Pontius Pilate: Deciphering a Memory

by Aldo Schiavone, Jeremy Carden (Translator)

Overview

A world-renowned classicist presents a groundbreaking biography of the man who sent Jesus of Nazareth to the Cross.

The Roman prefect Pontius Pilate has been cloaked in rumor and myth since the first century, but what do we actually know of the man who condemned Jesus of Nazareth to the Cross? In this breakthrough, revisionist biography of one of the Bible’s most controversial figures, Italian classicist Aldo Schiavone explains what might have happened in that brief meeting between the governor and Jesus, and why the Gospels—and history itself—have made Pilate a figure of immense ambiguity.

Pontius Pilate lived during a turning point in both religious and Roman history. Though little is known of the his life before the Passion, two first-century intellectuals—Flavius Josephus and Philo of Alexandria—chronicled significant moments in Pilate’s rule in Judaea, which shaped the principal elements that have come to define him. By carefully dissecting the complex politics of the Roman governor’s Jewish critics, Schiavone suggests concerns and sensitivities among the people that may have informed their widely influential claims, especially as the beginnings of Christianity neared.

Against this historical backdrop, Schiavone offers a dramatic reexamination of Pilate and Jesus’s moment of contact, indicating what was likely said between them and identifying lines of dialogue in the Gospels that are arguably fictive. Teasing out subtle but significant contradictions in details, Schiavone shows how certain gestures and utterances have had inestimable consequences over the years. What emerges is a humanizing portrait of Pilate that reveals how he reacted in the face of an almost impossible dilemma: on one hand wishing to spare Jesus’s life and on the other hoping to satisfy the Jewish priests who demanded his execution. Simultaneously exploring Jesus’s own thought process, the author reaches a stunning conclusion—one that has never previously been argued—about Pilate’s intuitions regarding Jesus.

While we know almost nothing about what came before or after, for a few hours on the eve of the Passover Pilate deliberated over a fate that would spark an entirely new religion and lift up a weary prisoner forever as the Son of God. Groundbreaking in its analysis and evocative in its narrative exposition, Pontius Pilate is an absorbing portrait of a man who has been relegated to the borders of history and legend for over two thousand years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631492358
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	02/28/2017
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Aldo Schiavone is the author of Spartacus and was a professor of Roman law at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, which he founded. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he lives in Rome.

Jeremy Carden lived in Italy from 1987 to 2014. Now based in the UK, he works as a freelance translator.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

1 One Night in the Month of Nisan 19

2 Roman Judaea and the Work of the Fifth Prefect 52

3 God and Caesar 96

4 The Destiny of the Prisoner 131

5 Into the Darkness 169

Sources and Historiography 187

Notes 209

Index 227

Editorial Reviews

Although the Roman governor has been the subject of countless sermons over the centuries…he remains something of a cipher. Working both from the Gospels and from ancient texts, Aldo Schiavone…provides a fresh perspective in Pontius Pilate: Deciphering a Memory and, in the process, offers new insights into the final days of Jesus…Schiavone's account nicely lures Pilate out of the shadows, albeit briefly, even providing a measure of rehabilitation.

The New York Times Book Review - Randall Balmer

12/19/2016
Pontius Pilate is well known as the Roman prefect who presided over the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but much of what we know of him is more myth than fact, so Schiavone (Spartacus: Revealing Antiquity), a professor of Roman law at the Instituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, revisits the time and place of Christ’s crucifixion to bring a more historically sound picture to light. He takes a look at who Pilate was before he became governor of Judea and examines the culture, religion, and politics that led to the arrest of the “King of the Jews.” Using the Gospels as well as secular historical texts (which he finds more reliable), Schiavone delves into Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus to discover why the dialogue switches from vague amazement to theology, and then explores the tacit understanding between the prefect and the condemned regarding the inevitability of the trial’s outcome. Schiavone compares the information available from many sources to construct a comprehensive and thought-provoking explanation of what took place between Pilate and Jesus, expanding the narrow portrait of a man about which little is known beyond this one encounter. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"A fresh perspective…and, in the process, offers new insights into the final days of Jesus…Schiavone’s account nicely lures Pilate out of the shadows, albeit briefly, even providing a measure of rehabilitation."

Randall Balmer

03/01/2017
Schiavone makes good use of historical sources, re-creates a plausible narrative, and sheds new light on the life of a well-known yet mysterious historical figure. Even with references throughout, the author presents an easy and engaging read. A solid entry for those interested in ancient, historically reconstructed biographies.--Mark Hanson, Maranatha Baptist Univ. Lib., Watertown, WI

Library Journal

2016-12-07
A literary study of the Roman governor of Judaea who condemned the prophet Jesus—reluctantly—to death. Roman scholar Schiavone (Spartacus, 2013, etc.) reveals a deeply human story in the encounter (both historical and biblical) between a charismatic teacher denounced by the Jewish priests for fomenting "false" and dangerous preaching and the rather tone-deaf but benign Roman governor who did not care to make trouble with his Jewish constituency. In this slender, elegantly translated work geared toward lay readers, Schiavone navigates between memory—by the four writers of the Gospels, especially John, "the closest to the context of first century Palestine"—and history—Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, "two first-century intellectuals"—to help in the reconstruction of these contested events. The narrative culminates in the climax of Jesus' preaching and testimony in Jerusalem and the trauma—the Crucifixion—that forms the Christian final sequence. Schiavone treads carefully through the narrative by the Gospel writers to get a sense of Pilate's character and role as a governor who held his job for 10 years, which was rare—he was obviously valued by the emperor. Having arrived at the governor's palace in Jerusalem in the early hours of the morning after being identified by one of his disciples, Judas, to the Roman authorities, Jesus was taken for interrogation by Pilate, who feared a trap by the Jewish authorities, the Sanhedrin, on this eve of the Passover. The governor could allow a criminal pardon, and he offered the assembled crowd either Barabbas, a notorious criminal, or Jesus, and the crowd still demanded the death of Jesus. Why? What had he done, Pilate wanted to know? He was declared a "sacrilegious blasphemer," and, as the so-called King of the Jews, he was too dangerous for the community to let him live. A levelheaded, engaging reading of the Gospels and historical account that forms a solid sense of this pivotal personage and his role on the epic stage.

Kirkus Reviews