopchin. Pierre understood why Count Rostopchin was worried about the editorial note.
“It seems that the scribbler is quite divorced,” said the old prince: “everything is written there in St. Petersburg, not only notes, but new laws are being written. My Andryusha wrote a whole volume of laws for Russia there. Everything is being written! And he laughed unnaturally.
The conversation was silent for a minute; the old general drew attention with a cough.
- Did you deign to hear about the latest event at the review in St. Petersburg? how the new French envoy showed himself!
- What? Yes, I heard something; he said something awkwardly in front of His Majesty.
“His Majesty drew his attention to the grenadier division and the ceremonial march,” continued the general, “and it was as if the envoy did not pay any attention and as if he allowed himself to say that we in France do not pay attention to such trifles. The sovereign did not deign to say anything. At the next review, they say, the sovereign never deigned to turn to him.
Everyone fell silent: no judgment could be made on this fact, which applied personally to the sovereign.
- Daring! - said the prince. Do you know Metivier? I kicked him out today. He was here, they let me in, no matter how I asked not to let anyone in, ”said the prince, looking angrily at his daughter. And he told his whole conversation with the French doctor and the reasons why he was convinced that Metivier was a spy. Although these reasons were very insufficient and not clear, no one objected.
Champagne was served for the roast. The guests rose from their seats, congratulating the old prince. Princess Mary also approached him.
He looked at her with a cold, angry look and offered her a wrinkled, shaven cheek. The whole expression of his face told her that he had not forgotten the morning conversation, that his decision had remained in its former force, and that it was only thanks to the presence of guests that he did not tell her this now.
When they went into the drawing-room for coffee, the old men sat down together.
Prince Nikolai Andreevich became more lively and expressed his way of thinking about the upcoming war.
He said that our wars with Bonaparte would be unhappy as long as we seek alliances with the Germans and meddle in European affairs into which the Peace of Tilsit has drawn us. We didn't have to fight for Austria or against Austria. Our policy is all in the east, but in relation to Bonaparte there is only one thing - armament on the border and firmness in politics, and he will never dare to cross the Russian border, as in the seventh year.
- And where are we, prince, to fight the French! - said Count Rostopchin. - Can we take up arms against our teachers and gods? Look at our youth, look at our ladies. Our gods are French, our kingdom of heaven is Paris.
He began to speak louder, obviously so that everyone could hear him. “French costumes, French thoughts, French feelings!” You've kicked out Metivier in your neck, because he's a Frenchman and a scoundrel, and our ladies are crawling after him. Yesterday I was at the evening, so out of five ladies, three are Catholic and, with the permission of the pope, they sew on canvas on Sunday. And they themselves are sitting almost naked, like signs of trading baths, if I may say so. Oh, look at our youth, prince, I would take the old club of Peter the Great from the Kunstkamera, but in Russian I would break off the sides, all the nonsense would jump off!
Everyone fell silent. The old prince looked at Rostopchin with a smile on his face and shook his head approvingly.
“Well, goodbye, Your Excellency, don’t get sick,” said Rostopchin, rising with his usual quick movements and holding out his hand to the prince.
- Farewell, my dear, - the harp, I will always listen to him! - said the old prince, holding his hand and offering him a kiss for a cheek. Others rose with Rostopchin.
Princess Mary, sitting in the drawing room and listening to these talk and gossip of the old people, did not understand anything from what she heard; she only thought about whether all the guests noticed her father's hostile attitude towards her. She did not even notice the special attention and courtesies that Drubetskoy, who had been in their house for the third time, had shown her throughout this dinner.
Princess Mary with an absent-minded, questioning look turned to Pierre, who, the last of the guests, with a hat in his hand and with a smile on his face, approached her after the prince had left, and they were left alone in the living room.
- Can I sit still? - he said, with his thick body falling into an armchair near Princess Marya.
“Oh yes,” she said. "Didn't you notice anything?" said her look.
Pierre was in a pleasant state of mind after dinner. He looked ahead of him and smiled softly.
“How long have you known this young man, Princess?” - he said.
- What?
- Drubetskoy?
No, recently...
- What do you like about him?
- Yes, he is a pleasant young man ... Why are you asking me this? - said Princess Mary, continuing to think about her morning conversation with her father.
- Because I made an observation - a young man usually comes from St. Petersburg to Moscow on vacation only with the aim of marrying a rich bride.
You have made this observation! - said Princess Mary.
The description of Pilate's trial of Jesus is given by all four evangelists:
Gospel | Court Description |
---|---|
From Matthew (Matt.) |
…and having bound Him, they took Him away and handed Him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor… And Jesus stood before the governor. And His ruler asked: Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus said to him: You speak. And when the chief priests and elders accused Him, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to him: Do you not hear how much they testify against you? And he did not answer him a single word, so that the ruler was very surprised. |
From Mark (Mk.) |
Immediately in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the entire Sanhedrin held a meeting, and, having tied Jesus, they took him away and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked Him: Are you the King of the Jews? And he said to him in answer: You speak. And the chief priests accused Him of many things. Pilate asked Him again: You don't answer anything? you see how many accusations are against you. But Jesus made no answer to that either, so Pilate marveled.. |
From Luke (OK. ) |
And all the multitude of them rose up, and led Him to Pilate, and began to accuse Him, saying: We found that He corrupts our people and forbids giving tribute to Caesar, calling Himself Christ the King. Pilate asked Him: Are you the King of the Jews? He said to him in reply: You speak. Pilate said to the chief priests and the people: I find no fault in this man. But they persisted, saying that He was stirring up the people by teaching all over Judea, from Galilee to this place. Pilate, hearing about Galilee, asked: Is He a Galilean? And knowing that he was from the province of Herod, he sent him to Herod, who in those days was also in Jerusalem. |
From John (In.) |
Pilate went out to them and said: What do you accuse this Man of? They said to him in reply: If He had not been a villain, we would not have betrayed Him to you. Pilate said to them: You take him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews said to him: We are not allowed to put anyone to death, so that the word of Jesus, which He spoke, may come true, making it clear by what death He will die. Then Pilate entered the praetorium again, and called Jesus, and said to Him: Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him: Are you saying this on your own, or have others told you about Me? Pilate answered: Am I a Jew? Your people and chief priests delivered you to me; what did you do? Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight for me, so that I would not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate said to Him: So You are the King? Jesus answered: You say that I am the King. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth? And having said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in Him.. |
Jesus Christ at the Trial of Pontius Pilate
The Jewish high priests, having condemned Jesus Christ to death, could not carry out the sentence themselves without its approval by the Roman governor. According to the evangelists, after the night trial of Christ, they brought him in the morning to Pilate in the praetorium, but they themselves did not enter it " not to be defiled, but to be able to eat the passover».
According to all the evangelists, the main question that Pilate asked Jesus was: Are you the King of the Jews?". This question was due to the fact that a real claim to power as the King of the Jews, according to Roman law, qualified as a dangerous crime. The answer to this question was the words of Christ - " you say”, which can be considered as a positive answer, since in Hebrew the phrase “you said” has a positive-constative meaning. In giving this answer, Jesus emphasized that not only did he have a royal lineage, but also, as God, he has authority over all kingdoms. The most detailed dialogue between Jesus Christ and Pilate is given in the Gospel of John (see quote above).
Jesus Christ at the trial of Herod Antipas
Desecration of Jesus Christ
After Pilate brought Jesus out to the people for the first time, who demanded His execution, he, having decided to arouse compassion for Christ among the people, ordered the soldiers to beat Him. They took Jesus into the courtyard and took off his clothes and beat him. Then they dressed Him in the jester's attire of the king: purple (a cloak of royal color), put a wreath woven from thorns (“crown”) on His head, giving a cane, a branch (“royal scepter”) in his right hand. After that, the soldiers began to mock him - they knelt down, bowed and said: “ Hail, King of the Jews!”, and then they spat on Him and beat Him with a cane on the head and face (Mk.).
Christ in front of the crowd
Pilate twice brought Jesus out to the people, declaring that he did not find in Him any guilt worthy of death (Luke). The second time this was done after His torture, which was intended to arouse the pity of the people, showing that Jesus had already been punished by Pilate.
In Pilate's words, behold, Man!"You can see his desire to arouse compassion among the Jews for the prisoner, who, after being tortured, does not look like a king and does not pose a threat to the Roman emperor. The very sight of Christ after the mockery of him became the fulfillment of one of the prophecies of the 21st messianic psalm: I'm a worm, not a man, reproach among people and contempt among the people"(Ps.).
The people neither for the first nor the second time showed leniency and demanded the execution of Jesus in response to Pilate's proposal to release Christ, following the old custom: Do you have a custom for me to let you go alone at Easter; Do you want me to let you go of the King of the Jews?". At the same time, according to the Gospel, the people began to shout even more let him be crucified. Seeing this, Pilate passed a death sentence - he sentenced Jesus to be crucified, and he himself " washed his hands before the people, and said: I am innocent of the blood of this righteous". To which the people exclaimed: His blood is on us and on our children"(Matt.). Having washed his hands, Pilate performed the ritual washing of hands, customary among the Jews, as a sign of non-participation in the murder being committed (Deut.).
Apocryphal tales
« Pilate's Judgment»
(icon of the Moscow school, XV century)
The Gospel of Nicodemus quotes Jesus' answer to Pilate's question " what is truth?” (the question according to the Gospel of John remained unanswered): “Jesus said:“ Truth is from heaven“. Pilate said to him: Is there no truth in earthly things? Jesus said to Pilate: Listen - the truth is on earth among those who, having power, live by the truth and create a righteous judgment“».
Witnesses in defense of Christ at the trial are the miraculously healed by him sick: relaxed, born blind, Veronica, bleeding wife; the people of Jerusalem remember the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus. In response to this, Pilate, on the occasion of the feast, invites the people to release Christ or Barabbas of their choice, and in the future the apocrypha repeats the canonical Gospel text, with the exception of bringing Jesus out to the people after the reproach.
In fine arts
In the iconography of Jesus Christ, there is an image of him after the tortures, dressed in purple and crowned with a crown of thorns. In this form, he is depicted in front of the crowd to which Pilate ordered him to be led out. From the words of Pilate, spoken to the people, this iconographic type got its name - Ecce Homo (« behold, Man»).
There are images where Jesus simply stands in front of Pilate during interrogation, as well as scenes of scourging. More rare subjects include compositions with Jesus at the trial of Herod Antipas.
Various details in the images of the court scene are given a symbolic meaning. So the twilight around the throne of Pilate symbolizes the darkness of paganism, and the bright light of the praetorium where Christ is taken to be mocked is the light of the Christian faith; the dog at the throne of Pilate is a symbol of wickedness.
Characters
Pontius PilateHe is often depicted sitting on a throne with the attributes of royal power (in a crown, diadem or laurel wreath), which he, as a Roman governor, did not really have. In the scene of the washing of hands, Pilate is depicted sitting in a judicial chair, one servant pours water on his hands, next to him may be a servant conveying to him the request of Claudia Procula, his wife, or holding out a scroll with her message.
Jesus Christ
The iconography depends on the scene in which Christ is depicted: the bound hands are typical for his first appearance before Pilate, after the trial of Herod Antipas white clothes appear on him, after the scolding - purple and a crown of thorns.
Herod Antipas
Always depicted in accordance with his royal status, crowned and seated on a throne. Nearby is placed the figure of a warrior with white robes prepared for Christ.
see also
Notes
Links
- Maykapar A. The Judgment of Christ (New Testament scenes in painting)
- Averky (Taushev), archbishop. Guide to Scripture Study
Arrest, trial and execution of Jesus Christ → Jesus Christ from death to resurrection | ||
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Developments | The Passion of Christ: Prayer for the Chalice The Arrest of Jesus Christ The Kiss of Judas The Renunciation of the Apostle Peter Pilate's Judgment Flagellation of Christ Way of the Cross Crucifixion of Christ Words of Jesus on the Cross | |
Places | Garden of Gethsemane Sanhedrin Golgotha | |
Jesus and the disciples |
For several hours, endure torture from three different authorities - Jewish, Galilean and Roman - for such a thing that none of them recognized as their own.
To be stubbornly accused by the Jerusalem Sanhedrin and the people for what the Sanhedrin and all the people eagerly expected.
Find a zealous defender of his innocence in the Roman procurator, whom everything, apparently, did not dispose in favor of the Defendant: both His poverty, and silence, and the strength of enemies, and the danger of accusation.
From the lips of the judge to hear repeatedly the solemn recognition of His innocence and immediately after this from the same judge to hear the sentence to death on the cross, with the title of the Righteous; to have a multitude of both natural and supernatural means for His defense and use them no more than is necessary to reveal His innocence - these are circumstances that we find only in the history of the trial of Jesus Christ!
Each judgment seat revealed its own character. In the Sanhedrin, Jesus Christ was judged by His personal enemies - as lawlessness judges. In Herod's palace His lot was in the hands of the despot, who knows no other law for himself than whim, and whose entire justice consisted in not being too unjust.
Pilatov's Pretoria could serve as a refuge for human innocence, but could not contain Divine truth. Here, along with justice, sat the spirit of worldly, pagan power, at whose trial the voice of innocence was either not heard, or had to respond with profit.
The truth of heaven in the person of the Son of God, it seems, has now visited all human courts in order to see, "if there is, understand or seek the truth." And now, as in the time of David, it turned out that everyone turned aside and became obscene: “do not do good, not to one” (Ps. 13: 3).
The blindness and rampage of the Jewish people, especially their leaders, was revealed in all its strength. If John the Baptist had been resurrected, then even now, when all Judea was filled with the glory of the miracles of Jesus Christ, when the high priests themselves repeatedly heard His conversations, considered His face and work, and were preparing to take Him up to the cross – and now the preacher of repentance could again say to all the people Jewish: "Behold, there stands in the midst of you, someone you do not know!" (John 1:26.) - It is impossible to more treacherously reject the Messiah, as they reject Him now; it is impossible to persecute Him more severely, as they are persecuting now.
Let us not assume that the enemies of Jesus Christ acted against Him contrary to the clear and firm conviction that He is the promised Messiah: this would mean to attribute to human nature the malice and bitterness of the devil, who hates the truth because it is the truth.
However, it must be said that everything has been done by the leaders of the people of the Jews so that they would once remain unanswered. How unworthy and dishonorable they acted at the very moment when Jesus Christ was taken into custody!
How recklessly and recklessly they decided at their council the case of the Messiah - the person with whom the temporal and eternal good of all Israel is inseparably connected, in whom they could recognize their King, Judge and Lord! Let us suppose that the poverty of Jesus Christ tempted them: but did they not hear of His miracles?
Was it not before their very eyes that the resurrection of Lazarus took place in a few days? If this event could not convince the Sanhedrin that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, then at least it should have forced him to act more prudently, not to hasten with the execution of a man who, according to the general opinion, had so many signs of the Messiah in himself. The very slowness with which the trial of the Lord was carried out in the Praetorium, apparently, was allowed by Providence so that His enemies would have time to see their mistake and come to their senses.
It can be said that Pilate was for them in this case a preacher of repentance. Meanwhile, what low means do the elders of the Jews resort to in order to achieve the goal, blindly chosen!
They bribe a disciple, go after the Paschal supper with swords and clubs to Gethsemane, gather, like robbers, at midnight for a meeting; they go from one court to another, incite the people, pretend to be zealous servants of Caesar, threaten the judge with slander, even shout along with the mob - is this the guard of the house of Israel, gems sanctuaries, the successors of Moses and the prophets?.. Never did the Supreme Council of the Jews humiliate themselves to such an extent as it has humiliated now; in order to buy a dishonorable execution for his Messiah with his own shame.
It is hard to imagine that among the crowd of people who demanded the death of the Lord, there were no people devoted to Him. But their own security compelled them not to declare, at least in front of the high priests, their opinion. Otherwise, they would have fallen prey to the unrestraint of the servants and slanderers of the Pharisees, who had stretched out their insolence to such an extent that they began to threaten the procurator himself.
And therefore, the silence of the Evangelists about the fact that at least one of the Jews volunteered to defend Jesus Christ before Pilate must be taken as decisive evidence that there were no such defenders; and the so-called Nicodemus Gospel, in which Nicodemus, the paralytic of Siloam, the bleeding wife and the centurion of Capernaum, tell the procurator about the teachings and miracles of Jesus Christ, is not worthy of historical trust.
The crowd that asked for the death of the Lord clearly showed what the voice of the people means and how easy it is for malicious people to abuse its action. Instead of the voice of the people being the resounding but peaceful voice of God, it has now become the wild cry of Beelzebub...
Pilate's behavior is a striking example of what can be expected from a judge of weak character who is forced to renounce all personal gain in the name of truth.
Above him, the words of the Lord were fully justified: the lamp of the body is the eye: “If your eye is simple, your whole body will be bright; if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark” (Matthew 6:22-23).
The eye of Pilatov's soul - the beginning of his actions - was deceitful: not the eternal, immutable law of truth lay in the depths of his heart and dictated the line of his behavior, but an impure love for himself, an addiction to earthly benefits, covered with love for justice; and behold, the whole body of Pilate is dark, all his actions, despite their commendable side, contain something worthy of regret and contempt.
The very first action of the procurator is already marked by a betrayal of the truth: he wants to evade the condemnation of the innocent, leaving it to the Jews, then to Herod: as if allowing others to commit a crime, having the opportunity to stop it, is not the same as committing it yourself! Then, solely out of pleasing eminent and powerful accusers, the Righteous One is subjected to painful scourging.
It doesn't matter that He may die under the whips: it is enough for the judge that he wanted to save Him from death. Such is the justice of the people of the age. They think that everything has been done on their part, while they do not want to do exactly what should be done. And all Pilate's other efforts to deliver Jesus Christ are a pitiful struggle between self-interest and a sense of duty.
You see a man who torments himself, rushes in all directions, turns from crossroads to crossroads in order to get out of the abyss into which he voluntarily entered; but does not want to return to the royal path of truth, which lies right before his eyes and to which his conscience calls.
Finally, fear and self-interest prevailed; but Pilate, having corrected justice, wants to keep its mask on himself: the judge washes his hands and thinks to be clean from the blood of the Righteous! .. At the same time, the feeling of regret involuntarily turns into indignation ...
However, we have no right to extend our judgments about Pilate beyond the verdict, which has already been pronounced aloud by the Lord Himself. "More" (in every respect more) "sin on the one who betrayed" the Lord to him - on Judas, the Jews, especially on the elders of the Jews.
While the high priests, apparently, were approaching a terrible extreme (some, perhaps, fell into it) of sin against the Holy Spirit, which, according to the Savior Himself, will not be forgiven either in this age or in the future (Matt. 12:32) , Pilate clearly sinned only against the Son of Man, therefore, he belonged to the number of those sinners for whose salvation the Son of God condemned by him now went to the cross.
By the magnanimous deed of Pilat's wife, in some way, her husband's base actions are atoned for. What a striking contrast between this pagan woman and that Jewish woman, Herod's concubine, who had so little respect for John the Baptist (Mark 6:17)!
That John was a righteous man, even a prophet, worthy of being recognized as the Messiah, everyone believed; and in spite of this, Herodia did not hesitate to sacrifice him to her shameless passion. Procula, on the contrary, being a pagan, had an open heart for everything true and good.
She sees an unusual dream, takes it for a revelation from heaven and hurries, even contrary to the domestic law, which did not allow wives to interfere in the affairs of their husbands - rulers, to save the Righteous from death. The difference of religions, which, unfortunately, so often separates people from each other, does not prevent her from seeking salvation for the Jewish Prisoner.
Not in vain did she take her dream as an indication from above. If it had been the product of a single imagination, why did it, on that particular night, evoke a combination of thoughts that coincided so well with the position of Pilate and the Lord? Not! Imagination would rather imagine that now her husband had an opportunity to condemn the poor Galilean to death to acquire the beneficial friendship of the Sanhedrin. But, apparently, such an impure dream could not arise in the noble soul of Procula.
It is incredible that Claudia Procula belonged to the number of Jewish proselytes. By whom could she be converted to Judaism? Such zealots of the faith as the Lord described the Pharisees (Matt. 23:15)? But from these mentors she would not have received a favorable idea about Jesus Christ and, having been taught by the Pharisees, most likely would have agreed to support them in the struggle against the Righteous One.
It is more likely that Procula herself had a noble way of thinking and feeling and was worthy of Providence revealing her will to her, as it had once revealed it to other pagans - Abimelech (Gen. 20:3), friends of Job, etc. ( Job 20:7).
“But what came out of this dream? one might ask, if it wasn't a fantasy game? The warning came too late; it could not change, at least it did not change the course of affairs.”
Indeed, the dream of Pilate's wife did not change the fate that awaited the Lord: and, perhaps, if he could change it, he would not have been sent; but, nevertheless, he was needed and did his job.
Pilate's wife, of course, did not remain indifferent to the further fate of the Righteous One, Who touched her soul so strongly; she took part in the subsequent events of Christianity, came into contact with the disciples of Jesus and believed in Him.
A very ancient tradition claims that Procula, who is in the Greek calendar, is none other than Pilate's wife, who converted to Christianity and suffered torment for the name of the Righteous, Whom she could not save from execution.
Pilate himself did not remain deaf to his wife's warning, although, to his misfortune, he did not follow her advice. It was probably this that prompted him, before pronouncing the death sentence, to confirm his confidence in the innocence of the Lord by such an expressive action as washing his hands; it prompted him to solemnly call the Prisoner condemned to death the Righteous: this expression, obviously, was taken by him from his wife, who so called Jesus Christ.
Such testimony of the innocence of Jesus Christ from the lips of a pagan judge serves to the honor of the Christian religion, stops the lips of the enemies of Jesus, and subsequently could affect the hearts of the Jews themselves.
In addition, Providence by sending down a wonderful dream to Pilate's wife showed that He never allows a person to be tempted beyond his strength (1 Corinthians 10:13). Pilate faced the greatest temptation: in order to protect the innocent Prisoner, to refuse publicly the name of the friend of Caesar.
His conscience, weak in itself, without reliance on true religion, was bound to fall under the weight of this temptation. Meanwhile, Pilate has so far quite faithfully, apparently, followed her faint glimmer. And now, Providence sends her reinforcements from above. Pilate did not take advantage of heavenly admonition; but Providence justified its ways.
Without this, some of us, perhaps, would regret that Pilate, who made so many attempts to be just, was left to his own devices in such extreme circumstances.
The Lord appears among His accusers and judges in inimitable greatness of spirit. Plato, perhaps, would now have recognized his righteous man, whose image his soul was so full of, if he had been a witness to the trial of Jesus.
Now there are absolutely no traces of that bloody, exhausting struggle with Himself, which He experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane, in Him.
Now one can see the “lion from the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5), which, being bound by the invisible bonds of heavenly justice, appeared “a lamb that does not open its mouth” (Is. 53:7), when they lead him to the slaughter. While judges and accusers attributed everything to themselves, the Lord looks at them as instruments controlled by a higher power. By the Spirit, invisibly, He stood at another judgment - at the judgment of the Father, who "sanctified Him and sent Him into the world, that He might take away the sins of the human race with His body" (1 Peter 2:24).
This invisible judgment, which took place in the council of the trinitarian Divinity, no longer concerned one person of Jesus, but the whole world, the redemption of which was taken upon Himself by the Son of God. Here the enemy of the Lord was the prince of darkness, who was to lose dominion over the human race (John 12:31-32), the accuser was the very truth of God, demanding satisfaction for the sins of people being freed from eternal death.
Here, before the foundation of the world, a sentence was pronounced, which was now carried out before the face of heaven and earth. From this divine height, what did Pilate with his Pretoria mean to the Son of God, the Sanhedrin with his false witnesses, Herod with his courtiers? ..
Knowing that the cup of suffering could not pass by, the Lord calmly watched how it was filled to the brim before His eyes. However, His holy silence did not in the least hinder the correctness of judgment. To His personal enemies, the chief priests and scribes, He twice said more than they wanted to know: that He is the Messiah and that from now on they themselves will see in Him the Divine Judge.
Their blindness was the fault of their failing to heed this dreadful warning. The murderer of John demanded miracles, not words, although he was not worthy of either.
The Forerunner had already told him everything that could instill in his heart the love of justice, and his head, cut off to please Herodias, testified to what should be expected from the heart of Herod. Pilate did not receive an answer only when he asked out of curiosity, and not out of duty, and he knew the truth so much that, even condemning Jesus Christ to death, he was forced by his conscience to call Him Righteous.
A Roman horseman would have succumbed to the need to condemn the Righteous, even if he had heard some of the most eloquent speeches in His defense. “One, let him die for the people,” was the rule of more Roman than Jewish rule. In order to prevent the people from becoming indignant, in order to retain the title of friend of Caesar, the Jewish procurator would not have spared either Demosthenes or Cicero ...
The answers of Jesus Christ to the judges, for all their brevity, constantly express the highest wisdom. The seer of hearts saw the state of their conscience, and measured His answers more with it than with their faces and questions. Therefore, something in His words may not be entirely clear to us; something even, judging by the circumstances in which they were uttered, may seem as if inconsistent, while in fact all the words of the Lord were strong and convincing, as the example of Pilate proves best of all.
Most appearance The Lord, despite the torment and reproach, no doubt, was distinguished by inexpressible greatness and touching. If the crowd of people was not as sensitive to Him as one might expect, it was because, instigated by the scribes, inflamed with malice, they could not see themselves, one might say.
But look at the heathen judge! Each time, as soon as he enters into a personal conversation with the Divine Prisoner, even without receiving an answer to his questions, even being offended by His silence, he always returns to the accusers with a new conviction of the innocence of the Defendant.
What replaced words for him in such a case, took precedence over his vanity, if not the meek majesty of purity and holiness, shining, despite outward humiliation, in the face and eyes of the God-man? Is it not the same thing that curbed and kept from strict measures the tetrarch of Galilee, whose self-esteem suffered so much, not being honored with a single word in response to so many questions? ..
In general, the image of the judgment of Jesus Christ shows with all accuracy how wisely Providence controls human deeds: how, without violating human freedom, it brings its destinies to fulfillment through those very persons who oppose this fulfillment.
Apparently, everything happened by chance: everyone acted according to their own will, even according to passions, the most opposite: the money-loving Judas receives pieces of silver, the ambitious Sanhedrin avenges offended pride, the whimsical Herod wants to see a miracle, the man-pleasing Pilate is afraid of Caesar, rude soldiers indulge in ridicule; meanwhile, “visions and prophets are sealed, eternal righteousness is brought forth, the anointing is cut off, the city and the Jewish sanctuary are committed to destruction” (Dan. 9:24-26).
"Not! - we will say in the words of the famous priest-pastor, - it is not people who swear at God's majesty here, God's Providence laughs at human rampage, without violating freedom, forcing him to serve his highest wisdom.
It is not crafty servants who outwit the Lord: the all-good Father does not spare the Son, so as not to destroy the evil servants. It is not earthly enmity that wounds heavenly love; heavenly love is hidden in earthly enmity, in order to kill enmity with the death of love and spread the light and life of love through darkness and the shadow of death. “God love the world, and gave His only begotten Son to eat, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”