Pilate syndrome: clean hands are not a sign of rightness?

THOMAS

On the website of the magazine “Thomas” there has been a permanent column “Question to the Priest” for a long time. Each reader can ask his own question to receive a personal answer from the priest. But some of the questions cannot be answered in one letter - they require a detailed conversation. Some time ago an interesting question came to us: “Pilate is not guilty of anything?” We asked Alexander Tkachenko, a regular author of Thomas, to respond to this letter.

A person becomes clear to others through his actions and words. But the identity of Pontius Pilate remains mysterious, despite the fact that his words and actions during the trial of Jesus are described in sufficient detail in the Gospels. In all of Pilate’s behavior, one can see some kind of paradoxical duality, an amazing mixture of intentions, motives and decisions, which, it seems, should not be combined in one person.

Pilate takes pity on Christ and at the same time gives him over to be brutally beaten. He wants to let go for the sake of a holiday, but in the end he releases a criminal instead of Christ. He experiences fear when he learns that Christ called himself the Son of God, but is not afraid to give Him to be torn to pieces by the Jews. He tries to save - and he himself confirms His death sentence.

Such splitting of will, thoughts, feelings evokes a desire to simplify this contradictory picture, to see it in “black and white”, removing shades and halftones. And finally find out whether the fifth procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, was a calculating tyrant, cynical and cruel (although not devoid of sentiment), or a kind, but weak-willed person who was unable to make the only right decision at the right moment. In principle, the gospel story offers enough material for both one and the other options. But even with this approach, we still get, as it were, two figures of Pilate, one of which, by our choice, we simply take out of the scope of reasoning.

Therefore, for a more comprehensive understanding of this man, it makes sense to consider his personality in the context of his other actions that were not included in the Gospel in order to better understand who the fifth procurator of Judea was and who he was not.

Neither a coward nor a good man

First of all, it must be said that Pilate was not a sentimental good-natured person and a coward following the lead of the crowd. The very fact of his appointment to the post of procurator of Judea testifies to this most clearly. Of all the conquered lands, Judea was perhaps the most troubled acquisition of the Roman Empire.

Periodically breaking out uprisings, hidden resistance, the categorical reluctance of local residents to become subjects of Rome - all this created a lot of inconvenience for the ruler of this area. But the main surprise for the Romans in Judea was the fact that the inhabitants of the captured territory considered the invaders beneath them and did not at all strive to join the high imperial culture.

The Jews, who worshiped the One God, saw in the Romans ordinary pagan polytheists, communication with whom made them ritually unclean. For the Jews, any Roman was a bearer of idolatry and debauchery. Therefore, instead of the usual servility among captured peoples, the astonished “winners of the world” faced disgusted contempt in Judea. The usual tool of the Romans - assimilation, the dissolution of captured peoples in the melting pot of the Empire, turned out to be useless here: the Jews who entered the service of the Romans immediately became outcasts among their compatriots. The Law of Moses turned out to be an indestructible rock against which the waves of the famous laws of Rome broke in Judea. Instead of the assimilation that worked flawlessly in other places, only a fragile balance of relations was established here, ready at any moment to break into the bloody whirlwind of another uprising.

This is the area where Pontius Pilate was appointed ruler. A coward or a good-natured man could not have stayed there for even a month. Pilate ruled Judea for a whole decade, which characterizes him as a very tough and consistent person in his decisions.

Pilate and Jesus

Pilate and Jesus[1]

1. Sjmbolon

[2]
-
the creed, which enshrines the basic principles of the Christian faith, contains, in addition to “The Lord Jesus Christ” and “Virgin Mary”, a single proper name, completely alien - at least at first glance - to the theological context.
We are talking, moreover, about a pagan - Pontius Pilate: staurothenta tejper emon epi Pontiou Pilatou
(“crucified for us under Pontius Pilate”). In the “Creed”[3], which was adopted by the bishops in 325 in Nicaea[4], this name is not mentioned. It was added to the formula of the confession only in 381 after the Council of Constantinople[5], apparently in order to give the Passion of Christ a historical character, fixing this event in chronology. How about (Schmitt, p. 253)[6].

That Christianity is a historical religion and that the “sacraments” it tells of are also and primarily historical facts is beyond doubt. If we assume that the incarnation of Christ is “a historical event of infinity, a unity that can neither be appropriated nor embraced” (ibid.), then the trial of Jesus becomes one of the key moments in the history of mankind, the most important point of intersection of eternity with the course of history. In this case, it is especially important to understand how and why this intersection of the transitory and the eternal, the divine and the human, was transformed into a crisis,

that is, in court proceedings.

2. Why, in fact, Pilate? Something like Tibenou kaesaro[7] - an inscription on coins minted under Pilate, which initially inspires confidence, if only because it was with this phrase that Luke designated the date of the beginning of John’s preaching (Luke 3:1[8]) - or, for example , expressions sub Tiberio [9] (as in Dante, who pronounces in the voice of Virgil: “Born sub Julio,” Hell.

1, 70[10]), undoubtedly, would be much more consistent with the tasks set.
And if the holy fathers, gathered in Constantinople, preferred Tiberius Pilate, the prefect - or, as Tacitus called him (Annals. XV, 44 [11]) in one of the few non-biblical sources, the “procurator” of Judea - to Caesar, then it is possible that The obvious chronographic design prevailed over the significance of the role of Pilate in the gospel tales. The thoroughness with which John, as well as Mark, Luke and Matthew, describe his doubts, his confused and changeable judgments, literally conveying sometimes frankly mysterious words, convinces us that the evangelists are probably for the first time discovering something similar to the desire to create an image with their own unique psychology and speech. The expressiveness of this portrait prompts Lavater to exclaim in a letter to Goethe in 1781: “In him I see everything: heaven, earth and hell, virtue, sin, wisdom, madness, fate and freedom: he is a symbol of everything in the world.” We can say that Pilate is the only real “character” of the Gospel (Nietzsche described him in “The Anti-Christian” as follows: “in the entire New Testament only one
person -
Figur -
evokes respect for himself" [12]), he was the person who feelings of which we know at least something (“the ruler was greatly amazed,”
Matthew
27:14;
Mark
15:5; “he was more afraid,”
Mn.
19:8).
We also know about his indignation and fear (when, for example, he shouts to Jesus, who stands silently before him: “Do you not answer me? - this is oi laleis! -
Do you not know that I have the power to crucify You and the power to release You ?”[13]), about irony (at least some see irony in his notorious question: “What is truth?”), about hypocritical pedantry (as evidenced by the fact that he raises the question of Herod’s authority[14] , and then performs a ritual washing of his hands and thus, as he believes, cleanses himself from the blood of the condemned righteous), about irritation (the categorical “what I wrote, I wrote” thrown at the high priests who ask him to correct the inscription on the cross).
Moreover, we even briefly met his wife, who during the trial sends him to tell him not to condemn Jesus, “for I have now suffered much for Him in a dream” ( Matthew
27:19).

3. This attraction of the image to the real character will be noted by Mikhail Bulgakov in the amazing stories about Pilate that the devil tells in “The Master and Margarita”, and by Alexander Lernet-Holenia in the grandiose theological farce included in the novel “The Count of Saint-Germain”[15 ]. However, earlier evidence of this - in the texts that are persistently called the "apocrypha" of the New Testament (a term now used to mean "false, unreliable, but in reality meaning "hidden") - can be found in the presence of an authentic cycle about Pilate. First of all, in the Gospel of Nicodemus (Moraldi, pp. 567-588), where the scene of the trial of Jesus is presented in much more detail than in the Synoptic Gospels. When Jesus is brought before Pilate, the banners in the hands of the standard bearers miraculously bow before him. Twelve proselytes intervene in the trial and testify against the charge that Jesus was “born of adultery,” arguing that Joseph and Mary lived in marriage. Nicodemus also takes part in the process, who in turn also gives testimony in defense of Jesus. In general, the entire trial is dramatically presented here as a confrontation between the Jewish accusers, whom the author mentions one after another (Annas, Caiaphas, Summius and Datamus, Gamaliel, Judas, Levi, Alexander, Nephthalim and Jairus), and Pilate, who is constantly irritated and almost openly takes the side of Jesus, in particular because his wife “worships God and is now a Judaizer”[16]. The dialogue with Jesus about the truth, which breaks off in the Synoptic Gospels at Pilate’s question, here, as we will see later, continues and takes on a completely different meaning. Therefore, even more unexpected is the fact that Pilate yields to the persistent demands of the Jews and, succumbing to sudden fear, orders Christ to be scourged and crucified.

return 1

All links to primary sources given in brackets within the text are the author's. Others are listed in the endnotes.

All quotations, with the exception of specially stated cases, are given in M. Lepilova’s translation from the Italian original of the book by Giorgio Agamben.

return 2

Creed (Greek).

return 3

From lat. credo - “I believe.” The second name of the symbol of faith, as well as the first word of the initial of the twelve “members of the formula” that make it up: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible...”.

return 4

Nicene Creed - The creed adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which was convened by Emperor Constantine the Great in Nicaea (now Turkey). The Council of Nicea became the first Ecumenical Council in the history of Christianity. On it, in particular, a 7-point Creed was compiled, which became known as the Nicene Creed.

return 5

In 381, at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, an addition to the Nicene Creed was adopted, and the document was called the Nicene-Constantinople Creed or the Constantinople Creed. It was he who became widespread.

return 6

Here and below, the author’s clarifications are given in parentheses - see the “Bibliography” section of this edition.

return 7

Tiberius Caesar (Greek).

return 8

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was in charge of Judea, Herod was tetrarch in Galilee, Philip his brother was tetrarch in Ituraea and the Trachonite region, and Lysanias was tetrarch in Abilene, under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God was to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness." Here and below are quotes from the Synodal Translation of the Bible.

return 9

Under Tiberius (lat.).

return 10

Under Julius [Caesar], that is, in the days of Julius Caesar, the founder of the Roman Empire (killed in 44 BC). See: Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy / Trans. M. Lozinsky. M.: Nauka, 1968 (Series “Literary Monuments”). pp. 11,497.

return 11

“...This nickname comes from Christ, who during the reign of Tiberius was put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate...” - see: Tacitus. Annals // Jesus Christ in historical documents / Comp. and comm. B. Derevensky. St. Petersburg: Aletheya, 2013. P. 85.

return 12

Quote based on the book: Nietzsche F., Freud Z., Fromm E., Camus A., Sartre J. P. Twilight of the Gods. M.: Publishing House of Political Literature, 1990. P. 68.

return 13

In. 19:10.

return 14

Here we are talking about Herod Antipas (see: Luke 23:7–15).

return 15

See: Lernet–Holenia A. Der Graf von Saint Germain. Zurich: Morgarten Verlag, 1948.

return 16

Gospel of Nicodemus, 2:1; cit. from the book: Jesus Christ in the documents of history. P. 126.

First scandal

Pilate immediately noted his assumption of office, as Josephus Flavius wrote about, as a scandal. When he led his troops to Jerusalem for the winter, he ordered all public places to be decorated at night with banners depicting the emperor. None of his predecessors dared to do this, knowing that for the Jews any image was prohibited by the Law of Moses. This was a direct violation of the faith of the local residents. But

From the very first days of his reign, Pilate decided to explain to the rebellious Jews that their quiet life was over, and now only Rome would determine how they should live on their land.

During this action, Pilate himself prudently remained in Caesarea (the residence of the Roman governors, located a hundred kilometers from Jerusalem) in order to confront the Jews with a fait accompli. Waking up, the inhabitants of Jerusalem saw with horror that their city had been desecrated with pagan images. Many Jews went to Caesarea that same day to ask Pilate to remove the banners from Jerusalem. But Pilate remained adamant. Then those who came lay down on the ground in front of his palace and lay there for five days. On the sixth day of this protest, Pilate invited everyone to the stadium, ostensibly to announce his decision. But when the Jews, encouraged by this promise, arrived at the place, they were immediately surrounded by a triple ring of armed legionnaires. Pilate, seated on the judge's chair, announced that anyone who did not accept the imperial images would be immediately chopped into pieces. The legionnaires drew their swords.

The response of the Jews was unexpected. As if on cue, all those who came fell to the ground again and bared their necks, demonstrating their immediate readiness to die for the observance of the Jewish Law. Pilate was surprised by such determination. It was not the custom of the Romans to feel sorry for the rebellious natives, but Pilate did not want to begin his reign with a mass execution. He promised the brave intercessors to remove the banners from Jerusalem and released them in peace. However, he outlined his position in relation to the local residents very clearly: the Roman ruler can pardon, but he can also punish, the whole life of the Jews is now in the hands of the emperor’s governor, and any attempts to defend their rights can end in great blood.

Day of Terror

And this great blood was shed. Moreover, this happened just at the moment when Pilate decided to bless the inhabitants of Jerusalem with one of the main achievements of Roman culture - running water. Like any city in the Middle East, Jerusalem experienced a shortage of fresh water. To solve this problem, Pilate decided to build an aqueduct that would pour additional volumes of water from mountain springs located more than forty kilometers from Jerusalem into the city water supply system. This was a very serious construction that cost a lot of money. The taxes paid by the Jews were not enough for him. And Pilate decided to take money for the water supply from the corvan - the temple treasury.

The people, outraged by such sacrilege, gathered in crowds of thousands near the water pipeline under construction, cursing Pilate with the last words and demanding a stop to construction. Pilate reacted quickly and decisively. Arriving in Jerusalem, he agreed to listen to all those dissatisfied. Already knowing that it was useless to intimidate and convince the Jews when it came to their shrines, Pilate ordered the Roman legionnaires to put on local dress and arm themselves with clubs, hiding them under their clothes for the time being.

Thousands of disguised warriors surrounded the crowd, waiting for the signal. When the indignant people refused to disperse, Pilate gave a command from the rostrum - and a bloody massacre began.

Well-trained soldiers began to mercilessly beat unarmed people, breaking arms and legs, breaking ribs, smashing heads. The crowd rushed to run in horror, trampling to death their unfortunate compatriots on their way. Many residents of Jerusalem died during this terrible “audience” with Pilate. The lesson was learned. After him, the people no longer dared to undertake mass uprisings against the fifth procurator of Judea.

Ready for anything

However, the absence of mass unrest did not make Pilate softer towards the local residents. The Gospel tells about a case when, on his orders, certain Galileans were brutally killed right near the Jerusalem temple, to which they brought their sacrifices. The details of this story are unknown, but judging by the fact that the Galileans were the most rebellious part of the rebellious people, it can be assumed that the murder was an ordinary act of intimidation of those who had not yet resigned themselves to the cruel power of Pilate.

Finally, he ended his reign with the massacre of the Samaritans, who tried to carry out unauthorized excavations on Mount Gorezin.

Some adventurer announced to the people that he knew the place on the slope where the prophet Moses hid the sacred vessels. The Samaritans believed this fable and gathered in a large crowd in the village of Tirafane. More and more participants in the upcoming excavations were drawn up here so that they could all climb the mountain together. Pilate reacted to this event in his usual manner. Considering that those gathered were starting a riot, he sent out detachments of horsemen and infantry, who, unexpectedly attacking, killed many innocent people in Tirafana. Pilate ordered the public execution of the noble inhabitants of Samaria who were captured there.

After this senseless massacre, even the Roman authorities did not dare to leave Pilate as governor in Judea. He was removed from office and summoned to Rome for trial.

Therefore, the talk that during the trial of Jesus the procurator was allegedly afraid of popular unrest and followed the lead of the crowd looks like an implausible version. Where the procurator considered it necessary, he was ready to shed the blood of the rebellious natives without the slightest doubt and in any quantity.

Suicide death?

If the only evidence telling about the fate of Pilate were to consider only the Gospel, then news about him would disappear immediately after the crucifixion and burial of Christ. We don’t know how he died or what actions he committed.

However, the apocryphal "Mors Pilati", written many years after the evangelical events, tells a common version, especially in Germany, of the suicide of the prefect, presented as a brutal tyrant. As if to confirm this version, we read from Eusebius of Caesarea in his work “History of the Church” (4th century AD): “During the reign of Gaius, a great misfortune struck Pilate. He encroached on his life and became his own independent cat, and soon divine vengeance descended on him. Greek writers talk about this...”

According to legend, the body of the Roman procurator was thrown into the Tiber, but “the waters were disturbed by evil spirits, so the body floated to Vienna and sank in the Rhone.” That is, it came to the territory of modern Switzerland in the areas of Lake Geneva. According to legend, the remains still float up in the mountain pond on Mount Pilatus every Good Friday. The vast mountain range in the Alps is more than 1,200 meters above sea level and, although it seems unlikely, it owes its name to an ancient legend.

What could Caiaphas do?

In The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov proceeds from the fact that Pilate was afraid of some kind of complex intrigue on the part of the high priests. But this is unlikely to be the case in reality. And the reason for this was not his personal courage or consciousness of his rightness. Everything was much simpler: Pilate had the supreme power in Judea and had the right not only to decide issues of life and death, but also at his discretion could appoint or overthrow the Jewish high priests. For example, four high priests were replaced by his predecessor, the fourth procurator of Judea, Valery Grat. By the time of the trial of Jesus, Caiaphas had been safely and permanently in this post for eight whole years of the reign of the merciless and brutal Pilate. This could become possible only in one case - if Caiaphas completely satisfied the procurator and did not pose any danger to him.

At the slightest suspicion, Pilate had the opportunity to immediately, without any approval, remove him and put someone else in his place. True, according to Jewish law, the high priest was chosen by the Sanhedrin and retained his title for life. But how much do local laws mean in an occupied territory...

The high priest, the symbol of the highest religious authority of the Jews, turned out to be an obedient puppet in the hands of Rome in those days.

Even the ritual vestments of the high priest were kept by the procurator, who issued them to the owner only four times a year on major holidays. It is unlikely that Pilate had serious reasons to fear someone who was so deeply dependent on him.

High Priest Caiaphas. Gustav Dore. 1875

Pilate of Pontus

Ancient chroniclers wrote that Pontius Pilate was “the Roman governor of Judea in the years 26-36 after the birth of Christ.” The adjective used before his name indicates that he was from Pontus. It was an ancient land in northeastern Asia Minor (now part of Turkey), conquered by Rome in 63 BC.

Although there are no sources telling about the early life of Pontius Pilate, it is known that at the peak of his career he was both procurator and governor of Judea. He also ordered that he be called prefect. Despite this, his name went down in history thanks to Jesus, whom he crucified under the pressure of the Sanhedrin.

If not for him, history would probably never mention his actions. Besides the Gospel, the most important documents remembering Pilate are the works of Josephus, Philo of Alexandria and Tacitus.

Irrefutable proof of the historicity of this person is also considered the so-called “Pilate’s Stone”, discovered in 1961 in Caesarea Maritime obelisk, which, in addition to the name visible on it, ascribes to Pontius Pilate the title of prefect of Judea. Coins (prutas) that were minted by Pilate in the territory he ruled during the reign of Emperor Tiberius have also been preserved. It was precisely by his will that he took the post of prefect of Judea, as the successor of Valery Grat.

Out of harm

However, in his desire to “bend” the Jews under himself, Pilate was often guided not even by the state interests of Rome, but by ordinary human harmfulness and the desire to annoy the natives. Through this addiction, he sometimes put himself in a very awkward position in front of the emperor himself. The historian Philo of Alexandria talks about a very significant case of this kind in the text “On the Embassy to Gaius”:

“One of Tiberius’s men was Pilate, who became the governor of Judea, and so, not so much for the honor of Tiberius as for the grief of the people, he dedicated gilded shields to Herod’s palace in Jerusalem; there were no images on them or anything else blasphemous, with the exception of a short inscription: they say, dedicated such and such in honor of such and such *. When the people understood everything - and this was a serious matter, then, putting forward the four sons of the king, who were not inferior to the king either in dignity or fate, and his other offspring, as well as simply powerful persons, he began to ask that the matter with the shields be corrected and not touch the ancient customs, which were kept for centuries and were inviolable for both kings and autocrats. He began to persist, because he was by nature cruel, self-confident and unforgiving; then a cry arose: “Don’t start a rebellion, don’t start a war, don’t destroy the world!” Dishonoring ancient laws does not mean honoring the autocrat! Let Tiberius not be a pretext for attacks on an entire people; he does not want to destroy any of our laws. And if he wants, then say so directly with an order, a letter, or some other way, so that we don’t bother you anymore, we would elect ambassadors and ask the bishop ourselves.”

The latter especially embarrassed Pilate; he was afraid that the Jews would actually send an embassy and discover other aspects of his rule, telling about bribes, insults, extortion, excesses, malice, continuous executions without trial, terrible and senseless cruelty. And this man, whose irritation aggravated his natural anger, found himself in a difficulty: he did not dare to remove what had already been dedicated; 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. Those gathered 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, did not call Pilate as much 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 a response to Pilate, where he completely scolds and condemns him for his daring innovation, and orders him to immediately remove the shields and send them to Caesarea, which was done. Thus, neither the honor of the autocrat was shaken, nor his usual attitude towards the city.”

It is easy to see that contradictory actions in situations of conflict with the Jews were not something out of the ordinary for Pilate. “For the sake of upsetting the people,” he was ready to engage in confrontation, even to the point of intervention by Caesar himself. And arguing that the fifth procurator of Judea was allegedly afraid of the collective complaint of local residents, Philo of Alexandria is rather wishful thinking. According to his own testimony, Pilate was Tiberius' man. That is, a close, reliable and repeatedly proven comrade-in-arms, of whom the emperor did not have many. Pilate collected taxes regularly, roads, bridges and water pipelines were built under his rule, and rebellions were suppressed. Bribes, extortion and the malice of Pilate were unlikely to interest Caesar enough to outweigh the relative stability that the fifth procurator provided in this troubled region. For ten years Pilate, despite all the outrages he committed, remained Tiberius' governor in Judea. And he was removed only after his death. It seems that if the complaints of the Jews could have harmed him in any way, he would have behaved much more modestly and prudently.

Pontius Pilate in history and Christian legend

Lev Elnitsky

It has long been noted that the name of the Roman imperial governor in the years 26–36 in Judea - Pontius Pilate - is mentioned in early Christian literature only in connection with the circumstances of the execution of Jesus Christ. At the same time, the gospels try to present the matter in such a way that Pilate did not want the death of Jesus; it was demanded by the Jews, who shouted: “... let him be crucified!” Pilate, seeing that nothing was helping, and the confusion was increasing, took water, washed his hands in front of the people and said: “I am not guilty of the blood of this righteous man - see.” And, answering, all the people said: “His blood be on us and on our children.” Pilate is presented as particularly friendly to Christianity in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter.

In this regard, some historians of ancient Christianity, and among them the most zealous Andrei Nemoevsky [], were inclined to deny the historicity of the Gospel Pontius Pilate, believing that he was nothing more than a purely mythical and symbolic figure (Pilatus - from pilus - spear. Homo pilatus - spearman), specially attracted by the evangelists in connection with the legend of the execution of Christ.

A. Nemoevsky considered the information about Pontius Pilate as the Roman governor in Judea preserved in the writings of the ancient Jewish writers of that time Philo of Alexandria (“Embassy to Gaius”) and Josephus Flavius (“Jewish Antiquities”) to be interpolated (that is, inserted later), similar to reports about Christ by the last of the ancient authors just named. There is, however, no basis for such suspicions, if only for the fact that Pontius Pilate in the writings of Philo and Josephus is described completely differently than in Christian literature. Church writings increasingly presented Pilate as a supporter of Christianity. If the gospels characterize him as a gentle ruler who did not want harm to Christ and only did not dare to reject the demand of the Jews who longed for his execution, then later church historical works tell us that Pilate’s wife, Proclus, was a Christian, and he himself sympathized with Christians. Even later Christian apocrypha directly insist on the Christianity of Pontius Pilate, and the Ethiopian church canonized him.

Philo and Josephus unanimously testify to Pilate’s unprecedented cruelty towards the Jews, his contempt for their customs and his insult to their religious feelings. According to Josephus, Pilate transferred the Roman troops stationed in Caesarea Palestine, which served as the seat of the Roman governor, to Jerusalem for winter quarters, which his predecessors, Valerius Gratus and Annius Rufus, never did in order to avoid any excesses. He erected military standards in Jerusalem with images of the emperor, while Jewish religious law did not tolerate any human images as idolatrous. His predecessors never did this either.

He built an aqueduct (water pipeline) to Jerusalem, without hesitation taking funds for this from the Jewish sacred treasury and diverting springs that flowed 200 stadia (3 km) from Jerusalem, which again aroused the Jewish population against himself. Hearing threats from the Jews against him, he sent disguised Roman legionnaires with clubs hidden under their dresses to the gatherings of people. They beat the Jerusalem residents, mostly old people, who expressed their indignation, even more mercilessly than they had been ordered to do. Many were killed, others were mutilated.

Josephus Flavius and Philo accuse Pontius Pilate of very brutally suppressing the uprising raised against him by the Samaritans at Mount Gerizim, after which the ruler of Syria, Lucius Vitellius, to whom Pilate was subordinate, removed him from office and ordered him to go to Rome to give an account of his actions to Emperor Tiberius . Both Jewish writers emphasize that the Jews did not rebel against Roman power in general, but only against the cruelties of Pontius Pilate and his mockery of their shrines.

In addition, they make absolutely no mention of any relationship between Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ and Christianity. In the corresponding place of Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews there are several lines dedicated to Christ, but they are unconditionally recognized as a later insertion made by some overly pious Christian falsifier to give credibility and weight to the Gospel story.

That the corresponding passage was inserted into the text of Josephus by some Christian theologian is evident first of all from the fact that it speaks of Christ as God: “... there lived Jesus, a wise man, if one can call him a man. He was Christ,” which Josephus, who was a devout Jew, could not afford. In addition, back in the 3rd century AD. The Christian writer Origen reproaches Josephus in his polemics precisely because he does not consider Jesus to be the Christ. And the church historian Eusebius, who lived a hundred years later, already quotes the indicated passage from “Jewish Antiquities,” from which we can conclude that this insertion was made approximately at the turn of the 3rd–4th centuries, near the time of the Nicene Ecumenical Council (325 AD .).

And since the ancient Jewish messages about Pontius Pilate turn out to be unrelated to the legend of Jesus Christ, there is no reason to doubt the actual existence of the Roman governor in Judea Pontius Pilate, the authenticity and historical consistency of the information about his activities contained in the writings of Philo of Alexandria and Josephus.

That all this is really exactly so can be judged recently from some completely indisputable documentary data. The fact that Pontius Pilate actually existed and was the Roman governor of Judea under the emperor Tiberius is confirmed by a Latin inscription composed by him and found in 1961 during excavations in Caesarea Palestine (modern El-Qaisariyeh) []. The inscription is damaged (the stone on which it is carved was later used as building material in the construction of a theater building in the 4th century AD), but it shows that the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate built and dedicated a memorial structure (Tiberium) to Emperor Tiberius.

This inscription, in addition to the fact that it finally, for the first time, accurately documents the stay and activities of Pontius Pilate in Palestine - around 30 AD, is significantly important in one more respect. The fact is that Pilate is called in it a prefect, and not a procurator, as in the gospels and other later Latin Christian texts (in Josephus he is called epitrope in Greek, which literally means “vicar”). The fact that Pilate turned out to be a prefect, and not a procurator, is important in the following respect: the governors of some provinces or parts of them began to be called procurators only at a relatively later time (in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD), but in an earlier period, procurators officials and other private (rather than state) agents of the emperor or members of the imperial family, mainly in financial matters, were called. The official administrators, who were at the same time commanders of military units, were usually called prefects. Therefore, already earlier, some experts in ancient Roman administrative terminology (such as, for example, the famous German historians of Rome T. Mommsen and O. Hirschfeld) said that Pilate, due to his position, should have been titled not a procurator, but a prefect.

In historical science, there has been a lot of debate about whether the testimony about Jesus Christ contained in the “Annals” of the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, writing at the beginning of the 2nd century AD, is genuine or forged later. In § 44 of Book XV of the Annals it is said that Christ, a Jewish preacher, was executed by the procurator Pontius Pilate. It is this detail - the fact that Pilate is called here a procurator, and not a prefect, as in the newly found Caesarea inscription, that apparently resolves in a negative sense the question of the authenticity of this controversial passage in Cornelius Tacitus. It is unlikely that the famous historian, well versed in the titulary of the Roman provincial administration, could have made such a mistake. But it is completely natural for any Christian theologian who lived a hundred or two hundred years later, when officials like Pilate were actually called procurators.

It is also very significant that the name of Pontius Pilate is connected with Jesus Christ and Christianity in general only in Christian literature, and not at all in Jewish and ancient pagan literature.

It has been repeatedly suggested that Pontius Pilate, as a Roman official, could not have had anything to do with the trial of Jesus Christ if such a trial had actually occurred. A Roman governor could judge or bring to justice a person who opposed the Roman imperial power, while Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel story, did not speak out against Rome, but only against the Jewish church, that is, he was not a political, but a religious criminal. Such crimes were not within the jurisdiction of the Roman administration, but only of the Jewish Sanhedrin [].

Documentary data of another kind, testifying to the activities of Pontius Pilate, are copper coins minted in Judea during his reign (26–36 AD). E. Stauffer, who studied these coins, notes a significant difference in the nature of the symbols depicted on the Jewish coins of Pontius Pilate and other Roman rulers of Judea. While they used all sorts of neutral symbols (like a tree, a palm branch or some other purely ornamental motifs), the coins of Pontius Pilate feature Roman cult objects, such as a priestly staff (lituus) or a ladle for sacrificial libations (simpulum ). The fact that coins with similar Roman religious symbols met with hostility from the Jewish population of Palestine is evidenced by their re-minting under Pontius Pilate’s successor, Felix. The signs on the coins that were unacceptable to the Jews were blanked out and replaced with others that were religiously neutral.

Thus, the study of the Jewish coins of Pontius Pilate fully confirms his characterization as the ruler of Judea, which is contained in the writings of contemporary Hebrew writers - Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. These coins testify to Pilate's hostile attitude towards the Jews and his contempt for their religious laws. While other Roman rulers were looking for contacts with the Jewish socio-religious elite and sought to pacify the Jewish population, Pontius Pilate did not know how and did not want to take into account local customs, and when protests from the Judaism he resorted - secretly or openly - to armed force, by which he created for himself the reputation of the most cruel and hostile foreign ruler that Judea had ever known. His fame in this regard spread far beyond the borders of Palestine among the Jewish dispersion (diaspora) - in Syria, Asia Minor and Egypt - in all those countries where, among the highly Hellenized (Greek) Judaism in its culture, settled there especially after the Roman-Jewish war of 66–70, a Christian doctrine arose, the bearers of which were originally heretical Jewish sects who fought against Orthodox Judaism, which was no longer acceptable to them due to its extreme religious exclusivity.

Members of these sects - the oldest Judeo-Christians - as a rule, representatives of the most oppressed social strata - hated the Roman imperial power, the symbol of which for them was the cruel ruler of Judea, Pontius Pilate. It is precisely this fame of a cruel Roman official and military leader, which spread among the Judeo-Christian environment, that Pontius Pilate owes to the fact that his name turned out to be so closely connected with the legendary biography of Jesus Christ.

However, later, when the Christian faith established itself among broad sections of the population of the Roman Empire and when the leaders of Christian communities began to look for ways to reconcile with the Roman authorities, Pontius Pilate from the original enemy of Christianity began to turn into its friend. It was at this time that the Gospel story arose - lines from it are given at the beginning of this article - which, removing responsibility for the execution of Jesus from Pontius Pilate as a representative of the Roman government, shifts it to the Jews, because with the Jews by this time as with The Christian Church no longer wanted to have anything in common with the sworn enemies of the Roman state. And only by irony of fate was it precisely that one of the Roman governors in Judea, who, due to his contempt for the people he ruled, did not want to know anything about their religious beliefs, and even less about the heretical sects generated by the struggle of these beliefs - it was he who became one of bright characters of the legend of Christ, experienced the evolution characteristic of the history of this legend and became widespread in church and secular literature, as well as in the fine arts.

Notes

Wrong. See, for example, L. 13: 1: “...they came to Jesus and told about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed in the Temple while they were making a sacrifice” (approx. A.B.

)

. Nemoevsky A.

God Jesus. Origin and composition of the gospels. - Pg., 1920. - P. 228.

. Elnntsky L.A.

Caesarea inscription of Pontius Pilate // Bulletin of ancient history. - 1966. - No. 3. - P. 142, seq. Compare: Lvov L.A. Inscription of Pontius Pilate // Questions of history. - 1966. - No. 7. - P. 194, seq.

. Lietzmann H.

Der Prozess Jesu. Forschungen und Fortschritte. - 1931. - 7. - No. 20. - S.280.

. Stauffer E.

Münzprägung und Judenpolitik des Pontius Pilatus // La nouvelle Clio. 1960. - No. 9: Octobre. - P. 496, seq.

Source: Prometheus. - M.: Mol. Guard, 1972. - T.9. — P.316–319

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Pagan Fear

In the Gospels we read only one direct mention of Pilate being afraid during the trial. And this did not happen at the moment when it was announced to him that the defendant considered himself a king. Pilate simply ignored these accusations. But when the Jews abruptly changed the plot and said that Jesus should die as having arbitrarily declared His Divine origin, the ruthless and extravagant procurator suddenly became afraid, and, as it is said in the Gospel - to the superlative degree: ... we have a law, and according to our law He must die because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard this word, he became more afraid (John 19:7-8). And only after this, from the moment when Jesus told him ... you would not have any power over Me if it had not been given to you from above, Pilate began to look for ways to let Him go.

Today it is difficult for us to reconstruct the logic of a Roman pagan, so we are somehow trying to derive an explanation for Pilate’s actions at trial from certain abstract moral and ethical motives that are in no way related to his religiosity. But Pilate was a pagan and believed that every nation has its own local deities with whom he has no reason to quarrel. The Romans usually accorded the gods of conquered territory the same honors as the gods of Rome. True, the God of the Jews was not at all like other gods; His image could not be placed in one’s home pantheon due to the lack of such an image. However, Pilate had no desire to be at enmity with this incomprehensible God.

And then it suddenly turns out that he had just scourged the Son of God. In the Roman religious tradition, this phrase was used to name demigods - children born from the love of a deity and a person, such as Aeneas, Hercules or Aesculapius. And although the exhausted, bloodied Jesus looked least like an ancient hero, Pilate was afraid.

He saw the height of human dignity with which Jesus behaved during the trial. I saw His innocence and nobility. He saw the injustice of condemning Him to death by the Jews, and he himself recognized Jesus as innocent. To annoy the Jews, Pilate even tried to challenge their verdict and made his own - to subject Jesus to scourging (the most severe beating with Roman whips, in which pieces of metal were woven) and release.

However, the Jews continued to demand the death of Jesus, and Pilate unexpectedly found out that he had ordered the local “demigod” to be scourged. And then he became scared. Pilate did not add courage to the news from his wife, who sent a servant to him to say: ...do nothing to the Righteous One, because now in a dream I have suffered a lot for Him (Matthew 27:19). The version about the divine origin of the accused received further confirmation. Pilate urgently needed to make amends for his guilt. But all his attempts to save Jesus were crushed by the frantic cry of the crowd “Crucify Him!”

Jesus before Pilate. Condemning the Lord to Death

The content of the article

So Jesus is in the ruler's house. Pilate was one of those people for whom personal peace is more valuable than truth, more valuable than anything else. Meanwhile, he had the difficult task of defending Jesus, against whom the Jews were so irritated. Pilate himself did not suspect anything worthy of condemnation in Him and understood that the only reason for the anger against Jesus was religious fanaticism and the envy of the high priests. But he understood the danger to himself from the vengeful spiritual leaders of the Jewish people, who in their bitterness would not spare him. If you go against them, then they will be able to arouse the suspicions of the Roman government itself if they present Pilate as the defender of a Jew, whom the people are ready to recognize as king.

Like any pagan of that time, an unbeliever and indifferent to the sense of moral duty and to any religion, Pilate himself was not an evil person. However, despite all his contempt for the Jews and their religious strife, he becomes an instrument of the Pharisees’ malice against Christ. Pilate does not save their Victim, even innocent in his eyes, but betrays Him completely to the hatred of enraged murderous enemies. And thus he himself becomes guilty of the death of Christ.

-What do you accuse This Man of? - Pilate addressed the obligatory question to Jesus’ accusers.

“If He had not been a villain, we would not have betrayed Him to you,” they arrogantly answered Pilate.

Having finally realized what embittered people he was dealing with, and realizing that it was unsafe to expose himself to the prejudice of Emperor Tiberius against himself, Pilate did not hesitate to give in to them. However, he tried to distance himself from interfering in their obviously unjust cause. “Take Him, and judge Him according to your law,” he decided at first, but the Jews objected to him that they “are not allowed to put anyone to death” without the permission of the Roman authority placed over them.

“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 the chief priests delivered You up 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 betrayed to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate said to Him: So are You a King? Jesus answered: You say that I am a King. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I came into the world, to testify to the truth; everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice. Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

And, finally convinced that the words of Jesus did not contain anything outrageous against the actual power of the Romans, to protect which he was appointed, “he went out to the Jews and said to them: I find no guilt in Him.” (John 18, 29–38)

“But they insisted, saying that He was stirring up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee to this place. Pilate, hearing about Galilee, asked: Is He a Galilean? And having learned that He was from Herod’s region, He sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem these days. Herod, seeing Jesus, was very happy, for he had long wanted to see Him, because he had heard a lot about Him, and hoped to see some miracle from Him, and asked Him many questions, but He did not answer him. The chief priests and scribes stood and vigorously accused Him. But Herod and his soldiers, having humiliated Him and mocked Him, dressed Him in light 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. Pilate, having called the high priests and rulers and the people, said to them: you have brought this man to me as one who corrupts the people; and behold, I examined before you and did not find this man guilty of anything of which you accuse Him; and Herod also, for I sent Him to him; and nothing was found in Him worthy of death; So, having punished Him, I will release Him.” (Luke 23:5–16)

On the Easter holiday, the ruler had the following “custom of releasing to the people one prisoner they wanted. At that time they had a famous prisoner called Barabbas (who was imprisoned for causing disturbance and murder in the city); So, when they had gathered, Pilate said to them: whom do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called Christ? for he knew that they had betrayed Him out of envy.”

“While he was sitting in the judgment seat, his wife sent him to say: Do not do anything to the Righteous One, because now in a dream I have suffered a lot for Him.

But the chief priests and elders stirred up the people to ask Barabbas and to destroy Jesus. Then the governor asked them: which of the two do you want me to release to you? They said: Barabbas. Pilate says to them: What will I do to Jesus, who is called Christ? Everyone tells him: let him be crucified. The ruler said: what evil has He done? But they shouted even more loudly: let him be crucified.” (Matt. 27, 15–23)

The beating of Christ. Pilate washes his hands

“Then Pilate took Jesus and ordered him to be beaten. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns, placed it on His head, and dressed Him in purple, and said: Hail, King of the Jews! and they struck Him on the cheeks. Pilate went out again and said to them: Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, so that you may know that I do not find any guilt in Him. Then Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns and a scarlet robe. And Pilate said to them: Behold, Man! When the high priests and ministers saw Him, they shouted: Crucify Him, crucify Him!

Pilate says to them: Take Him and crucify Him; for I find no fault in Him. The Jews answered him: We have a law, and according to our law He must die, because He made Himself the Son of God.

Pilate, hearing this word, became more afraid. And again he entered the praetorium and said to Jesus: Where are you from? But Jesus did not give him an answer. Pilate says to Him: Do you not answer me? Don’t you know that I have the power to crucify You and the power to release You? Jesus answered: You would not have any power over Me if it had not been given to you from above; therefore there is greater sin on him who delivered Me to you. From that time on, Pilate sought to release Him. The Jews shouted: if you let Him go, you are not a friend of Caesar; Anyone who makes himself a king is an opponent of Caesar. Pilate, having heard this word, brought Jesus out and sat down at the judgment seat, on a place called Liphostroton (stone platform), and in Hebrew Gavvatha. Then it was the Friday before Easter, and it was six o’clock. And Pilate said to the Jews: Behold, your King! But they shouted: take him, take him, crucify him! Pilate says to them: Shall I crucify your king? The high priests answered: We have no king except Caesar.” (John 19, 1–15)

Then “Pilate, seeing that nothing was helping, but the confusion was increasing, took water and washed his hands before the people, and said: I am innocent of the blood of this Righteous One; look you. And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

And then, finally, Pilate “beat Jesus and delivered him up to be crucified.” (Matt. 27, 24–26)

Crucifixion of the Lord

“And when they led Him away, they seized a certain Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the field, and laid a cross on him to carry after Jesus. And a great multitude of people and women followed Him, weeping and lamenting for Him. Jesus turned to them and said: Daughters of Jerusalem! Do not weep for Me, but weep for yourself and for your children, for the days are coming in which they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not given birth, and the breasts that have not nursed! then they will begin to say to the mountains: fall on us! and the hills: cover us! For if they do this to a green tree, what will happen to a dry tree?

They also led two villains with Him to death. And when they came to a place called Lobnoye, they crucified Him and the villains there, one on the right and the other on the left. Jesus said: Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

And the people stood and watched. The rulers also mocked them, saying, “He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ, God’s chosen one.” Likewise, the soldiers mocked Him, coming up and offering Him vinegar and saying: If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.

And there was an inscription over Him, written (by order of Pilate) in Greek, Roman and Hebrew words: This is the King of the Jews.” (Luke 23, 26–38)

“Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city. The chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate: Do not write: King of the Jews, but what He said: I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered: What I wrote, I wrote.

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier, and a tunic; The tunic was not sewn, but entirely woven on top. So they said to each other: we will not tear him apart, but let us cast lots for him, whose it will be, so that what was spoken in Scripture may be fulfilled: they divided My garments among themselves and cast lots for My clothing (see Ps. 21:19). This is what the warriors did." (John 19, 20–24)

“One of the hanged villains slandered Him and said: if You are the Christ, save Yourself and us. The other, on the contrary, calmed Him down and said: Or are you not afraid of God, when you yourself are condemned to the same thing? and we are condemned justly, because we accepted what was worthy of our deeds, but He did nothing bad. And he said to Jesus: remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom! And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

“At the cross of Jesus stood His Mother and His Mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus, seeing His Mother and the disciple standing there, whom He loved, said to His Mother: Woman! Behold, Your son. Then he says to the disciple: Behold, your Mother! And from that time on, this disciple (John the Theologian) took Her to him.” (Luke 23, 39–43. John 19, 25–27)

Death of the Savior

Some of those standing there heard it and said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.” And one ran, filled a sponge with vinegar, and putting it on a reed, gave Him a drink, saying, “Wait, let’s see if Elijah comes to take Him down.”

“After this Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. When he tasted the vinegar, he said, “It is done!” (Mark 15, 33–36. John 19, 28, 30)

“Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said: Father! into Your hands I commend My spirit.” “And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.”

“And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook; and the stones dissipated; and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were resurrected and, coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. The centurion and those who were guarding Jesus with him, seeing the earthquake and everything that happened, were greatly afraid and said: Truly this was the Son of God.” (Luke 23, 46. John 19, 30. Matthew 27, 51–54)

“And all the people who had gathered to see this spectacle, seeing what was happening, returned, beating their chests. And all those who knew Him, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood afar off and beheld this.”

“But since it was Friday then, the Jews, so as not to leave the bodies on the cross on Saturday - for that Saturday was a great day - asked Pilate to break their legs and take them off. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus, when they saw Him already dead, they did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers pierced His ribs with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. And he who saw it bore witness, and his testimony is true; he knows that he speaks the truth so that you may believe. For this happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: Let not His bone be broken (see Ex. 12:46). Also in another place the Scripture says: they will look at Him whom they have pierced (see Zech. 12:10).” (Luke 23:48–49. John 19:31–37) Burial of the Savior

Descent from the Cross

“And Pilate allowed it. He went and took down the body of Jesus. Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also came and brought a composition of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred liters. So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in swaddling clothes with spices, as the Jews are wont to bury.

At the place where He was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden there was a new tomb (carved into the rock), in which no one had yet been laid. They laid Jesus there for the sake of the Friday of the Jews (and the coming of the Sabbath), because the tomb was near.” (Luke 23, 50–52. John 19, 38–42)

“And having rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb,” they departed. There were also “women who came with Jesus from Galilee, and looked at the tomb, and how His body was laid out; Having returned, they prepared incense and ointments; and on the Sabbath they remained at rest according to the commandment.” (Matt. 27, 60. Luke 23, 55–56)

Washed my hands

Here something happened that is so difficult for readers of the Gospel to understand today. If Pilate's goal had been to save Jesus, he would have stopped at nothing. He would have given the command to the Praetorians, flooded the square with the blood of the dissatisfied, dispersed all the survivors and released the Righteous One, as he wanted. But the fact of the matter is that the salvation of Jesus was not the main goal of his attempts to reverse the verdict of the Jews. Pilate just wanted to avert divine punishment from himself - the wrath of the Father of the “demigod” he had beaten. One of the options here was indeed the release of the Righteous One. But when Pilate saw that the Jews were not in a mood to make any compromises and demanded only the blood of Jesus, he did not force them. He decided to perform the appropriate ritual to free him from guilt. And in order to more reliably please the offended local Deity, the ritual was also chosen from the local religious law.

Morning of the Resurrection. James Martin, www.james-martinartist.co.uk. 1998

The phrase “I wash my hands of it” has long been common in many languages and means something like “I did everything I could, and now I am absolving myself of responsibility for what happened.” It began to be used in this meaning after...Pilate, seeing that nothing was helping, but the confusion was increasing, took water and washed his hands before the people, and said: I am innocent of the blood of this Righteous One; look you. And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:24-25). Many people know about the evangelical origin of this phrase. However, it is much less known that in this way Pilate, in his own way, tried to fulfill the rite of purification prescribed by the Law of Moses in those cases when the corpse of a murdered person was found on the territory of a settlement and no one knew the name of the murderer: and all the elders of that city closest to the murdered man, let They will wash their hands <...> and declare and say: Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see; cleanse Your people Israel, which You, O Lord, have liberated <...> and do not impute innocent blood to Your people Israel. And they will be cleansed of blood. So you must wash away the blood of the innocent if you want to do [good and] just in the sight of the Lord [Thy God] (Deut. 21:6-9).

It was not Jesus who was saved by the pagan Pilate when he tried to let Him go, but he wanted to protect himself from possible punishment.

And when it was not possible to save the Righteous One, he decided that to appease the Jewish God it would be enough to perform the ritual of washing his hands. Which he immediately did, publicly renouncing the death sentence against Jesus, which he himself had just confirmed.

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Christ the Savior and the Jewish Revolution (printed in abbreviation)
Everyone knows that the Gospel stories about the earthly life of the Lord Jesus are almost the same in the first three Gospels, but differ in content from the fourth;
not, of course, in the sense that the former contradict the latter, but in the sense that Ap. John reports on speeches and events that were silent in the first three Gospels, and is silent about most of those set forth by the first three Evangelists... Jesus Christ and Pilate before the people
Starting with the description of the Entry into Jerusalem and the betrayal of Judas, the stories of all four Gospels merge more closely than in description of previous events.
But of the previously performed miraculous acts of Christ, only one miracle of feeding five thousand people with five loaves and the Savior’s walking on the waters was described by all four Evangelists. And this event gives us the key to revealing the subject posed in the title and, in addition, explains to us the relationship of the Gospel of John to the first three. Indeed, in the first three Gospels, the miracle of walking on water is the only miracle performed as if without a specific purpose: one feels something left unsaid, and unsaid deliberately... What is John’s explanation of the miracle of walking on water? It is very brief, only 10 words, but from them it is easy to understand why this miracle took place, and the persistent haste of Jesus Christ in sending the disciples across the lake, and why other Evangelists left all this without explanation. “The people who saw the miracle (saturation) performed by Jesus said, “This is truly the prophet who should come into the world.
Jesus, having learned that they wanted to come and accidentally take Him and make Him King, again withdrew to the mountain alone” (John 6:14-15). Why did the three Evangelists remain silent about the reason for the Lord’s miraculous walk on the waters, which, as we see in John, was the Lord’s desire to escape their hands and violent reign?
They kept silent for the same reason as about the resurrection of Lazarus, and about the anger that was kindled against Him by the people when He allowed the pagans in His person to violate the people’s favorite dream of a national King, i.e. after Pilate proclaimed: “Behold your King!” Everything like this had to be kept silent while the Jewish state continued to exist, because explaining this aspect of the events of Christ’s life would be tantamount to denunciation of the popular uprising that was then being prepared, of the nationwide revolutionary mood, inspired and fueled by the Sanhedrin and the scribes. The sacred writers, disciples of Christ, quite reasonably protected themselves from the suspicion of hostile Jews of their ability to betray, to denounce the great uprising of the Jews against Roman rule that was being prepared, which broke out with all its force in 67 AD... Such caution was no longer needed at all in the time when the fourth Gospel was written, i.e. after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Kingdom by Vesnaspan and Titus. There was no longer any need for St. John to remain silent about those aspects of the Gospel events, the description of which could have resulted in punishment from the Jewish government, for example, about who exactly cut off the ear of the bishop’s servant Malchus, while none of the first three Evangelists decided to name Simon Peter as the one who raised the sword, but all three are content with the expression: “one of those who were with Jesus,” without even calling him an Apostle or a disciple, and only John calls the one who drew the sword and beheaded with the sword by name. For the same reason, the Forecasters are silent about the resurrection of Lazarus as an imaginary criminal sentenced to death by the Sanhedrin, who, as is known from ancient legends, was soon forced to flee to Cyprus and, moreover, was very burdened by reminders of his death and resurrection, for the Jews, the former and there in large numbers, everywhere they followed Christians and incited pagans against them, and sometimes even just social scum, as we know from the book of Acts (14.2; 17.5, etc.). As for Lazarus, his name is not mentioned at all in the first three Gospels, except for the parable of the rich man and Lazarus... John feels that the readers of the first three Gospels were perplexed how the solemn honoring of Christ by the people could have happened at the last entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, when those around The capital expected a completely opposite attitude towards Him, and “they were terrified on the way, and following Him they were in fear” (Mark 10:32)...
And suddenly, instead of the expected persecution, there was a solemn meeting with palm branches.
The bewilderment of the reader of the first Gospels dissipates when reading the fourth, from which he learns that the meeting was preceded by the resurrection of Lazarus, which attracted many Jews to faith in Christ (11, 15), and the Evangelist confirms to him exactly this connection of events: “That is why the people met Him, for I heard that He performed this miracle” (12, 18). Jesus Christ before the court of the Sanhedrin
So, the silence of some Evangelists about what the fourth explains depended on the Jewish revolution that was brewing in the time of the Savior, led by the Sanhedrin.
From the above Gospel episodes, another truth, not noticed by biblical science, becomes clear, namely, that the Jewish revolution was very closely in contact with the earthly life of Christ the Savior and generally determined (of course, by the special permission of God) many Gospel events: further we will see that it was the main reason for the popular hatred that arose against Christ, which led Him to the Cross... Having taken into account the revolutionary mood of the Jews, supported by the Sanhedrin, we will now not only completely clearly understand the events surrounding the miraculous feeding of five thousand people with five loaves of bread, but we will also understand that fatal the significance that these events had in the earthly life of Christ the Savior: “The people who saw the miracle performed by Jesus said: this is truly the prophet who should come into the world,” and decided “to come by accident, take Him and make Him King” (John 6 , 14-15).
It is now completely clear why it was this miracle, and not any other, that had such an impact on the revolutionary people.
They found in Christ what they most needed to have, but also what was most difficult to get for the uprising - ready-made bread. At that time, it was impossible to stock up on cannons and armored trains: the matter was decided by manpower and edged weapons, but it was impossible to get a supply of provisions under the watchful supervision of the Romans in the desert places where, as we saw from the book of Acts, the rebels concentrated their forces. During the time of Moses in the Arabian desert, bread was sent to Israel, who rebelled against the Egyptians, directly from heaven; now a new prophet can do the same thing that the Lord did in ancient times, and it is necessary to at least force Him to become the head of a popular uprising. The Lord escaped from their hands in a way that none of the people could have foreseen: He left them on water as on dry land. “Now the purpose of this latest miracle is completely clear. Of course, this secret removal of Christ was not at all to the heart of the Jews. Ap. John devotes several chapters of his Gospel to their further conversations with Christ, in which they remind Him of the heavenly bread under Moses and demand the continuation of the miracle. Of course, they could not directly talk about the desired uprising, but when the Lord begins to reveal His teaching about other bread, spiritual bread, and then about the New Testament bread, the Eucharistic, which is His Most Pure Body; when He then promises the Jews who believed in Him moral freedom instead of political freedom and speaks of the low value of the latter, then the popular delight, excited by the miracle of the five loaves, gradually turns into murmurs, and then these conversations, resumed in Jerusalem, end with people taking up stones , in order to kill the One Who so recently they wanted to proclaim as King. Read the Gospel of John and you will see that the Savior’s refusal of this election and the subsequent conversations, which were not sympathetic to the impending uprising, were the turning point in the relations of the Jews to Christ the Savior; This is where popular enmity began, shaken by the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, but not for long. However, let us turn to the Gospel narrative. The people are looking for Jesus at the place of saturation with bread, and, not finding Him, with bewilderment they board the boats that have come again from that shore, and are surprised to find Him in Copernaum, where it was impossible to come before, because not a single boat remained from the evening: “Rabbi , when did you come here? The Lord does not answer their question, but reproaches them: “You seek Me not because you saw a miracle, but because you ate bread and were filled.
Do not strive for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:26-27) .
This is not a reproach for gluttony: after all, just yesterday the people, carried away by listening to Divine words, forgot about their daily bread, following Christ into the desert. - No, the Lord is dissatisfied with the fact that they have earthly, temporary things on their minds again - a rebellion against the Romans, military preparations, etc., which will still end in death, like the victorious march of their ancestors through the desert: “Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died ;
The bread that comes down from Heaven is such that whoever eats it will not die (John 6:45.50). Before these words, the Jews still did not lose hope of convincing Christ to become the second Moses the Leader for them and asked: “What must we do to do the works of God?”, referring to the miraculous leadership of Moses, and added:
“Lord, always give us such bread “—for
then the success of the uprising will be ensured.
But Christ’s further words about spiritual bread and eternal life completely discouraged the hot heads of the Jews, and even many of His disciples lost faith in Him (v. 64), “they departed from Him and no longer walked with Him (v. 66). The Jews reproach the disciples of Christ for violating the Sabbath.
It is evident that at the same time the heart of Judas departed from Christ, and He said:
“Have I not chosen you twelve, but one of you is the devil” (vv. 70, 71) ...
The sincere word of the Savior, His conviction confession of His obedience to the Father, who sent Him: all this poured holy faith into the hearts of the listeners, but they could not tear their hearts away from their favorite dream of an uprising against the Romans under the leadership of the expected Messiah, of the extermination of all their enemies and of the subjugation of the whole world, basing these hopes on a false interpretation of the seventh chapter of the prophet Daniel and other prophecies... Legally, the Jewish people, like most peoples who joined the Roman Empire, had autonomy, which the Roman government tried to curtail (John 11:48), and the Jewish revolutionary theocracy tried to expand (John 18, 30.31);
under such conditions, the mood of the masses is divided: among themselves, people cry at their enslavement, but if their subordination is pointed out to them from the outside, they begin to proudly talk about their autonomy and their equality with the tribe that conquered them. This is exactly how the residents of Finland felt and spoke about their relationship with Russia until recently. With such a divided mood of people, first of all, there is a lack of sincerity, and so, I think, what is the reason that the Lord, as if unexpectedly, begins to expose his interlocutors of satanic deceit, calls them sons of the lying devil and liars (8, 55), again (cf: 6, 49, 50) promising those who believed in Him blessed immortality in exchange for an earthly kingdom (8, 51). But then the conversation ended only with the people cooling towards the Savior, and now, when it finally became clear that He does not value political freedom and in general all the benefits of the temporary life of man and peoples, His interlocutors, doubly irritated by direct reproaches against themselves, are already taking behind the stones to throw them at the Teacher. In this conversation, it should be noted, the opposition of Christian moral freedom to political freedom was expressed with particular clarity in words that in most interpretations remain incomprehensible; but they are more than understandable in our explanation of the meaning of this conversation. These are the words: “A servant (such as the Jews are) does not remain in the house forever: a son remains forever.
So, if your son frees you, then you will be truly free” (8, 35.36). True freedom, as opposed to imaginary freedom, is moral, Christian freedom, in which the Christian abides forever, and the people, preserving it, will abide forever in the house of the Heavenly Father together with His Son, i.e.
in the Church of Christ... The miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus strengthened the division, and at the same time the Sanhedrin’s fear for the revolutionary unanimity of the people hitherto submissive to them: there was something to fear. While the Lord, devaluing the earthly hopes of Israel, promised the believers eternal life only in words, this could not captivate many, and many, on the contrary, were repelled from Him as an unrealistic promise (6, 58-60; 8, 52). But the amazing miracle of the resurrection of a four-day-old man so clearly confirmed Christ’s promises of eternal life to those who believe in Him and could satisfy them so much with Christ’s faith that they were not only filled with this faith, as John testifies (11:45), but also prepared a solemn meeting for Him in Jerusalem , while the Apostles urged Him not to go to Jerusalem, but finally listened to the words of Thomas: “Let us go and die with Him” (11, 16).
But this same popular enthusiasm was the reason for the death sentence over the Savior in the Sanhedrin... The Sanhedrin was afraid that under the influence of the Savior the people would completely cool down to the revolutionary direction supported by the Sanhedrin, would even stop opposing the Roman conquests, and the Romans would unhinderedly destroy Jewish autonomy and civilization, which Antiochus failed to do. Epiphanes, thanks to the uprising of the Maccabees... And when the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem took place,
“the Pharisees said to each other: Do you see that you are not getting anything done?
The whole world follows Him” (v. 19). - What did they fail at?
Obviously, in attempts to stop the celebration of the coming Lord (Luke 19:39) and in preparing a popular uprising. At the same time, the solemn Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem not only did not arouse any concern among the Romans, although “the whole city shook” (Matthew 21:10)
, but in essence it was completely anti-revolutionary, peaceful, as the personification of purely spiritual power, alien to only violence and weapons, but also all luxury...
The Raising of Lazarus
Annoyed by Christ’s parable about the evil winegrowers, the priests and elders
“tried to seize Him, but were afraid of the people” (Mark 12:12
), especially since during the controversial interviews of Christ with the Pharisees
“ a multitude of people listened to Him with delight” (v. 37)
.
All this happened after the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. From this it is clear that the change in the people’s mood that was revealed in the face of Pilate did not occur within 5 days, as is usually said in sermons, but in a shorter period. Even on the Wednesday of Passion Week, Christ’s enemies “feared” the people who were disposed towards Him, for on that day Judas “promised and sought a convenient time to betray Him to them not in front of the people” (Luke 22:2-6)
.
With this statement of the traitor, one difficulty in arresting the Savior was finally eliminated: a witness was found. It is clear that “they were glad and agreed to give him money” (v. 5)
.
Therefore, they did not need a traitor at all in order to indicate where Jesus was secluded with his disciples: it was easy for them to follow the 12 people in the city through their own servants, but according to biblical law they did not have the right to take Christ without informers , and according to Roman laws they could not execute Him without the approval of the Hegemon, and therefore, without prior arrest. Judas fulfilled his promise, but not quite accurately: he did not dare to lay his hands on the Teacher’s head, but replaced this rite with a kiss, having previously declared to the guards and Pharisees: “Whomever I kiss, He is the One;
take Him and lead him carefully” (Mark 14:44). That is why the Lord said:
“Judas!
Do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? (Luke 22:48) : this kiss was not an indication of which of those present was Jesus, for either all or many who were with Judas knew Him;
no, kissing him was a rite necessary for the arrest of the accused... The Lord was brought to trial before the high priest at night, contrary to the law, and the informer, tormented by his conscience, disappeared and soon after hanged himself... The enemies of Christ knew that even now the people are on His side, and understand that they had to take on great responsibility in this terrible matter, and therefore they were doubly afraid of violating the requirements of the law... However, personal revenge, anger and envy, and even more concern for the favorite revolutionary plan on which they were working, took over. For lack of witnesses, according to the law they should have released Jesus Christ (Luke 22:68), but they were far from such an intention and, contrary to the law, they themselves began to look for witnesses, i.e. false witnesses, as the Evangelists Matthew (26, 56-61) and Mark (14, 55-59) speak especially clearly about... When did the last change in the people’s feelings from a favorable attitude towards the Savior to the opposite occur? The Evangelists Mark and John will answer this for us. From the first we learn something that has gone unnoticed in biblical scholarship. Guided by the latter, people got used to thinking that the people who stood before Pilate came after the Sanhedrin and his Sacrifice and that the conversation with Pilate was about Christ, and then, when Pilate proposed to release the Savior for the sake of Easter, the people did not agree to this and began to insist, In order to release the robber to the baraus ... In fact, the sympathy of the people to the Savior continued on Friday morning and the people themselves turned out to be before the Pilate Pretor not after Christ, but in another, their own work. This follows from the story of Mark, and if he, like all the first three evangelists, the demand of the people to condemn Christ still turns out to be unexpected, then for the same reason that they remain inexplicable, why the Savior walked through the waters. But we will return to this. How does Mark appear the appearance of a crowd of folk crowd? He writes that when the interrogation of Jesus Christ Pilate has already begun, at that time “the people began to scream and ask Pilate about what he always did for them” (15, 8),
because
“for every holiday he released one prisoner to them about which they asked ”(Article 6).
So, the cries of the people about the performance of this custom rose outside the judicial case of Jesus Christ ... Why was the love of Varavva so much?
Why, with such persistence, they asked him at Pilate? Why was Pilate so undesirable to let him go? That is why he was loved by the revolutionary people and especially his spiritual leaders: read on the brand: “But the high priests excited the people to ask them to let them go better” (15, 11)
.
How rich the content of these few words almost not seen in science! .. The expulsion from the temple trades
from here is that in these fatal minutes the people were not yet against Christ, that he hesitated in the choice between Him and the Varavova ... It is very possible that the crafty ones People inspired the people that Jesus Christ would be released as if not confused, that Pilate offers him to release the loving people only so as not to yield to the hero of the revolution to the varavat;
In any case, the sympathy of the people to the latter was very persistently expressed, and if the persuasion of the High Priests (cf. Matt. 27, 20) was needed to prefer Him to Jesus Christ), then it is clear how far the people were from that malicious hatred of the Savior, which erupted. After a few tens of minutes with such a terrible force, and even with the spell of their souls and their offspring. Only John finds the reason for the gradual increase in the latter, and according to the three gospels, especially according to Matthew and Mark, this quick transition from fluctuations to frantic malice remains completely incomprehensible, and their silence about the reason for this quick change is explained, as we mentioned at the beginning of the article, only that it was impossible to write about her, because it would be to explain the case to give out the revolutionary mood of the people and accelerate the abolition of their autonomy, which was committed after the uprising of the 67th year and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The writer of the fourth Gospel was nothing to go through this side of the events for silence, for his Gospel was written after the destruction of the Jewish kingdom ... Pilate now decided to fulfill the demand of the crowd, who sympathized with the rebel Varavva, but immediately decided to take revenge on the revolutionary people, betraying his favorite revolutionary idea About the national king who will overthrow the Roman yoke. At the same time, Pilate wanted to half satisfy the evil feeling of the enemies of Christ, and now, after listening to the cries of the varavoy, “Pilate took Jesus and ordered him to beat him.
And the soldiers weaved the crown of Tern, laid them on his head and put him in a crimson (in which Herod dressed him),
and they said: Rejoice, King Jew!
And they beat him on the Lanites. Pilate came out again and said to the people: here, I take it to you so that you know that I do not find any fault in him ”(19, 1-3). Of course, from a universal point of view, it is terrible to scourge a person recognized as innocent, and mock him, but the proud and contemptuous Roman thought that Jesus Christ would be mercy, if in return for his deaths he was subjected only to scourging and ridicule, which moreover, moreover It was not so much to him as the autocratic plans of the Jews ...
"When the high priests and ministers saw him, they shouted: cut him off!"
(Art. 6) .
There was no longer compassion in these hearts, but anger joined personal hatred that the miracle worker allowed the pagans to the pagans in his face to abuse what was more expensive for them: he had not previously expressed sympathy for the uprising, and now he was ready and he himself was ready and he himself was ready and now he was ready and now he was ready to endure the torment, not wanting to protect the honor of the people and their future kings with a new miracle ... But so far there is still little one scream: new arguments are needed to convince Pilate to agree to the crucifix of the Savior, especially since the people, apparently, will hesitate between the former love and compassion for the compassion Christ and irritation about what he sees before him ... However, the experienced intriguers of the Jews knew how to force Pilate and began to hint at the possibility of denunciation: “If you let him go, you are not a friend of Caesar”
, etc.
Pilate had to recognize the case with a political process, perhaps as the matter “about the insult of Majesty”
, and he
“sat on the judgment” (John 19, 13),
but, hoping to correct the matter, destroyed Jesus Christ in three words, shouting to the Jews:
“Ce Your king! "
The first exclamation of Igemona: SE Man!
He called out to compassion and was not fatal for the whole people, and in these words - your king - they heard a contemptuous mockery of their dream: this is what I do and do with every great king; Do you, despicable, dream of the overthrow of our power? But they shouted: "Take, take it off
.
It was already a universal scream, a scream of the people who suffered his powerless malice against Pilate to the one who could not allow such a reproach to one of them, but delayed so much that he subjected himself to the latter ... It seems that everyone who read this essay, It will agree that the cause of Jewish enmity against him was, first of all, his non -sense of the revolution they had conceived and this is the revolutionary desire, weakened for several days by the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, aroused the malice of the Jews against Christ when they saw him in the chlamyde of scolding. The healing of the Gadarinsky demoniac
from here is undoubtedly the conclusion: Jesus Christ became a victim of the Jewish revolution, appearing in the eyes of the rebellious people by a counter -revolutionary.
Of course, all this was the passing of God. Of course, nothing would have happened if the Lord Himself would not have wished to ascend the Cross according to the Eternal Council, as He spoke of himself (John 10, 17.18.12, 27.32; Luke 22, 22; Matt. 26, 54 ). But the evil of Christ’s main and the main good reason should have joined the evil human through the fraud of Judas, the envy and revenge of the high priests and the Pharisees, and, finally, the general of the people with the people, which remote the Jewish people from Christ, prompted him To hate and crucify your Savior, and even his descendants to remain in unbelief and hostility against him until recently. Amen. 1921 Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) from the editorial office: this historical and theological work of the remarkable Russian shepherd and preacher of Metropolitan Anthony was written at the very time when the whole Russian land, from the edge to the edge of sacrificial blood, was writhed in torment and sufferings when Russian The king - an anointed and chosen one of God in the image of Christ the Savior, was already devoted to his distraught people, and in the redemption of the grave sins of the Russian people voluntarily sacrificed themselves to the god -proped lives, when it seemed, like two thousand years ago, the light fades and the world is destroyed. It was the Russian Calvary, the Russian Cross, on which the last Russian emperor Nikolai P the Great Martyr and the martyr with all his august family and his faithful subjects - new martyrs and confessors of Russian were erected. The terrible fateful events that took place in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century and ended with the bloody revolution and the Jewish terror are largely repeated by the events described by Vladyka Anthony in the above essay. We are confident - they served as the main motivating motive and analogy for writing this wonderful work. But even more we find the similarity of events of two thousand years ago, described in the essay with the moods and events of our days. Our conscience tells us to critically look at ourselves and his contemporaries, having tried on our time a severe assessment, which we easily give to the past generations. Judge for yourself: in the words and actions of our actions we do not make the same hasty and sinful choice, once in the madness of the Jewish people made by the people? For many decades, the great aspirations of all Russian patriots have been and remains to finally drop the yard of the Jewish - the same aspiration, and the Jewish patriots lived from Roman rule from Roman rule. The Russian Messianic idea is inseparable from the Holy Faith in the last Russian king, whom the Gracious Lord will give the long -suffering Russian people in the last days according to the prayers of the Church. The sons of Israel were waiting for their king -liberator and praying for him day and night. In both cases, the name of the king, his arrival of promise about him - everything is connected with the national and religious freedom of the people. Whether we are like a dilapidated Israel in our understanding of this freedom and the royal power itself, are we not looking for the same promised, earthly to the detriment of Heavenly? Should we condemn the crazy Jews for their betrayal of our own king and God? Of course they must! But can we have the right, if we do not accept our last anointed of God with all our hearts? And even if the Christ -like suffering of our God -loving king does not convince us of the need for reckless fidelity to the divine chosen one. As the godly denials rejected and betrayed the anointed on the crucifixion, not finding an answer in him to his messianic dreams, not recognizing the spiritual freedom to which Christ the Savior brought with him. As they, having accepted humility and meekness for weakness and cowardice, so we, carried away by our dreams and our mundane understanding of the tsarist power, reject the holy sacrifice brought for us by the Holy Tsar Martyr Nikolai. And if we do not accept this sacrifice in our hearts, then we are the same tsareubians and no better than the Jews shouting “cut it off, cut it off. His blood is on us and on our children ”(Matt. 27,25). How often we meet our brothers in faith among the clergy and Meryan, who either do not accept at all the atoning feat of the holy king of the martyr or worse, dare to condemn the anointed of God or, at least, ask what their faults, the fault of their fathers and grandfathers and grandfathers And in general, Russian people. The king supposedly killed the king, then the sin is not ours. To allow this bewilderment, we recall: the verdict was carried out by representatives of different nations - Jews, Latvians, Russians! So, after all, the Roman wars were crucified on the cross by order of the Roman prosecutor, albeit on the Namidovsky slander. And although not all the Jews demanded the execution of Christ, but only those who were on the square that day, and even more than hundreds of years later or our contemporaries, but all of them had a strong name - the God -hub. For hundreds of years later, and now, the Judino tribe is also stubborn in his hatred and rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This stubborn rejection combines in a single sin, shouting “cut off” and their current descendants two thousand years ago. And we are attributed to the reign involved in the sin if we persist in the outline of our last king, if we do not see his father in him, if we do not think of ourselves by children. For the king of our earthly Fatherland is the image of the king of heaven. And as the king of the heavenly father to us and the creator, the earthly king is the father of the whole people “the king is the priest”. It was not the king who renounced us, but before the Russian people in the person of their best representatives - the national elites renounced, like the prodigal sons from their father, wishing a premature and undeserved inheritance. And after the popularly rejoiced in ecstasy from imaginary freedom, seduced by the sons of Zion. To blame the sovereign for renunciation is the same as accusing his father from the gospel parable about the prodigal son, that he meekly gave, the required part of the inheritance and let his son to wander, or to elevate our Lord Jesus Christ for his departure from crowds People’s, eager to anoint him into kings. As the Jews of the will of God did not recognize, they did not seek humility before Her, but the Russian people were dull from God's mission, so Russian people, not wanting to humble themselves in front of the royal will, expected from the king the fulfillment of the bustling desires of the crowds of folk people, sent to the satanic channel of the Judicon -Masonian cunning. To compose all the blame from ourselves, they say we are good, honest, but we were seduced, equivalent to how Eve once, our foreman, without remorse pointed to the snake as the only culprit of its retreat, and after Adam Vinille Eve, yes, yes And the Lord Himself God ”........ I was seduced by the wife that you gave me .... ”- let's, the brothers, ask yourself without abysses, raising the guilt of the sovereign and losing her off, whether the king (father) is looking for ourselves whether the anointed of heaven or we prefer newly-minted varavts who, like in 67 from R.Kh., raising a popular uprising, condemned their people to great torment and suffering, destroying hundreds of thousands of human lives, not being able to achieve absolutely nothing, but having suffered the great punishment of God for this? What do we blame for our sovereign? For Christ -like meekness and wisdom, humility before the will of the Heavenly Father? When he, who was not understood and rejected by political and religious leaders, having a huge power to punish criminals and villains in an instant, did not want to be a dictator to his people, he chose Golgof in the image of Christ the Savior, voluntarily abandoning all retaliations to his bulletin and killers. He in fulfillment of the divine fishing, voluntarily preferred betrayal for reproach and death, into the hands of the enemies of Christ, thereby anticipating the future resurrection of Russia. So, following the elementary logic of events of different time, but the same in its spiritual essence, the salvation of Russia is possible only through the adoption and awareness of the sacrifice that the last Russian king brought for it, in the image and likeness of the sacrifice of Christ, brought for the salvation of the whole world. As the salvation of every human soul separately and the whole world as a whole is possible only in Christ, so the salvation of Russia is possible only through the restoration of the autocratic tsarist power, through the popular repentance of the sin of oath -crime and regimentation. As the line of the akathist says to the king of a martyr - "the Lord put the Ty on the foundation of the new chrome of the power of Russian." So, not with new revolutions and terror, we must overthrow the bloody centuries of Jewish yoke, even more cruel and insidious than ancient Roman, and primarily the spiritual weapon, which the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ brought to the earth, and which our goddessed and pious completely picked up The last Russian emperor Nicholas II, passing it to us - his faithful oprichnaya army. Amen.

So is it guilty or not?

Pilate's behavior seems strange. He wants to save - and gives it to death; finds not guilty - and confirms the guilty verdict; calls Him Righteous - and releases the murderer in His place. However, this contradictory nature of actions only confirms one of the most important ideas of Christianity: without the help of God, a person cannot do good. One who does not have an answer to the question “what is truth?” is not even able to distinguish between good and evil.

The entire sequence of Pilate’s actions at the trial is a convincing illustration of the words of the Apostle Paul, describing this disastrous state of fallen man: ... For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; because the desire for good is in me, but I don’t find it to do it. I don’t do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I don’t want. But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (Rom. 7:18-20). In a person unrenewed by grace, sin operates, distorting all his good intentions, turning all his thoughts, words and actions inside out, turning good and evil into relative concepts that have no clear definitions. Pilate wanted to do good - to protect Christ from the Jews thirsting for His blood. He did not want the Righteous One to die. But in the end he went down in history as a judge who pronounced the death sentence on an innocent man and washed his hands of it after that.

Those weak sparks of goodness that were inherent in him, like any person, called Pilate to justice and a fair trial. The sin that acted in him, as in any person, demanded the murder of any good, and above all, the Supreme Good that was in his power. That's why

It is not in the contradictory recesses of Pilate’s personality that one should look for an explanation for what he did, but in the effect of sin on the nature of man, even if he desires good.

The Monk Justin (Popovich) writes: “Corroded by skepticism, the pagan consciousness of Pilate <...> acts fragmentarily, thinks fragmentarily: then he is surprised at Jesus; then he anxiously asks why He is silent; then he authoritatively asks the accusers the question: what evil did He do? His whole consciousness breaks and flows, as if on quicksand, and wants to lay and build on a grain of sand the foundation of his conclusions about Jesus. Pilate's entire soul is scattered, his entire conscience is upset, his entire will is relaxed: both his consciousness of truth and his sense of truth, sparklingly, instantly, the spark will flash, and immediately drown in the darkness of skepticism, in the darkness of voluptuousness, in the darkness of love of sin.

Pilate commits evil that he does not want, rather than doing good that he wants. This is where his entire responsibility lies, that he is consciously in slavery to such untruths. Therefore, the cure for this disease is not in man, not in people, but in the God-man. For only He has the medicine, love, and strength for this.”

Slavic Baptists

Matt. 27, 1 - 2

First of all, we need to get to know Pontius Pilate. The entire huge Roman state was divided into provinces. And in each province there was a representative of the Roman government, the so-called procurator. One of the provinces of Rome was Palestine, and there was also a representative of Rome - a procurator, a ruler.

In the days of Jesus Christ, such a ruler was Pontius Pilate.

Rome did not like Palestine, but Palestine also hated Rome. Why? Because Palestine, that is, the Israeli people, never forgot its former greatness, the greatness of the times of David and Solomon, and it always sought to return to this greatness, breaking away from Rome. Uprising after uprising took place in Palestine. For Rome, Palestine was the most troubled province.

The procurators went there with great reluctance, because it was very difficult to govern this country.

Pontius Pilate spent many years in Palestine. A significant part of Christ’s life passed before his eyes. He heard a lot about Christ. The name of Christ was well known to him, but he had never met Him. He lived in his luxurious palace in the city of Caesarea, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and was rarely in Jerusalem, on major Jewish holidays, and especially on Passover.

And so, in the early morning hour, Pilate was informed that a prisoner named “Jesus Christ” had been brought to him. Oh, a familiar name! - Pilate thinks. At last he will see the One about whom fame spread throughout Palestine. He goes to the courthouse. He is surrounded by warriors in helmets and armor. On both sides are his secretaries. In front of him are members of the Sanhedrin and the bound Jesus.

What does Caiaphas, the high priest of Pontius Pilate, ask the eyes of the Sanhedrin? It’s scary to say: the high priest asks to execute Jesus!

There are two worlds before us today: pagan and Jewish. There was a great gulf between both: Jews did not communicate with pagans; there was a high wall between them. And here is Christ before us. He stands between these two disunited worlds, between Pontius Pilate, the representative of the pagan world, and Caiaphas, the representative of the Jewish world. Today Christ will die, and His death will unite both worlds forever. Will destroy the abyss, destroy the wall. Christ will shed blood for both worlds! And His blood will unite scattered humanity.

Pilate asks the guilt of the prisoner Jesus. Let's read John. 18, 29 - 32. They brought Jesus to Pilate as a villain. Villain means a doer of evil. What evil did Jesus do? Pilate questions them about this. Let's read Mark. 15, 3 - 5. But out of all the many accusations, there were three very specific ones. Let's read Luke. 23, 2:

a) He corrupts our people;

b) He forbids giving tribute to Caesar;

c) He calls Himself Christ the King.

But not a word about blasphemy, and yet it was for this that they themselves sentenced Him to death. If they had come to Pilate with such an accusation against Christ, he would simply have driven them away. Blasphemy did not interest him.

In this regard, it is worth reading Acts. Ap. 18, 12 - 16. And here there is slander against Jesus, as in the Sanhedrin. He is corrupting the people! Isn't this slander? He forbids giving tribute to Caesar! Isn't this slander? He calls himself a king (they wanted to say: Roman)! Isn't this slander?

Pilate was a smart man. He understood everything perfectly. He subtly revealed the true reason for all their enmity and hatred towards Jesus. Let's read Matthew. 27, 18. Envy is the mother of slander!

Pilate would have driven them away with all their slander, but the accusation that Christ calls himself a king was such that it was impossible to pass by. He was obliged to understand this issue (John 18: 33 - 38). Christ inside the Praetorium. Christ and Pilate together. Pilate is the judge, Christ is the defendant, the bound prisoner.

But in reality: the judge is Christ, Pilate is the defendant and prisoner of sin and vice.

Christ illuminated Pilate with His light from head to toe, like X-ray rays, and revealed everything good and bad in him.

1 Whoever stands before Jesus, His light falls on him and anoints everything good and everything bad that is in a person (Heb. 4: 12 - 13).

Together with Christ - to test our attitude towards Him! Our relationship with Him is everything! There is an attitude of enmity, indifference, love, but love has stages. The highest level is giving all of yourself to your loved one!

Pilate turned out to be indifferent to Christ. He had no enmity and no love, but there was complete indifference.

The members of the Sanhedrin are a model of hostility towards Christ.

And the circle of apostles is an example of love for Christ, but also an example of unequal love for Christ.

Pilate together with Christ. Discourse on the Kingdom of Christ: John. 18, 33; 18, 36; 18, 37.

Christ's teaching about His kingdom is very clear: it is internal, spiritual, not territorial. Christ says about this kingdom: It is not of this world, it will not come in a noticeable way (Luke 17: 20 - 21). It is inside the human heart. His signs (Rom. 14:17): righteousness and peace and joy. Now we will understand why it is not inherited by those who are warring, quarreling, envious, angry, sowing divisions and strife, hating, rioting. Let's read Galatians. 5, 20 - 21. Because it is impossible to maintain righteousness, peace and joy by doing such things.

After communicating with Christ, Pilate came to the conclusion that this was a crystal clear personality, a sun without the slightest spot, a source without the slightest turbidity. And going out to the members of the Sanhedrin and the people, he declared (John 18:38-6): I find no guilt in Him! What a wonderful testimony of an intelligent, educated, insightful pagan!

No guilt in Jesus! Absolute purity and purity! This is our Christ!

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What do I have to do with it?

When talking about someone else's sin, there are usually two extremes. Or the person who has sinned is immediately labeled as a scoundrel, they categorically dissociate themselves from him and do not make even the slightest allowance for our common disease - sin. Or, on the contrary, they try to treat the sinner with understanding, as they say, “get into the situation,” and gradually, imperceptibly for themselves, they begin to sympathize not with the person who has suffered from their own sin, but with the sin itself. You can declare Pilate and all other sinners monsters, consider yourself “not like all other people...” and close this topic for yourself forever, essentially denying your own sinfulness.

But you can, on the contrary, justify people who, due to the action of sin in them, do terrible things. For example, Pilate. Well, the truth is, a person is like a person, and mercy sometimes knocks on his heart... But the fact that he showed weakness is nothing, who among us is without weaknesses? Thus, in its positive manifestations, the image of Pilate becomes almost an example: we sympathize with him because in him we sympathize with our own weakness too.

By justifying Pilate, we are trying to justify our own choice where it clearly contradicts the Gospel. This is the conditional “Pilate syndrome” - at the cost of lying to one’s own conscience, preferring a calm near future. Because the distant future - well, it doesn’t depend on me, and the blame for all the troubles there will, as usual, be on evil others, and not on the good, albeit weak, me. This is how reconciliation occurs with one’s own nature, distorted by sin, which, although it sometimes provides short-term psychological comfort, always ends in disaster.

Pharisaic arrogance (Pilate is a monster) or complete justification of his sin (Pilate is quite sympathetic, although weak-willed)... The trouble with both of these extremes is that, despite their external opposites, they are equally guaranteed to lead a person away from the opportunity to soberly assess his spiritual state against the backdrop of someone else’s fall, “try it on” for yourself (as the apostles did, at the Last Supper they anxiously asked their beloved Teacher: “Isn’t it me, Lord?”) and be horrified by the thought that - yes, it could be me too Same. This is not Pilate, but I can put an innocent person to death. Not he, but I am ready to bend to circumstances at the cost of someone else's freedom or even life. Not Pilate, but I am capable of acting contrary to my own conscience. Because in me, just like in Pilate, the law of sin operates, inexorably pushing me to meanness and betrayal, even where I sincerely wish for good. Therefore, if anyone thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall (1 Cor 10:12). For two thousand years now, the tragic and controversial figure of the fifth procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, has reminded us of this terrible danger.

Alexander Tkachenko

The Bible, presented for family reading. Good Friday

Jesus before Pilate. Condemning the Lord to Death

Christ before Pilate

“When the morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people had a meeting concerning Jesus, to put Him to death;
and, having bound Him, they took Him away and handed Him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then Judas, who betrayed Him, saw that He was condemned, and, repenting, returned the thirty pieces of silver to the high priests and elders, saying: I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said to him: What is that to us? take a look yourself. And, throwing away the pieces of silver in the temple, Judas went out, went and hanged himself. The high priests, taking the pieces of silver, said: it is not permissible to put them in the church treasury, because this is the price of blood. Having held a meeting, they bought a potter's land with them for the burial of strangers; Therefore, that land is called “land of blood” to this day. Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, saying: And they took thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him who was valued, whom the children of Israel valued, and gave them for the potter’s land, as the Lord said to me.” (Matthew 27:1-10) So, Jesus is in the ruler’s house. Pilate was one of those people for whom personal peace is more valuable than truth, more valuable than anything else. Meanwhile, he had the difficult task of defending Jesus, against whom the Jews were so irritated. Pilate himself did not suspect anything worthy of condemnation in Him and understood that the only reason for the anger against Jesus was religious fanaticism and the envy of the high priests. But he understood the danger to himself from the vengeful spiritual leaders of the Jewish people, who in their bitterness would not spare him. If you go against them, then they will be able to arouse the suspicions of the Roman government itself if they present Pilate as the defender of a Jew, whom the people are ready to recognize as king.

-What do you accuse This Man of? - Pilate addressed the obligatory question to Jesus’ accusers.

“If He had not been a villain, we would not have betrayed Him to you,” they arrogantly answered Pilate.

“While he was sitting in the judgment seat, his wife sent him to say: Do not do anything to the Righteous One, because now in a dream I have suffered a lot for Him.

The beating of Christ. Pilate washes his hands

“Then Pilate took Jesus and ordered him to be beaten.
And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns, placed it on His head, and dressed Him in purple, and said: Hail, King of the Jews! and they struck Him on the cheeks. Pilate went out again and said to them: Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, so that you may know that I do not find any guilt in Him. Then Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns and a scarlet robe. And Pilate said to them: Behold, Man! When the high priests and ministers saw Him, they shouted: Crucify Him, crucify Him! Pilate says to them: Take Him and crucify Him; for I find no fault in Him. The Jews answered him: We have a law, and according to our law He must die, because He made Himself the Son of God.

And then, finally, Pilate “beat Jesus and delivered him up to be crucified.” (Matt. 27, 24–26)

Crucifixion

Carrying the cross

“And when they led Him away, they seized a certain Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the field, and laid a cross on him to carry after Jesus.
And a great multitude of people and women followed Him, weeping and lamenting for Him. Jesus turned to them and said: Daughters of Jerusalem! Do not weep for Me, but weep for yourself and for your children, for the days are coming in which they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not given birth, and the breasts that have not nursed! then they will begin to say to the mountains: fall on us! and the hills: cover us! For if they do this to a green tree, what will happen to a dry tree? They also led two villains with Him to death. And when they came to a place called Lobnoye, they crucified Him and the villains there, one on the right and the other on the left. Jesus said: Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

And there was an inscription over Him, written (by order of Pilate) in Greek, Roman and Hebrew words: This is the King of the Jews.” (Luke 23, 26–38)

Death of the Savior

Carrying the cross

“At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole earth and continued until the ninth hour.
At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice: Eloi! Eloi! lamma sabachthani? - which means: My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me? Some of those standing there heard it and said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.” And one ran, filled a sponge with vinegar, and putting it on a reed, gave Him a drink, saying, “Wait, let’s see if Elijah comes to take Him down.”

“Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said: Father! into Your hands I commend My spirit.” “And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.”

Burial of the Savior

Descent from the Cross

“Then someone named Joseph, a member of the council, a good and truthful man, who did not participate in the council and in their work, from Arimathea, a city of Judea, also expecting the Kingdom of God, came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”
“And Pilate allowed it. He went and took down the body of Jesus. Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also came and brought a composition of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred liters. So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in swaddling clothes with spices, as the Jews are wont to bury.

Chapter 43. Jesus at Pilate's trial. Herod's Jesus. Secondary court of Pilate. The scourging of Jesus. Pilate's handing over of Jesus to the authority of the Sanhedrin

Neither a coward nor a good man

First scandal

From the very first days of his reign, Pilate decided to explain to the rebellious Jews that their quiet life was over, and now only Rome would determine how they should live on their land.

Day of Terror

Thousands of disguised warriors surrounded the crowd, waiting for the signal. When the indignant people refused to disperse, Pilate gave a command from the rostrum - and a bloody massacre began.

Ready for anything

Finally, he ended his reign with the massacre of the Samaritans, who tried to carry out unauthorized excavations on Mount Gorezin.

After this senseless massacre, even the Roman authorities did not dare to leave Pilate as governor in Judea. He was removed from office and summoned to Rome for trial.

Suicide death?

What could Caiaphas do?

The high priest, the symbol of the highest religious authority of the Jews, turned out to be an obedient puppet in the hands of Rome in those days.

Pilate of Pontus

Out of harm

Pontius Pilate in history and Christian legend

Notes

Pagan Fear

Jesus before Pilate. Condemning the Lord to Death

The beating of Christ. Pilate washes his hands

Crucifixion of the Lord

Death of the Savior

Descent from the Cross

Washed my hands

It was not Jesus who was saved by the pagan Pilate when he tried to let Him go, but he wanted to protect himself from possible punishment.

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So is it guilty or not?

It is not in the contradictory recesses of Pilate’s personality that one should look for an explanation for what he did, but in the effect of sin on the nature of man, even if he desires good.

Slavic Baptists

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What do I have to do with it?

The Bible, presented for family reading. Good Friday