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230-490: The group is collectively known as the Pilate cycle by some scholars; this is not a term used by early Christians, many of whom might have had access to only one or two of these accounts at most. It is rather an umbrella designation used much later to collect the writings attributed to Pilate. None of these documents are believed in the modern day to have been authentically written by Pilate or his contemporaries. Pontius Pilate

460-470: A Tiberieum , a word otherwise unattested but following a pattern of naming buildings about Roman emperors. Bond argues that we cannot be sure what kind of building this referred to. G. Alföldy argued that it was some sort of secular building, namely a lighthouse, while Joan Taylor and Jerry Vardaman argue that it was a temple dedicated to Tiberius. A second inscription, which has since been lost, has historically been associated with Pontius Pilate. It

690-552: A Roman Emperor who would reign decades later); includes Herod the Great , Tiberius, Titus, and Vespasian as contemporaries (their lives and reigns were separated by decades); and incorrectly believes Auster to be the north wind (it is the southern wind). "Libiae" may mean either Libya ( Roman North Africa ) or Albi (in Gallia Aquitania ), neither of which would be described as north of Judea. These errors suggest

920-543: A book existed in 1906. Scholars who believe such a book once existed have reconstructed it from a homily, the "Lament of Mary" ( Laha Maryam ) by a bishop named Cyriacus. They believe Laha Maryam extensively quotes the Gospel of Gamaliel; the Lament includes a section that leads with "I, Gamaliel" which caused the speculation that these sections were actually quoting an existing gospel. Other scholars believe that such inference

1150-745: A change which Ann Wroe suggests reflects the fact that, following the legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (312), it was no longer necessary to deflect criticism of Pilate (and by extension of the Roman Empire) for his role in Jesus's crucifixion onto the Jews. Bart Ehrman , on the other hand, argues that the tendency in the Early Church to exonerate Pilate and blame

1380-414: A complete biography for him and portrayed him as villainous and cowardly. Many of these legends connected Pilate's place of birth or death to particular locations around Western Europe , such as claiming his body was buried in a particularly dangerous or cursed local area. Pilate has frequently been a subject of artistic representation. Medieval art frequently portrays scenes of Pilate and Jesus, often in

1610-504: A cultural center for master architects, sculptors, musicians, painters, and artisans of every kind...In its myth and message, Rome had become the sacred city of the popes, the prime symbol of a triumphant Catholicism, the center of orthodox Christianity, a new Jerusalem. It is clearly noticeable that the popes of the Italian Renaissance have been subjected by many writers with an overly harsh tone. Pope Julius II, for example,

1840-789: A follower of Christ. His beheading is accompanied by a voice from heaven calling him blessed and saying he will be with Jesus at the Second Coming . The Evangelium Gamalielis , possibly of medieval origin and preserved in Arabic, Coptic, and Ge'ez , says Jesus was crucified by Herod, whereas Pilate was a true believer in Christ who was martyred for his faith; similarly, the Martyrium Pilati , possibly medieval and preserved in Arabic, Coptic, and Ge'ez, portrays Pilate, as well as his wife and two children, as being crucified twice, once by

2070-459: A king who was skilled in astrology and named Atus lived in Mainz . The king reads in the stars that he will bear a son who will rule over many lands, so he has a miller's daughter named Pila brought to him whom he impregnates; Pilate's name thus results from the combination of the names Pila with Atus . A few years later, Pilate is brought to his father's court where he kills his half-brother. As

2300-631: A majority of modern treatments of Pilate dating to after the Second World War. Pilate has also frequently been portrayed in film. Sources on Pontius Pilate are limited, although modern scholars know more about him than about other Roman governors of Judaea . The most important sources are the Embassy to Gaius (after the year 41) by contemporary Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria, the Jewish Wars ( c.  74 ) and Antiquities of

2530-610: A medieval concept which has steadily evolved since the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the gradual rise of the Papacy more in religio-temporal implications practically during and after the reign of Charlemagne; and the concept let itself be lulled in the minds of the staunch believers to the archetype of a holy religious space inhabited by Christians, blessed by God, the Heavenly Father, ruled by Christ through

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2760-512: A military command before becoming prefect of Judaea; historian Alexander Demandt speculates that this could have been with a legion stationed at the Rhine or Danube . Although it is therefore likely Pilate served in the military, it is nevertheless not certain. Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, during the reign of the emperor Tiberius . The post of governor of Judaea

2990-460: A natural curiosity and desire to know more about Jesus's death and its aftermath. In addition to expanding the gospel story, many of these accounts seem to have had an apologetic motive as well. They aimed to reassure Christians that something amazing had happened in Judea during the time of Jesus, and reliable neutral parties such as Pilate confirmed it. Attitudes about Pilate varied, and affected

3220-482: A pagan Acts of Pilate that was promoted during the reign of Emperor Maximinus Daza (310–313 AD), but it is a lost work that was not preserved. The document was distributed to towns and cities to be read as part of a government campaign against Christianity. Eusebius denounces it as a forgery, due to a chronological inconsistency between it and the timeline described in Josephus 's histories; its claimed date

3450-575: A painting, from Eastern Christianity . Christianity has used symbolism from its very beginnings. In both East and West, numerous iconic types of Christ , Mary and saints and other subjects were developed; the number of named types of icons of Mary, with or without the infant Christ, was especially large in the East, whereas Christ Pantocrator was much the commonest image of Christ. Christian symbolism invests objects or actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian ideas. Christianity has borrowed from

3680-485: A police than a military force, and Pilate's duties extended beyond military matters. As Roman governor, he was head of the judicial system. He had the power to inflict capital punishment , and was responsible for collecting tributes and taxes, and for disbursing funds, including the minting of coins. Because the Romans allowed a certain degree of local control, Pilate shared a limited amount of civil and religious power with

3910-405: A policy of promoting the imperial cult , which may have caused some of the friction with his Jewish subjects. Schwartz suggests that Pilate's entire tenure was characterized by "continued underlying tension between governor and governed, now and again breaking out in brief incidents." According to Josephus in his The Jewish War (2.9.2) and Antiquities of the Jews (18.3.1), Pilate offended

4140-436: A portrait of the emperor, though they included some pagan designs. E. Stauffer and E. M. Smallwood argued that the coins' use of pagan symbols was deliberately meant to offend the Jews and connected changes in their design to the fall of the powerful Praetorian prefect Sejanus in 31. This theory was rejected by Helen Bond, who argued that there was nothing particularly offensive about the designs. Joan Taylor has argued that

4370-436: A positive attitude toward Pilate. The account is largely a contradiction of the stolen body hypothesis that suggests Jesus's body was stolen, rather than being resurrected. Pilate first affirms that Jesus performed amazing miracles during his term as governor. Pilate was convinced to hand him over to the Jews because the chief priests said he was a sorcerer who was violating Jewish law. The author then shows familiarity with

4600-512: A presumed original. At the turn of the 20th century, it was generally held to be fake, a forgery in support of a local legend that Pontius Pilate died in exile in Ameria. The more recent scholars Alexander Demandt and Henry MacAdam both believe that the inscription is genuine, but attests to a person who simply had the same cognomen as Pontius Pilate. MacAdam argues that "[i]t is far easier to believe that this very fragmentary inscription prompted

4830-417: A radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major technological advances, including the adoption of gunpowder and the astrolabe , the invention of spectacles , and greatly improved water mills , building techniques, agriculture in general, clocks , and ships . The latter advances made possible

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5060-477: A result, he is sent as a hostage to Rome, where he kills another hostage. As punishment he is sent to the island of Pontius, whose inhabitants he subjugates, thus acquiring the name Pontius Pilate. King Herod hears of this accomplishment and asks him to come to Palestine to aid his rule there; Pilate comes but soon usurps Herod's power. The trial and judgment of Jesus then happens as in the gospels. The emperor in Rome

5290-479: A single amnesty in the year of Jesus's crucifixion. The Gospels' portrayal of Pilate is "widely assumed" to diverge greatly from that found in Josephus and Philo, as Pilate is portrayed as reluctant to execute Jesus and pressured to do so by the crowd and Jewish authorities. John P. Meier notes that in Josephus, by contrast, "Pilate alone [...] is said to condemn Jesus to the cross." Some scholars believe that

5520-517: A single crime. Pilate only allows the execution to proceed to prevent a rebellion. After Jesus's death, a supernatural light comes down on Jerusalem at the third hour of the night. An earthquake opens the mountains, and the dead pour out from Hades. Jews who had dared speak against Jesus are swallowed by chasms from the earthquake, not even leaving bodies. All of the synagogues in Jerusalem are destroyed except one. The Letter of Herod to Pilate

5750-450: A sorcerer. Jesus is brought in to be questioned, and the Roman standards ( aquila ) bow down and worship him. Pilate finds nothing to charge Jesus with; various witnesses attest to Jesus's miracles of healing. Pilate says he is innocent of the matter, while the Jews quote the Gospel of Matthew's claim that they said " his blood be upon us and our children ," a phrase repeated three times in

5980-454: A strong impact on all other aspects of life: marriage and family, education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy, and the arts. Christianity had a significant impact on education and science and medicine as the church created the bases of the Western system of education, and was the sponsor of founding universities in the Western world as the university

6210-517: A title also held by the Jewish kings Herod Agrippa I and Herod Agrippa II and by close advisors to the emperor. Both Daniel Schwartz and Alexander Demandt do not think this especially likely. Various disturbances during Pilate's governorship are recorded in the sources. In some cases, it is unclear if they may be referring to the same event, and it is difficult to establish a chronology of events for Pilate's rule. Joan Taylor argues that Pilate had

6440-525: A tool and method for learning which places emphasis on dialectical reasoning . The Byzantine Empire , which was the most sophisticated culture during antiquity, suffered under Muslim conquests limiting its scientific prowess during the Medieval period . Christian Western Europe had suffered a catastrophic loss of knowledge following the fall of the Western Roman Empire . But thanks to

6670-470: A type called a "perutah", measured between 13.5 and 17mm, were minted in Jerusalem, and are fairly crudely made. Earlier coins read ΙΟΥΛΙΑ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΟΣ on the obverse and ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΥ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΟΣ on the reverse, referring to the emperor Tiberius and his mother Livia (Julia Augusta). Following Livia's death, the coins only read ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΥ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΟΣ . As was typical of Roman coins struck in Judaea, they did not have

6900-471: Is a Christian text that records Jesus's trial, execution, and resurrection and expands upon the details given from the gospels. It is by far the most popular and well-read of Pilate-related apocrypha, being compiled in the Gospel of Nicodemus ( Evangelium Nicodemi ) in the 9th century, which was a popular work among medieval European Christians. There are two main versions, usually referred to as A and B. It

7130-693: Is a late medieval work written in Latin. Similar to the Letter of Tiberius to Pilate, it has a hostile attitude toward Pilate. It is an anonymous work that does not identify its author. While the modern form is from the 14th century, a version appears in the Golden Legend of the 1250s; this work may have been inspired by an excerpt from a work called the Historia Apocrypha from the 11th and 12th centuries, which itself might have been inspired by

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7360-472: Is a letter purportedly from Herod Antipas , Tetrarch of Galilee, to Pilate. Greek and Syriac versions exist, although Greek is considered the original language of the letter. A Syriac document from the 5th or 6th century is the oldest version available today, although it likely originates from the late 4th century. Despite the title, it is not part of a correspondence with the Letter of Pilate to Herod ; it

7590-422: Is a report purportedly written by Pilate to Emperor Tiberius describing Jesus's execution and its aftermath. Its date of authorship is unknown. Tertullian references a report Pilate wrote to Emperor Tiberius in his Apology , written around 197 AD; however he provides no details, so he may well have been referring to a different text. The text is estimated to more likely originate from the late 4th century or

7820-467: Is a separate work, although the two works are included together in manuscripts. Notably, Longinus has a completely different fate in this letter than in the Letter of Pilate to Herod. In the Letter of Herod to Pilate, Herod has belatedly realized his evil deeds (such as cutting off John the Baptist 's head), and writes to Pilate of the coming just punishment to him and the Jews. Herod's daughter Herodia

8050-779: Is an account of Pilate being brought to Rome for judgment before Emperor Tiberius for his execution of Jesus. It is written in Greek. The earliest surviving manuscripts are from the 12th century, but the work is hypothesized to be from the 4th or 5th century, similar to the Anaphora Pilati . The account may have been one of the earliest to name Pontius Pilate's wife as "Procla". It also describes Procla as being an earlier convert to Christianity than Pilate himself. Its very high regard for Pilate suggests an origin in Eastern Christianity. The more famous Acts of Pilate

8280-553: Is any poetry that contains Christian teachings, themes , or references. The influence of Christianity on poetry has been great in any area that Christianity has taken hold. Christian poems often directly reference the Bible , while others provide allegory . Christian art is art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity . Virtually all Christian groupings use or have used art to some extent. The prominence of art and

8510-540: Is bizarrely decapitated after her mother grabs her head trying to save her from a sudden flood of the river. His son Lesbonaks is dying of a wasting disease. His wife is going blind, and he is being afflicted by worms. Herod affirms that God has handed over the Kingdom to gentiles like Pilate, that death was coming to the priests of Judaism, and that Jews like him had failed to abide by God's law. He requests that Pilate bury him and his family after their deaths, rather than

8740-492: Is considered the height of temporal power of the papacy. The Corpus Christianum described the then-current notion of the community of all Christians united under the Roman Catholic Church . The community was to be guided by Christian values in its politics, economics and social life. Its legal basis was the corpus iuris canonica (body of canon law). In the East, Christendom became more defined as

8970-469: Is considered the original language of the letter. A Syriac document from the 5th or 6th century is the oldest version available to us today, however, and is seemingly incomplete in parts. The work is hypothesized to have originally been written in the 3rd or 4th century. It bears a number of similarities to the Paradosis Pilati , notably in its respect to Pilate and his wife converting. Unlike

9200-518: Is derived, had a political theory which we should do well to study; for their theory about a universal empire and a Catholic church was in turn the echo of a former age of reason, when a few men conscious of ruling the world had for a moment sought to survey it as a whole and to rule it justly. Developments in western philosophy and European events brought change to the notion of the Corpus Christianum . The Hundred Years' War accelerated

9430-600: Is exiled by the emperor Nero , after which he commits suicide. A similar narrative plays out in the Vindicta Salvatoris (8th century). In the Mors Pilati (perhaps originally 6th century, but recorded c.  1300 CE ), Pilate was forced to commit suicide and his body thrown in the Tiber. However, the body is surrounded by demons and storms, so that it is removed from the Tiber and instead cast into

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9660-593: Is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. Many clerics throughout history have made significant contributions to science and Jesuits in particular have made numerous significant contributions to the development of science . The cultural influence of Christianity includes social welfare , founding hospitals , economics (as the Protestant work ethic ), natural law (which would later influence

9890-544: Is given by the Christian apologist Justin Martyr around 160. Tibor Grüll believes that this could be a reference to Pilate's actual records, but other scholars argue that Justin has simply invented the records as a source on the assumption that they existed without ever having verified their existence. Beginning in the fourth century, a large body of Christian apocryphal texts developed concerning Pilate, making up one of

10120-531: Is given the responsibility for Jesus's execution; Pilate washes his hands of the matter, but Herod and the Jewish judges refuse to do so. This is similar to how various works in the Pilate cycle seek to adjust blame for Jesus's death from Pilate to the Jews. The "Gospel of Gamaliel" is a hypothetical book speculated to exist by some scholars. While no ancient sources directly refer to such a gospel, Paulin Ladeuze and Carl Anton Baumstark first proposed that such

10350-478: Is known about the circumstances that led to his appointment to the governorship. Coins that he minted have survived from Pilate's governorship, as well as a single inscription, the so-called Pilate stone . The Jewish historian Josephus , the philosopher Philo of Alexandria, and the Gospel of Luke all mention incidents of tension and violence between the Jewish population and Pilate's administration. Many of these incidents involve Pilate acting in ways that offended

10580-477: Is largely stereotyped and rhetorical, portraying Pilate with the same words as other opponents of Jewish law, while portraying Tiberius as just and supportive of Jewish law. It is unclear why the shields offended against Jewish law: it is likely that they contained an inscription referring to Tiberius as divi Augusti filius (son of divine Augustus). Bond dates the incident to 31, sometime after Sejanus's death in 17 October. In another incident recorded in both

10810-429: Is nevertheless forced to execute Jesus by the increasingly angry crowd, but Jesus tells Pilate that he does not hold him responsible. This book enjoys "a quasi-canonical status" among Ethiopian Christians to this day and continues to be read beside the canonical gospels during Holy Week . Seven of the Pilate texts mention Pilate's fate after the crucifixion: in three, he becomes a very positive figure, while in four he

11040-564: Is presented as diabolically evil. A fifth-century Syriac version of the Acts of Pilate explains Pilate's conversion as occurring after he has blamed the Jews for Jesus' death in front of Tiberius; prior to his execution, Pilate prays to God and converts, thereby becoming a Christian martyr. In the Greek Paradosis Pilati (5th century), Pilate is arrested for the crime of executing Jesus, although he has since converted to be

11270-511: Is purportedly written by Gamaliel the Elder , a Rabbi mentioned in the book of Acts and the Mishnah . Pilate believes in Jesus; he interrogates the soldiers at Jesus's tomb and uncovers the truth; he witnesses Jesus's remaining grave-clothes at the empty tomb causing miracles of healing; and he trades letters with King Herod on the matter. Eusebius , in his work Church History , refers to

11500-413: Is rare, so the ring could be associated with Pontius Pilate; however, given the cheap material, it is unlikely that he would have owned it. It is possible that the ring belonged to another individual named Pilate, or that it belonged to someone who worked for Pontius Pilate. Due to his role in Jesus' trial, Pilate became an important figure in both pagan and Christian propaganda in late antiquity. Perhaps

11730-528: Is stalled because Pilate is wearing part of Jesus's tunic that had been divided the day of his execution, and the Emperor finds himself unable to act hostilely against someone wearing it. After a Christian strips Pilate of his scrounged holy tunic, Tiberius orders Pilate's execution. Pilate stabs himself with a dagger upon hearing the news. His dead body is then moved several times, as malignant spirits rejoice and stir up trouble around wherever his body lies, and

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11960-402: Is suffering from a terrible disease at this time, and hearing of Christ's healing powers, sends for him only to learn from Saint Veronica that Christ has been crucified, but she possesses a cloth with the image of his face. Pilate is taken as a prisoner with her to Rome to be judged, but every time the emperor sees Pilate to condemn him, his anger dissipates. This is revealed to be because Pilate

12190-478: Is unclear whether any hearing took place, as new emperors often dismissed outstanding legal matters from previous reigns. The only sure outcome of Pilate's return to Rome is that he was not reinstated as governor of Judaea, either because the hearing went badly, or because Pilate did not wish to return. J. P. Lémonon argues that the fact that Pilate was not reinstated by Caligula does not mean that his trial went badly, but may simply have been because after ten years in

12420-491: Is unknown if this other letter was a mere rhetorical flourish, or a lost work. According to the work, the letter is sent by Tiberius and 2,000 Roman soldiers and a courier named Rahab. Tiberius is enraged at Pilate's unjust sentence to Jesus, of whom Tiberius has received reports of his amazing deeds of healing. Pilate, Herod Archelaus , Philip , Annas , Caiaphas , and the Jewish leaders are to be arrested and brought to Rome. The soldiers are also to slay all Jewish males for

12650-399: Is unknown precisely when a form similar to the versions that survive was written. Justin Martyr makes a reference to an Acts of Pilate as early as 160 AD, although the version he knew may have been much different than later traditions, or else Justin may have simply assumed that some record must have existed. Scholars estimate that the versions that survive may have been finalized as late as

12880-406: Is unknown; his cognomen Pilatus might mean "skilled with the javelin ( pilum )", but it could also refer to the pileus or Phrygian cap , possibly indicating that one of Pilate's ancestors was a freedman . If it means "skilled with the javelin", it is possible that Pilate won the cognomen for himself while serving in the Roman military ; it is also possible that his father acquired

13110-519: Is unwarranted, and these sections are simply written by Cyriacus from the perspective of Gamaliel. Reasonably complete manuscripts of Laha Maryam exist in both Ethiopian and Karshuni (Arabic). Regardless of whether Laha Maryam is quoting a lost gospel or is simply building on extant legends, it keeps to the Coptic and Ethiopian traditions in painting Pilate in an extremely positive light. The speculated book describes Good Friday and its aftermath, and

13340-474: Is wearing Jesus's coat; when the coat is removed, the Emperor condemns him to death, but Pilate commits suicide first. The body is first thrown in the Tiber, but because it causes storms it is then moved to Vienne, and then thrown in a lake in the high Alps. One important version of the Pilate legend is found in the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine (1263–1273 CE), one of the most popular books of

13570-556: The Vindicta Salvatoris of the 8th and 9th centuries. In The Death of Pilate, Emperor Tiberius is ill. He sends his emissary Volusian to seek out the famous healer Jesus of Nazareth, but Volusian is too late; Pilate has already executed him. Volusian instead finds Saint Veronica , and takes both Veronica and Pilate back to Rome. Veronica uses a handkerchief with Jesus's image imprinted on it to heal Tiberius instead. Tiberius brings Pilate before him for judgment, but

13800-558: The 2nd century , attributed to Ignatius of Antioch c. 107. Early Christendom would close at the end of imperial persecution of Christians after the ascension of Constantine the Great and the Edict of Milan in AD ;313 and the First Council of Nicaea in 325. According to Malcolm Muggeridge (1980), Christ founded Christianity, but Constantine founded Christendom. Canadian theology professor Douglas John Hall dates

14030-440: The Acts of Pilate ), Pilate is portrayed as forced to execute Jesus by the Jews and as distraught at having done so. One version claims to have been discovered and translated by a Jewish convert named Ananias, portraying itself as the official Jewish records of the crucifixion. Another claims that the records were made by Pilate himself, relying on reports made to him by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea . Some Eastern versions of

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14260-423: The Anaphora Pilati . In The Handing Over of Pilate, Tiberius orders Pilate brought to him as a prisoner, somehow intuiting that the darkness that covered the world at Jesus's execution was his fault. At trial, Pilate deflects and says that the Jewish leaders as well as the "entire multitude of the Jews" were the ones truly at fault. Tiberius suggests that Pilate should have sent Jesus to Rome for his safety. At

14490-807: The Byzantine Empire 's gradual loss of territory to an expanding Islam and the Muslim conquest of Persia . This caused Christianity to become important to the Byzantine identity. Before the East–West Schism which divided the Church religiously, there had been the notion of a universal Christendom that included the East and the West. After the East–West Schism, hopes of regaining religious unity with

14720-462: The Christian Acts of Pilate were written precisely as a counter to the pagan Acts of Pilate: a Christian author, angry at the pagan forgery, decided to record what they believed to have really happened and produce a competing Acts of Pilate. Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate ( Latin : Pontius Pilatus ; Greek : Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος , romanized :  Póntios Pilátos ) was

14950-600: The Church scholars such as Aquinas and Buridan , the West carried on at least the spirit of scientific inquiry which would later lead to Europe's taking the lead in science during the Scientific Revolution using translations of medieval works . Medieval technology refers to the technology used in medieval Europe under Christian rule. After the Renaissance of the 12th century , medieval Europe saw

15180-514: The Embassy to Gaius , although he is writing only a few years after Pilate's tenure as governor. A single inscription by Pilate has survived in Caesarea, on the " Pilate Stone ". The (partially reconstructed) inscription is as follows: Vardaman "freely" translates it as follows: "Tiberium [?of the Caesareans?] Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea [ ... has given?]". The fragmentary nature of

15410-584: The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church believes that Pilate became a Christian and venerates him as both a martyr and a saint , a belief which is historically shared by the Coptic Church , with a feast day on 19 or 25 June, respectively. Although Pilate is the best-attested governor of Judaea, few sources regarding his rule have survived. Nothing is known about his life before he became governor of Judaea, and nothing

15640-406: The Gospel of Matthew and repeats the story from there that Pilate had sent soldiers to watch the tomb, Jesus had risen from the dead in the presence of the soldiers, and the chief priests of the Jews had paid off the soldiers in an attempt to spread lies that Jesus's disciples had stolen the body instead. In the Letter of Pilate to Claudius, Pilate testifies that the soldiers instead informed him of

15870-742: The Greek and Roman Empires , as the centralized Roman power waned, the dominance of the Catholic Church was the only consistent force in Western Europe. Until the Age of Enlightenment , Christian culture guided the course of philosophy, literature, art, music and science. Christian disciplines of the respective arts have subsequently developed into Christian philosophy , Christian art , Christian music , Christian literature etc. Art and literature, law, education, and politics were preserved in

16100-554: The Harrowing of Hell , which describes exactly what happened while Jesus was dead after his execution. In it, a dead John the Baptist preaches in Hades (the realm) to other dead figures of the Jewish scriptures including Adam and Seth , the patriarchs, and the prophets, and tells of Jesus's coming. Satan is misled into believing that Jesus is a mere human, and encourages Hades (the deity) to trap him. However, Jesus instead smashes

16330-535: The Jewish Wars (2.9.4) and the Antiquities of the Jews (18.3.2), Josephus relates that Pilate offended the Jews by using up the temple treasury ( korbanos ) to pay for a new aqueduct to Jerusalem. When a mob formed while Pilate was visiting Jerusalem, Pilate ordered his troops to beat them with clubs; many perished from the blows or from being trampled by horses, and the mob was dispersed. The dating of

16560-531: The Jews and Jewish Christians . Others have tried to explain Pilate's behavior in the Gospels as motivated by a change of circumstances from that shown in Josephus and Philo, usually presupposing a connection between Pilate's caution and the death of Sejanus. Yet other scholars, such as Brian McGing and Bond, have argued that there is no real discrepancy between Pilate's behavior in Josephus and Philo and that in

16790-524: The Late Antique period iconography began to be standardised, and to relate more closely to Biblical texts, although many gaps in the canonical Gospel narratives were plugged with matter from the apocryphal gospels . Eventually the Church would succeed in weeding most of these out, but some remain, like the ox and ass in the Nativity of Christ . An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly

17020-525: The Paradosis Pilati , it is not overtly anti-Jewish in its message. Despite the title, it is not part of a correspondence with the Letter of Herod to Pilate ; it is a separate work, although the two letters would later be included in the same manuscripts. In The Letter of Pilate to Herod, Pilate expresses remorse over executing Jesus. His messengers sent to Galilee find the resurrected Jesus and confirm his divine power. He, his wife Procla , and

17250-581: The Samnites in the third and first centuries BC, respectively, before their full incorporation to the Roman Republic . Like all but one other governor of Judaea, Pilate was of the equestrian order , a middle rank of the Roman nobility. As one of the attested Pontii, Pontius Aquila (an assassin of Julius Caesar ) was a tribune of the plebs ; the family must have originally been of plebeian origin and later became ennobled as equestrians. Pilate

17480-666: The Talmud ( Lamentations Rabbah 4.4) records the destruction of an aqueduct from Solomon's Pools by the Sicarii , a group of fanatical religious Zealots , during the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73); he suggests that if the aqueduct had been funded by the temple treasury as recorded in Josephus, this might explain the Sicarii's targeting of this particular aqueduct. However, more recent research, published in 2021, dates

17710-653: The Western Roman Empire disintegrated into feudal kingdoms and principalities , the concept of Christendom changed as the western church became one of five patriarchates of the Pentarchy and the Christians of the Eastern Roman Empire developed. The Byzantine Empire was the last bastion of Christendom. Christendom would take a turn with the rise of the Franks , a Germanic tribe who converted to

17940-655: The absolute king Henry VIII establishing the English church . In modern history , the Reformation and rise of modernity in the early 16th century entailed a change in the Corpus Christianum . In the Holy Roman Empire , the Peace of Augsburg of 1555 officially ended the idea among secular leaders that all Christians must be united under one church. The principle of cuius regio, eius religio ("whose

18170-537: The fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea , serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately ordered his crucifixion . Pilate's importance in Christianity is underscored by his prominent place in both the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds . Because the gospels portray Pilate as reluctant to execute Jesus,

18400-510: The state church of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica of 380. In terms of prosperity and cultural life, the Byzantine Empire was one of the peaks in Christian history and Christian civilization , and Constantinople remained the leading city of the Christian world in size, wealth, and culture. There was a renewed interest in classical Greek philosophy , as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek. As

18630-566: The temple treasury to construct an aqueduct , as recorded by Josephus, without the cooperation of the priests. Similarly, Helen Bond argues that Pilate is depicted working closely with the Jewish authorities in the execution of Jesus. Jean-Pierre Lémonon argues that official cooperation with Pilate was limited to the Sadducees, noting that the Pharisees are absent from the gospel accounts of Jesus's arrest and trial. Daniel Schwartz takes

18860-427: The theological doctrines of Christianity. Scholasticism , which means "that [which] belongs to the school", and was a method of learning taught by the academics (or school people ) of medieval universities c. 1100–1500. Scholasticism originally started to reconcile the philosophy of the ancient classical philosophers with medieval Christian theology. Scholasticism is not a philosophy or theology in itself but

19090-482: The " Western World " has been intimately connected with the concept of "Christianity and Christendom"; many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity . Early Christianity spread in the Greek/Roman world and beyond as a 1st-century Jewish sect, which historians refer to as Jewish Christianity . It may be divided into two distinct phases: the apostolic period , when

19320-404: The 'inauguration of Christendom' to the 4th century, with Constantine playing the primary role (so much so that he equates Christendom with "Constantinianism") and Theodosius I ( Edict of Thessalonica , 380) and Justinian I secondary roles. "Christendom" has referred to the medieval and renaissance notion of the Christian world as a polity . In essence, the earliest vision of Christendom

19550-419: The 5th century. The oldest versions that survive are Greek versions from the 6th century, and Arabic and Karshuni versions from the 10th and 13th century. The Anaphora Pilati is largely an anti-Jewish work. The miracles of Jesus are plain and obvious to Pilate as more powerful than any the Roman gods provide, yet the Jews blindly reject Jesus and demand his punishment, despite being unable to convict him of

19780-486: The 5th or 6th centuries, although earlier dates from the 2nd–4th centuries are possible as well; in particular, a compelling hypothesis is that the Acts were first written in the early 4th century as a counterattack to a rival pagan Acts of Pilate . The work was originally written in Greek, although it implausibly claims to be translated from a Hebrew original within it. The authors appear to be familiar with all four of

20010-504: The 9th century by a scribe somewhere in southern England, possibly at the court of king Alfred the Great of Wessex . The scribe was translating Paulus Orosius ' book History Against the Pagans ( c.  416 ) and in need for a term to express the concept of the universal culture focused on Jesus Christ . It had the sense now taken by Christianity (as is still the case with the cognate Dutch christendom , where it denotes mostly

20240-410: The Acts of Pilate (Gospel of Nicodemus), so any time after the Acts of Pilate was written (approximately the 5th century) to the 12th century is possible for the date of the composition of the work. The work has an anti-Jewish agenda and betrays colossal ignorance of Jewish customs. The author has Joseph condemn the "murderous Jews who wage war against God", that Nicodemus , the sole "good" Jew, held to

20470-514: The Catholic Church's hierarchy in the Renaissance became increasingly entangled with insatiable greed for material wealth and temporal power, which led to many reform movements, some merely wanting a moral reformation of the Church's clergy, while others repudiated the Church and separated from it in order to form new sects. The Italian Renaissance produced ideas or institutions by which men living in society could be held together in harmony. In

20700-576: The Christian faith and entered into communion with Rome . On Christmas Day 800 AD, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne , resulting in the creation of another Christian king beside the Christian emperor in the Byzantine state. The Carolingian Empire created a definition of Christendom in juxtaposition with the Byzantine Empire, that of a distributed versus centralized culture respectively. The classical heritage flourished throughout

20930-417: The Christian foundations of its culture, although formerly it had been so imbued with Christianity and had drawn from it such strength and vigor that the people of these nations in many cases owe to Christianity all that is best in their own tradition. Writing in 1997, Canadian theology professor Douglas John Hall argued that Christendom had either fallen already or was in its death throes; although its end

21160-469: The Church and protected by the Spirit-body of Christ; no wonder, this concept, as included the whole of Europe and then the expanding Christian territories on earth, strengthened the roots of Romance of the greatness of Christianity in the world. There is a common and nonliteral sense of the word that is much like the terms Western world , known world or Free World . The notion of "Europe" and

21390-684: The Church. The Catholic Church 's peak of authority over all European Christians and their common endeavours of the Christian community—for example, the Crusades , the fight against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula and against the Ottomans in the Balkans —helped to develop a sense of communal identity against the obstacle of Europe's deep political divisions. The popes, formally just

21620-519: The Earth. Veronica's portrait heals Emperor Tiberius of his leprosy, and Tiberius and his household are baptized as Christians. The Gospel of Peter is an apocryphal gospel that was not canonized by the early Church after accusations that it promoted docetism . It only exists in fragmentary form from a single surviving copy discovered in Egypt in 1886. One notable facet is that Jewish King Herod Antipas

21850-483: The Elder , the governor of Syria (term 35–39), who had Pilate recalled to Rome to be judged by Tiberius . Tiberius, however, had died before his arrival. This dates the end of Pilate's governorship to 36/37. Tiberius died in Misenum on 16 March in 37, in his seventy-eighth year (Tacitus, Annals VI.50 , VI.51 ). Following Tiberius's death, Pilate's hearing would have been handled by the new emperor Caligula : it

22080-429: The Gospel accounts are completely untrustworthy: S. G. F. Brandon argued that in reality, rather than vacillating on condemning Jesus, Pilate unhesitatingly executed him as a rebel. Paul Winter explained the discrepancy between Pilate in other sources and Pilate in the gospels by arguing that Christians became more and more eager to portray Pontius Pilate as a witness to Jesus' innocence, as persecution of Christians by

22310-419: The Gospel of Nicodemus claim that Pilate was born in Egypt, which likely aided his popularity there. The Christian Pilate literature surrounding the Gospel of Nicodemus includes at least fifteen late antique and early medieval texts, called the " Pilate cycle ", written and preserved in various languages and versions and dealing largely with Pontius Pilate. Two of these include purported reports made by Pilate to

22540-444: The Gospels' portrayal of Pilate cannot be considered historical, since Pilate is always described in other sources ( The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews of Josephus and Embassy to Gaius of Philo ) as a cruel and obstinate man. Brown also rejects the historicity of Pilate washing his hands and of the blood curse , arguing that these narratives, which only appear in the Gospel of Matthew , reflect later contrasts between

22770-593: The Gospels. Warren Carter argues that Pilate is portrayed as skillful, competent, and manipulative of the crowd in Mark, Matthew, and John, only finding Jesus innocent and executing him under pressure in Luke. N. T. Wright and Craig A. Evans argue that Pilate's hesitation was due to the fear of causing a revolt during Passover , when large numbers of pilgrims were in Jerusalem . According to Josephus' Antiquities of

23000-417: The Great petitioned him to remove the shields, but Pilate refused. Herod's sons then threatened to petition the emperor, an action which Pilate feared would expose the crimes he had committed in office. He did not prevent their petition. Tiberius received the petition and angrily reprimanded Pilate, ordering him to remove the shields. Helen Bond, Daniel Schwartz, and Warren Carter argue that Philo's portrayal

23230-467: The Jewish Sanhedrin . Pilate was subordinate to the legate of Syria ; however, for the first six years in which he held office, Syria's legate Lucius Aelius Lamia was absent from the region, something which Helen Bond believes may have presented difficulties to Pilate. He seems to have been free to govern the province as he wished, with intervention by the legate of Syria only coming at

23460-549: The Jews ( c.  94 ) by the Jewish historian Josephus , as well as the four canonical Christian gospels , Mark (composed between 66 and 70), Luke (composed between 85 and 90), Matthew (composed between 85 and 90), and John (composed between 90 and 110), each authored anonymously; he is also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (composed between 85 and 90) and in the First Epistle to Timothy (written in

23690-566: The Jews (18.4.1–2), Pilate's removal as governor occurred after Pilate slaughtered a group of armed Samaritans at a village called Tirathana near Mount Gerizim , where they hoped to find artifacts that had been buried there by Moses . Alexander Demandt suggests that the leader of this movement may have been Dositheos , a messiah -like figure among the Samaritans who was known to have been active around this time. The Samaritans, claiming not to have been armed, complained to Lucius Vitellius

23920-494: The Jews and not Pilate were responsible for Jesus' death; he therefore also assumed that Pilate did not die a shameful death. Pilate's supposed suicide is also left unmentioned in Josephus, Philo, and Tacitus. Maier argues that "[i]n all probability, then, the fate of Pontius Pilate lay clearly in the direction of a retired government official, a pensioned Roman ex-magistrate, than in anything more disastrous." Taylor notes that Philo discusses Pilate as though he were already dead in

24150-514: The Jews and once by Tiberius, for his faith. In addition to the report on Pilate's suicide in Eusebius, Grüll notes three Western apocryphal traditions about Pilate's suicide. In the Cura sanitatis Tiberii (dated variously 5th to 7th century), the emperor Tiberius is healed by an image of Jesus brought by Saint Veronica , Saint Peter then confirms Pilate's report on Jesus's miracles, and Pilate

24380-412: The Jews by moving imperial standards with the image of Caesar into Jerusalem. This resulted in a crowd of Jews surrounding Pilate's house in Caesarea for five days. Pilate then summoned them to an arena , where the Roman soldiers drew their swords. But the Jews showed so little fear of death, that Pilate relented and removed the standards. Bond argues that the fact that Josephus says that Pilate brought in

24610-482: The Jews nor Herod do so. The Gospel includes a scene in which the centurions who had been guarding Jesus' tomb report to Pilate that Jesus has been resurrected. The fragmentary third-century Manichaean Gospel of Mani has Pilate refer to Jesus as "the Son of God" and telling his centurions to "[k]eep this secret". In the most common version of the passion narrative in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (also called

24840-413: The Jews prior to this time reflects an increasing "anti-Judaism" among Early Christians. The earliest attestation of a positive tradition about Pilate comes from the late first-, early second-century Christian author Tertullian , who, claiming to have seen Pilate's report to Tiberius, states Pilate had "become already a Christian in his conscience." An earlier reference to Pilate's records of Jesus's trial

25070-458: The Jews suffer horrifically for their collective crime of killing the Messiah . Pilate is portrayed negatively as in the Western tradition, and has a terrible fate befall him as vengeance as well. The author of the work is quite ignorant of the geography of the province of Judea and the Roman Empire of the era. For example, the work writes that Titus was a client ruler of "Libiae" (rather than

25300-636: The Jews) be cast into hell. Joseph requests Jesus's body and buries it, but is then imprisoned by the Jews who violate their own law by imprisoning him on the Sabbath. A resurrected Jesus and Demas arrive at the prison and annihilate it with a great light, freeing Joseph. The three depart for Galilee, where they meet John the Apostle , who is amazed at the robber Demas's new ineffable and beatific appearance. The Paradosis Pilati or The Handing Over of Pilate

25530-518: The Jews. A voice from heaven responds and says that all the races and families of the gentiles will bless Pilate because the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies of Jesus happened under him. Pilate will personally appear as a witness at the Second Coming and of the judging of unbelievers. After Pilate is beheaded, an angel personally brings his head to heaven. His wife dies with joy upon seeing his holy reward, and their two bodies are buried together. The Vindicta Salvatoris or The Vengeance of

25760-441: The Latin translation. The versions identifying themselves as the Gospel of Nicodemus include a prologue where an author identifying himself as Ananias, a bodyguard of Pilate, claims to be translating a Hebrew work by Nicodemus . The main Acts of Pilates then proceeds to describe Jesus's trial; in it, Pilate is portrayed positively, as someone who recognizes Jesus's greater authority as king. The Jewish leaders accuse Jesus of being

25990-658: The Middle Ages in both the Byzantine Greek East and the Latin West. In the Greek philosopher Plato 's ideal state there are three major classes, which was representative of the idea of the "tripartite soul", which is expressive of three functions or capacities of the human soul: "reason", "the spirited element", and "appetites" (or "passions"). Will Durant made a convincing case that certain prominent features of Plato's ideal community where discernible in

26220-553: The New Testament. The gospels are generally agreed to have been written between 70 and 110 AD, and provide a snapshot of Christian traditions about Pilate in the decades after Jesus's death. Christians in later centuries hungered for more information than the gospels provided, however. Just as infancy gospels expanded the stories of young Jesus, various texts were produced that expanded the story of Pilate, Jesus's trial, and Jesus's execution. These Passion Gospels satisfied

26450-577: The Renaissance Popes, whose inability to govern the Church by showing personal example of high moral standards set the climate for what would ultimately become the Protestant Reformation. During the Renaissance, the papacy was mainly run by the wealthy families and also had strong secular interests. To safeguard Rome and the connected Papal States the popes became necessarily involved in temporal matters, even leading armies, as

26680-494: The Rhone, where the same thing happens. Finally, the corpse is taken to Lausanne in modern Switzerland and buried in an isolated lake (perhaps Lake Lucerne ), where demonic visitations continue to occur. Beginning in the eleventh century, more extensive legendary biographies of Pilate were written in Western Europe, adding details to information provided by the bible and apocrypha. The legend exists in many different versions and

26910-477: The Roman Empire, Pilate was identified as the first persecutor. Western attitudes softened later in an attempt to show that Christianity need not be feared and that good Romans such as Pilate had acknowledged that Jesus was not a threat to Roman rule, and that the Jews were the real problem. After Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire , Western attitudes toward Pilate became more hostile again, as there

27140-462: The Roman authorities increased. Bart Ehrman argues that the Gospel of Mark , the earliest one, shows the Jews and Pilate to be in agreement about executing Jesus (Mark 15:15), while the later gospels progressively reduce Pilate's culpability, culminating in Pilate allowing the Jews to crucify Jesus in John (John 19:16). He connects this change to increased "anti-Judaism". Raymond E. Brown argued that

27370-495: The Roman provinces and applied to non-Roman citizens that provided the prefect with greater flexibility in handling the case. All four gospels also mention that Pilate had the custom of releasing one captive in honor of the Passover festival; this custom is not attested in any other source. Historians disagree on whether or not such a custom is a fictional element of the gospels, reflects historical reality, or perhaps represents

27600-584: The Savior is a medieval legend written in Latin. It is an anonymous work that does not identify its author. The oldest text found is the Saint-Omer manuscript of the 9th century, although scholars have argued the text likely originates from the 8th century. An Anglo-Saxon language (Old English) version exists from the 11th century as well that was used as an ancient source before the Saint-Omer version

27830-489: The Southern Hemisphere in general, by 2010 about 157 countries and territories in the world had Christian majorities . Western culture , throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture , and many of the population of the Western hemisphere could broadly be described as cultural Christians . The notion of " Europe " and the " Western World " has been intimately connected with

28060-683: The Treaty of Westphalia (1648), or arguably, including the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession in this period, with the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. In the 18th century, the focus shifts away from religious conflicts, either between Christian factions or against the external threat of Islamic factions. The European Miracle , the Age of Enlightenment and the formation of

28290-570: The Virgin , parts of the Old Testament, and, increasingly, the lives of popular saints . Especially in the West, a system of attributes developed for identifying individual figures of saints by a standard appearance and symbolic objects held by them; in the East they were more likely to identified by text labels. Each saint has a story and a reason why he or she led an exemplary life. Symbols have been used to tell these stories throughout

28520-473: The West were ended by the Fourth Crusade , when Crusaders conquered the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and hastened the decline of the Byzantine Empire on the path to its destruction . With the breakup of the Byzantine Empire into individual nations with nationalist Orthodox Churches, the term Christendom described Western Europe, Catholicism, Orthodox Byzantines, and other Eastern rites of

28750-411: The Western world. Rome in the Renaissance under the papacy not only acted as guardian and transmitter of these elements stemming from the Roman Empire but also assumed the role as artificer and interpreter of its myths and meanings for the peoples of Europe from the Middle Ages to modern times... Under the patronage of the popes, whose wealth and income were exceeded only by their ambitions, the city became

28980-427: The already damned Jewish priests. Herod adds that Longinus, who stabbed Jesus with his spear, had also suffered lopsided punishment: he was being eternally devoured by a lion. His body is restored every dawn, and the lion shreds his body each night, until the second coming of Christ (somewhat similar to the punishment of Prometheus ). The letter concludes with writing that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had set down

29210-485: The author attributes Jesus's persecution under Pilate's governorship. Ignatius further dates Jesus's birth, passion, and resurrection during Pilate's governorship in his epistle to the Magnesians (11.1). Ignatius stresses all these events in his epistles as historical facts. Bond argues that Jesus's arrest was made with Pilate's prior knowledge and involvement, based on the presence of a 500-strong Roman cohort among

29440-508: The author's readers in the story. In The Vengeance of the Savior, Nathan, an Ishmaelite (Arab), leaves Judea and travels the Empire to collect a tribute for Emperor Tiberius. Winds blow him off-course north to the city of Burdigala, where the ruler Tyrus suffers from cancer and a mangled face. There, Nathan tells Tyrus of Jesus's miracles, trial, execution, saving of the human race from hell, and resurrection. Tyrus converts to Christianity on

29670-467: The awe in which lay sinners held them.... After the collapse of Charlemagne's empire , the southern remnants of the Holy Roman Empire became a collection of states loosely connected to the Holy See of Rome . Tensions between Pope Innocent III and secular rulers ran high, as the pontiff exerted control over their temporal counterparts in the west and vice versa. The pontificate of Innocent III

29900-582: The best quality of parchment, called vellum , traditionally made of unsplit calfskin , though high quality parchment from other skins was also called parchment . Christian art began, about two centuries after Christ, by borrowing motifs from Roman Imperial imagery , classical Greek and Roman religion and popular art. Religious images are used to some extent by the Abrahamic Christian faith, and often contain highly complex iconography, which reflects centuries of accumulated tradition. In

30130-671: The bishops of Rome, claimed to be the focus of all Christendom, which was largely recognised in Western Christendom from the 11th century until the Reformation, but not in Eastern Christendom. Moreover, this authority was also sometimes abused, and fostered the Inquisition and anti-Jewish pogroms , to root out divergent elements and create a religiously uniform community. Ultimately, the Inquisition

30360-400: The bribe and the truth of the matter, that the resurrection was real. He then decided to write up this report so that Claudius would not believe the lies of the Jews. Historically, being a letter to Claudius is rather strange, as Claudius began his reign only in 41 AD, some years after both Jesus's death and Pilate's term as prefect. One possibility is that the author, writing centuries later,

30590-504: The canonical gospels, and include some material from each. While many of the other parts of the Pilate cycle survive on just a few ancient records, the Acts of Pilate was very popular; over 500 ancient manuscripts survive in a variety of languages and versions, indicating it was translated, copied, and modified many times across Christendom . It proved especially popular in Western Christianity, with many surviving copies of

30820-492: The centurion Longinus all convert to Christianity, and affirm Christian teachings. Pilate describes being personally blessed by a vision of the Lord. The Letter of Pilate to Tiberius is a short letter that Pilate purportedly wrote to Emperor Tiberius . It is a comparatively late text, perhaps as late as the Renaissance . It was originally written in Latin. The depiction of Pilate is quite positive; Pilate describes Jesus as

31050-413: The chief priests. On the cross, Jesus discusses matters with the two thieves. Gestas says if he had known Jesus was a king, he would have tried to kill him as well, and insults Jesus as a wild beast. Demas, sensing Jesus's power, asks for forgiveness. Jesus, from the cross, writes the angels that Demas should enter paradise. He also decrees that the children of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses (that is,

31280-426: The cognomen through military skill. In the Gospels of Mark and John, Pilate is only called by his cognomen, which Marie-Joseph Ollivier takes to mean that this was the name by which he was generally known in common speech. The name Pontius suggests that an ancestor of his came from Samnium in central, southern Italy, and he may have belonged to the family of Gavius Pontius and Pontius Telesinus , two leaders of

31510-562: The common stock of significant symbols known to most periods and to all regions of the world. Religious symbolism is effective when it appeals to both the intellect and the emotions. Especially important depictions of Mary include the Hodegetria and Panagia types. Traditional models evolved for narrative paintings, including large cycles covering the events of the Life of Christ, the Life of

31740-524: The concept of "Christianity and Christendom"; many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity . Historian Paul Legutko of Stanford University said the Catholic Church is "at the center of the development of the values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions which constitute what we call Western civilization." Though Western culture contained several polytheistic religions during its early years under

31970-519: The construction of another one of the aqueducts providing water to Solomon's Pools, namely the Biar Aqueduct (also known as Wadi el-Biyar Aqueduct), to the mid-first century AD, probably during the time of Pilate. In 2018, an inscription on a thin copper-alloy sealing ring that had been discovered at Herodium was uncovered using modern scanning techniques. The inscription reads ΠΙΛΑΤΟ(Υ) ( Pilato(u) ), meaning "of Pilate". The name Pilatus

32200-456: The creation of international law ), politics, architecture, literature, personal hygiene , and family life. Christianity played a role in ending practices common among pagan societies , such as human sacrifice , slavery , infanticide and polygamy . Christian literature is writing that deals with Christian themes and incorporates the Christian world view. This constitutes a huge body of extremely varied writing. Christian poetry

32430-493: The crime Demas committed. Jesus is arrested for the theft of the law. Jesus does not respond to the charges, as he is innocent. The Jews become unruly and want to burn Sara at the stake, since without the Law they cannot celebrate Passover . Sara suggests instead that if the Jews collectively destroy Jesus, this will cause the law to be found. After Judas's betrayal with a kiss, Jesus is arrested again and handed over to Caiaphas and

32660-509: The crime of the execution of Jesus and defile the Jewish women. The letter continues on to describe their later fates: the Jewish leaders suffer horrific deaths, being beheaded, impaled, crucified, and squeezed to death. The emperor personally kills Pilate as part of a divinely guided hunting accident; Tiberius was attempting to shoot a hind with his bow, but the arrow instead went into the window of Pilate's prison and killed him. The Mors Pilati or The Death of Pilate Who Condemned Jesus

32890-442: The design and construction of buildings and structures in Christian culture . Buildings were at first adapted from those originally intended for other purposes but, with the rise of distinctively ecclesiastical architecture, church buildings came to influence secular ones which have often imitated religious architecture. In the 20th century, the use of new materials, such as concrete, as well as simpler styles has had its effect upon

33120-471: The design of churches and arguably the flow of influence has been reversed. From the birth of Christianity to the present, the most significant period of transformation for Christian architecture in the west was the Gothic cathedral . In the east, Byzantine architecture was a continuation of Roman architecture . Christian philosophy is a term to describe the fusion of various fields of philosophy with

33350-735: The earliest apocryphal texts attributed to Pilate are denunciations of Christianity and of Jesus that claim to be Pilate's report on the crucifixion. According to Eusebius ( Church History 9.2.5), these texts were distributed during the persecution of Christians conducted by the emperor Maximinus II (reigned 308–313). None of these texts survive, but Tibor Grüll argues that their contents can be reconstructed from Christian apologetic texts. Positive traditions about Pilate are frequent in Eastern Christianity, particularly in Egypt and Ethiopia, whereas negative traditions predominate in Western and Byzantine Christianity. Additionally, earlier Christian traditions portray Pilate more positively than later ones,

33580-479: The earliest. Despite being written in Greek, it evinces later Western attitudes toward Pilate, considering him a criminal. The writer may have been familiar with the Acts of Pilate. While the letter alludes to an earlier letter from Pilate to Tiberius, this earlier letter does not appear to be the Anaphora Pilati , the Renaissance Letter of Pilate to Tiberius above, or any other extant similar work; it

33810-619: The early 16th century, Baldassare Castiglione ( The Book of the Courtier ) laid out his vision of the ideal gentleman and lady, while Machiavelli cast a jaundiced eye on "la verità effetuale delle cose"—the actual truth of things—in The Prince , composed, humanist style, chiefly of parallel ancient and modern examples of Virtù . Some Protestant movements grew up along lines of mysticism or renaissance humanism ( cf. Erasmus ). The Catholic Church fell partly into general neglect under

34040-497: The emperor (the Anaphora Pilati to Emperor Tiberius and the Letter of Pilate to Claudius to Claudius ) on the crucifixion, in which Pilate recounts Jesus' death and resurrection, blaming the Jews. Another purports to be an angry reply by Tiberius, condemning Pilate for his role in Jesus' death, the Letter of Tiberius to Pilate . Another early text is an apocryphal letter attributed to "Herod" (a composite character of

34270-428: The emperor died before Pilate arrived in Rome. Nothing is known about what happened to him after this event. On the basis of events which were documented by the second-century pagan philosopher Celsus and the Christian apologist Origen , most modern historians believe that Pilate simply retired after his dismissal. Modern historians have differing assessments of Pilate as an effective ruler: while some believe that he

34500-413: The empire of universal peace, all-permeating rational art, and philosophical worship, is mentioned no more. An unformulated conception, the prerational ethics of private privilege and national unity, fills the background of men's minds. It represents feudal traditions rather than the tendency really involved in contemporary industry, science, or philanthropy. Those dark ages, from which our political practice

34730-653: The end of Christendom came about because modern governments refused to "uphold the teachings, customs, ethos, and practice of Christianity". He argued the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (1791) and the Second Vatican Council 's Declaration on Religious Freedom (1965) are two of the most important documents setting the stage for its end. According to British historian Diarmaid MacCulloch (2010), Christendom

34960-559: The end of his tenure, after the appointment of Lucius Vitellius to the post in 35. Like other Roman governors of Judaea, Pilate made his primary residence in Caesarea , going to Jerusalem mainly for major feasts to maintain order. He also would have toured around the province in order to hear cases and administer justice. As governor, Pilate had the right to appoint the Jewish High Priest and also officially controlled

35190-487: The first apostles were alive and organizing the Church, and the post-apostolic period , when an early episcopal structure developed, whereby bishoprics were governed by bishops (overseers). The post-apostolic period concerns the time roughly after the death of the apostles when bishops emerged as overseers of urban Christian populations. The earliest recorded use of the terms Christianity (Greek Χριστιανισμός ) and catholic (Greek καθολικός ), dates to this period,

35420-408: The founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment..." (Tacitus, Annals 15.44). Josephus also mentioned Jesus 's execution by Pilate at the request of prominent Jews ( Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.3); the text may have been altered by Christian interpolation , but

35650-399: The fourth century by which governments upheld and promoted Christianity." Curry states that the end of Christendom came about because modern governments refused to "uphold the teachings, customs, ethos, and practice of Christianity." British church historian Diarmaid MacCulloch described (2010) Christendom as "the union between Christianity and secular power." Christendom was originally

35880-457: The gates of Hades with his authority, freeing and saving the dead. Satan is bound by angels and given over to Hades in death to await the Second Coming of Jesus . Some scholars suggest that the Harrowing of Hell section may have originally been a separate document written in perhaps the 5th or 6th centuries. A later editor merged the story with the Acts of Pilate, creating the longer B version. The Anaphora Pilati or Report of Pontius Pilate

36110-530: The gospels in particular providing a theological rather than historical perspective on Pilate. Besides these texts, dated coins in the name of emperor Tiberius minted during Pilate's governorship have survived, as well as a fragmentary short inscription that names Pilate, known as the Pilate Stone , the only inscription about a Roman governor of Judaea predating the Jewish–Roman wars to survive. The sources give no indication of Pilate's life prior to his becoming governor of Judaea. His praenomen (first name)

36340-451: The gospels, the Pilate cycle . Attitudes split by region: in texts from the Eastern Roman Empire , Pilate was portrayed as a positive figure. He and his wife are portrayed as Christian converts and sometimes martyrs. In Western Christian texts, he was instead portrayed as a negative figure and villain, with traditions surrounding his death by suicide featuring prominently. Pilate was also the focus of numerous medieval legends, which invented

36570-565: The great colonial empires , together with the beginning decline of the Ottoman Empire , mark the end of the geopolitical "history of Christendom". Instead, the focus of Western history shifts to the development of the nation-state , accompanied by increasing atheism and secularism , culminating with the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars at the turn of the 19th century. In his 1964 encyclical letter Ecclesiam Suam , Pope Paul VI observed that One part of [the] world ... has in recent years detached itself and broken away from

36800-515: The great patron of arts Pope Julius II did. During these intermediate times, popes strove to make Rome the capital of Christendom while projecting it through art, architecture, and literature as the center of a Golden Age of unity, order, and peace. Professor Frederick J. McGinness described Rome as essential in understanding the legacy the Church and its representatives encapsulated best by The Eternal City : No other city in Europe matches Rome in its traditions, history, legacies, and influence in

37030-426: The history of the Church. A number of Christian saints are traditionally represented by a symbol or iconic motif associated with their life, termed an attribute or emblem , in order to identify them. The study of these forms part of iconography in Art history . Christian architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Christianity to the present day, influencing

37260-405: The incident is unknown, but Bond argues that it must have occurred between 26 and 30 or 33, based on Josephus's chronology. The Gospel of Luke mentions in passing Galileans "whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices" ( Luke 13 :1). This reference has been variously interpreted as referring to one of the incidents recorded by Josephus, or to an entirely unknown incident. Bond argues that

37490-404: The inscription has led to some disagreement about the correct reconstruction, so that "apart from Pilate's name and title the inscription is unclear." Originally, the inscription would have included an abbreviated letter for Pilate's praenomen (e.g., T. for Titus or M. for Marcus). The stone attests Pilate's title of prefect and the inscription appears to refer to some kind of building called

37720-412: The instruments and opportunities of culture, and ruled with almost unlimited sway half of the most powerful continent on the globe. The clergy, like Plato's guardians, were placed in authority... by their talent as shown in ecclesiastical studies and administration, by their disposition to a life of meditation and simplicity, and ... by the influence of their relatives with the powers of state and church. In

37950-427: The largest groups of surviving New Testament Apocrypha . Originally, these texts served both to unburden Pilate of guilt for the death of Jesus as well as to provide more complete records of Jesus's trial. The apocryphal Gospel of Peter completely exonerates Pilate for the crucifixion, which is instead performed by Herod Antipas . Moreover, the text makes explicit that while Pilate washes his hands of guilt, neither

38180-403: The late date of composition in a place far removed from the Eastern Mediterranean. The work is also an expansion of the Cura sanitatis Tiberii legend from the 6th and 7th centuries, wherein Saint Veronica cures Tiberius. The story possibly builds on traditions from the Aquitaine region, as the story associates Titus with Burdigala (Roman-era Bourdeaux ) in what may be a nod toward including

38410-421: The later Middle Ages. In the Golden Legend , Pilate is portrayed as closely associated with Judas , first coveting the fruit in the orchard of Judas's father Ruben, then granting Judas Ruben's property after Judas has killed his own father. Christendom Christendom refers to Christian states , Christian-majority countries or countries in which Christianity is dominant or prevails. Following

38640-405: The latter half of the period in which they ruled [800 AD onwards], the clergy were as free from family cares as even Plato could desire [for such guardians]... [Clerical] Celibacy was part of the psychological structure of the power of the clergy; for on the one hand they were unimpeded by the narrowing egoism of the family, and on the other their apparent superiority to the call of the flesh added to

38870-540: The leadership of the church as an institution . This model of church-state relations was accepted by various Church leaders and political leaders in European history . The Church gradually became a defining institution of the Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313 proclaiming toleration for the Christian religion, and convoked the First Council of Nicaea in 325 whose Nicene Creed included belief in "one holy catholic and apostolic Church". Emperor Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity

39100-438: The legend of Pontius Pilate's association with the Italian village of Ameria [...] than it is to posit someone forging the inscription two centuries ago—quite creatively, it would seem—to provide substance for the legend." As governor, Pilate was responsible for minting coins in the province: he appears to have struck them in 29/30, 30/31, and 31/32, thus the fourth, fifth, and sixth years of his governorship. The coins belong to

39330-438: The long siege, King Herod the Great commits suicide. Many of the Jews, following Herod's lead, commit mass suicide. The Jews agree that the Holy Land is no longer theirs, but that Christ has taken it from them to give to the Romans. After the city falls, various gory fates befall the remaining Jews: some are quartered into four pieces (as Jesus's clothing had been divided); some are speared; some are stoned; some are hanged; and

39560-475: The media, style, and representations change; however, the unifying theme is ultimately the representation of the life and times of Jesus and in some cases the Old Testament . Depictions of saints are also common, especially in Anglicanism , Roman Catholicism , and Eastern Orthodoxy . An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration. The earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from

39790-405: The most pious person who ever existed, and explains himself as having to execute him only because he feared an uprising of the Jews against Rome had he declined. The Letter of Tiberius to Pilate is a Greek text purportedly from Emperor Tiberius to Pilate. Its date of authorship is unknown. It is hypothesized to be from comparatively late during medieval Christianity, around the 11th century at

40020-413: The narrative [...] Despite extensive differences, however, there is a certain agreement amongst the evangelists regarding the basic facts, an agreement which may well go beyond literary dependency and reflect actual historical events. Pilate's role in condemning Jesus to death is also attested by the Roman historian Tacitus , who, when explaining Nero 's persecution of the Christians, explains: "Christus,

40250-423: The note in the Gospel of Luke ( Luke 23 :12) that Pilate had a difficult relationship with the Galilean Jewish king Herod Antipas as potentially historical. He also finds historical the information that their relationship mended following the execution of Jesus. Based on John 19 :12, it is possible that Pilate held the title "friend of Caesar" ( Latin : amicus Caesaris , Ancient Greek : φίλος τοῦ Kαίσαρος ),

40480-399: The number of Galileans killed does not seem to have been particularly high. In Bond's view, the reference to "sacrifices" likely means that this incident occurred at Passover at some unknown date. She argues that "[i]t is not only possible but quite likely that Pilate's governorship contained many such brief outbreaks of trouble about which we know nothing. The insurrection in which Barabbas

40710-423: The organization, dogma and effectiveness of "the" Medieval Church in Europe: ... For a thousand years Europe was ruled by an order of guardians considerably like that which was visioned by our philosopher. During the Middle Ages it was customary to classify the population of Christendom into laboratores (workers), bellatores (soldiers), and oratores (clergy). The last group, though small in number, monopolized

40940-429: The party that arrests Jesus in John 18:3. Demandt dismisses the notion that Pilate was involved. It is generally assumed, based on the unanimous testimony of the gospels, that the crime for which Jesus was brought to Pilate and executed was sedition, founded on his claim to be king of the Jews . Pilate may have judged Jesus according to the cognitio extra ordinem , a form of trial for capital punishment used in

41170-405: The passion of Jesus as well as some of Jesus's activities with Joseph after his resurrection. While Pilate is a minor player, it is usually included in the Pilate cycle due to its emphasis on Jesus's trial and execution. The date it is written is unknown; the earliest manuscripts surviving are from the 12th century. The author of the work seems to be familiar with the letters of Herod to Pilate and

41400-447: The perfect man, and orders his punishment by the foulest death. Herod's son Archelaus is stoned to death. Volosianus also finds Saint Veronica, and takes her portrait of Jesus from her to bring back to Tiberius. Veronica insists on going on the boat with him so that she does not lose her image of Jesus. At court, Volosianus describes how the guilty Jews have been punished, and how Jews should be slaughtered and their names erased from

41630-674: The period AD 400 to 600, primarily produced in Ireland, Constantinople and Italy. The majority of surviving manuscripts are from the Middle Ages , although many illuminated manuscripts survive from the 15th century Renaissance , along with a very limited number from Late Antiquity . Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices , which had superseded scrolls; some isolated single sheets survive. A very few illuminated manuscript fragments survive on papyrus . Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment (most commonly of calf , sheep, or goat skin), but most manuscripts important enough to illuminate were written on

41860-421: The position it was time for him to take a new posting. Joan Taylor, on the other hand, argues that Pilate seems to have ended his career in disgrace, using his unflattering portrayal in Philo, written only a few years after his dismissal, as proof. The church historian Eusebius ( Church History 2.7.1), writing in the early fourth century, claims that "tradition relates that" Pilate committed suicide after he

42090-403: The potential fate of Pontius Pilate can be gleaned from other sources. The second-century pagan philosopher Celsus polemically asked why, if Jesus was God, God had not punished Pilate, indicating that he did not believe that Pilate shamefully committed suicide. Responding to Celsus, the Christian apologist Origen , writing c.  248 AD , argued that nothing bad happened to Pilate, because

42320-594: The powerful Praetorian Prefect Sejanus , who was executed for treason in 31. Other scholars have cast doubt on any link between Pilate and Sejanus. Daniel R. Schwartz and Kenneth Lönnqvist both argue that the traditional dating of the beginning of Pilate's governorship is based on an error in Josephus; Schwartz argues that he was appointed instead in 19, while Lönnqvist argues for 17/18. These proposed dates have not been widely accepted by other scholars. Pilate's title of prefect implies that his duties were primarily military; however, Pilate's troops were meant more as

42550-485: The previous emperor (Claudius), and it is read aloud. The account is less anti-Jewish than some of the works attributed to Pilate that see him positively; in it, "all the people of the Jews called him [Jesus] Son of God", and it is the chief priests who are evil and bent on discrediting Jesus out of envy. The Letter of Pilate to Herod is a work purportedly written by Pontius Pilate to Herod Antipas , Tetrarch of Galilee. Greek and Syriac versions exist, although Greek

42780-422: The process of transforming France from a feudal monarchy to a centralized state. The rise of strong, centralized monarchies denoted the European transition from feudalism to capitalism . By the end of the Hundred Years' War, both France and England were able to raise enough money through taxation to create independent standing armies. In the Wars of the Roses , Henry Tudor took the crown of England. His heir,

43010-401: The record of this letter. The Letter of Pilate to Claudius is a document purportedly written by Pilate to Emperor Claudius and written in Greek. It is potentially one of the oldest pieces of Pilate literature, dating from some point between the end of the 2nd century AD and the 5th century. The letter was later incorporated into the Acts of Peter and Paul , a 5th-century work. It evinces

43240-405: The reference to the execution is generally considered authentic. Discussing the paucity of extra-biblical mentions of the crucifixion, Alexander Demandt argues that the execution of Jesus was probably not seen as a particularly important event by the Romans, as many other people were crucified at the time and forgotten. In Ignatius 's epistles to the Trallians (9.1) and to the Smyrnaeans (1.2),

43470-421: The region is, his religion") established the religious, political and geographic divisions of Christianity, and this was established with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which legally ended the concept of a single Christian hegemony in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, despite the Catholic Church 's doctrine that it alone is the one true Church founded by Christ. Subsequently, each government determined

43700-493: The religion itself, just like the German Christentum ). The current sense of the word of "lands where Christianity is the dominant religion" emerged in Late Middle English (by c.  1400 ). Canadian theology professor Douglas John Hall stated (1997) that "Christendom" [...] means literally the dominion or sovereignty of the Christian religion." Thomas John Curry , Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles , defined (2001) Christendom as "the system dating from

43930-517: The religion of their own state. Christians living in states where their denomination was not the established one were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will. At times there were mass expulsions of dissenting faiths as happened with the Salzburg Protestants . Some people passed as adhering to the official church, but instead lived as Nicodemites or crypto-protestants . The European wars of religion are usually taken to have ended with

44160-467: The religious sensibilities of the Jews. The Christian gospels record that Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus at some point during his time in office; Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus also record this information. According to Josephus, Pilate was removed from office because he violently suppressed an armed Samaritan movement at Mount Gerizim . He was sent back to Rome by the legate of Syria to answer for this incident before Tiberius, but

44390-406: The remaining are enslaved and sold at a rate of 30 Jews for one silver piece, in reference to the thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas. After this, the Emperor's emissary Volosianus comes to Jerusalem to investigate stories of Jesus. He interrogates Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Simeon, and Pontius Pilate. Angered at what he has learned, Volosianus has Pilate thrown in an iron cage for killing

44620-418: The rich and treats the poor well. Demas robs the Temple of Jerusalem and steals Jewish law itself. While doing so, he humiliates the daughter of evil Chief Priest Caiaphas , Sara, by stealing her clothes, and steals Solomon's treasure. The theft of the law sends the Jews into a frenzy. Judas is bribed by the Jews for thirty pieces of gold to gain evidence (rather than the usual silver), and accuses Jesus of

44850-567: The scene where he washes his hands of guilt for Jesus's death. In the art of the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance , Pilate is often depicted as a Jew. He plays an important role in medieval passion plays , where he is often a more prominent character than Jesus. His characterization in these plays varies greatly, from weak-willed and coerced into crucifying Jesus to being an evil person who demands Jesus's crucifixion. Modern authors who feature Pilate prominently in their works include Anatole France , Mikhail Bulgakov , and Chingiz Aitmatov , with

45080-498: The second half of the 1st century). Ignatius of Antioch mentions him in his epistles to the Trallians , Magnesians , and Smyrnaeans (composed between 105 and 110). He is also briefly mentioned in Annals of the Roman historian Tacitus (early 2nd century), who simply says that he put Jesus to death. Two additional chapters of Tacitus's Annals that might have mentioned Pilate have been lost. The written sources provide only limited information, and each has its own biases, with

45310-427: The speaking of Jesus's name, all the emblems and statues of the Roman gods turn to dust. After he is pressed again, Pilate again blames the Jews for his act. Tiberius authorizes a decree to the Roman governor to enslave and disperse the inhabitants of Judea, and lay the nation waste. The governor, Licianus, does so. Still aghast at the death of Jesus, the emperor orders Pilate beheaded. Pilate prays and again blames

45540-402: The spot. He swears that if he had known earlier, he would have avenged his death, killed Jesus's enemies, and hung their bodies from a dry tree. This vow of vengeance immediately cures Tyrus's cancer and restores his face. After he is baptized by Nathan, Tyrus changes his name to Titus. Titus and Vespasian leave Burdigala with an army and besiege Jerusalem for seven years. Amid the famine from

45770-470: The spread of Christianity from the Levant to Europe and North Africa during the early Roman Empire , Christendom has been divided in the pre-existing Greek East and Latin West . Consequently, internal sects within the Christian religion arose with their own beliefs and practices, centred around the cities of Rome ( Western Christianity , whose community was called Western or Latin Christendom ) and Constantinople ( Eastern Christianity , whose community

46000-660: The standards by night, shows that he knew that the images of the emperor would be offensive. She dates this incident to early in Pilate's tenure as governor. Daniel Schwartz and Alexander Demandt both suggest that this incident is in fact identical with "the incident with the shields" reported in Philo's Embassy to Gaius , an identification first made by the early church historian Eusebius . Lémonon, however, argues against this identification. According to Philo's Embassy to Gaius ( Embassy to Gaius 38), Pilate offended against Jewish law by bringing golden shields into Jerusalem, and placing them on Herod's Palace . The sons of Herod

46230-420: The style of literature produced. Loosely speaking, eastern Christians revered Pilate, such as the Syrian , Coptic , and Ethiopian traditions; the Coptic tradition even deems him a saint. A version of this can be seen as early as the Gospel of John , which portrays Pilate more positively than the synoptic gospels . Western Christians were more skeptical of Pilate; during various periods of persecution by

46460-492: The symbolism on the coins shows how Pilate attempted to promote the Roman imperial cult in Judaea, in spite of local Jewish and Samaritan religious sensitivities. Attempts to identify the aqueduct that is attributed to Pilate in Josephus date to the 19th century. In the mid-20th century, A. Mazar tentatively identified it as the Arrub aqueduct that brought water from Solomon's Pools to Jerusalem, an identification supported in 2000 by Kenneth Lönnqvist. Lönnqvist notes that

46690-606: The teachings of the Church, in an environment that, otherwise, would have probably seen their loss. The Church founded many cathedrals , universities , monasteries and seminaries , some of which continue to exist today. Medieval Christianity created the first modern universities . The Catholic Church established a hospital system in Medieval Europe that vastly improved upon the Roman valetudinaria . These hospitals were established to cater to "particular social groups marginalized by poverty, sickness, and age," according to historian of hospitals, Guenter Risse. Christianity also had

46920-441: The tenets of the all encompassing order the Church had brought and as the repository of the legacy of classical antiquity : The enterprise of individuals or of small aristocratic bodies has meantime sown the world which we call civilised with some seeds and nuclei of order. There are scattered about a variety of churches, industries, academies, and governments. But the universal order once dreamt of and nominally almost established,

47150-455: The terrified locals move the body to stop the thunder, hail, windstorms, and so on. His body finally rests in a lake near Losania ( Lausanne ) in the mountains of the Alps, which is isolated enough to trouble fewer people (presumably either Lake Lucerne or Lake Leman ). The Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea is a medieval legend written in Greek, purportedly by Joseph of Arimathea , the man who requested Jesus's body to bury it. It chronicles

47380-423: The true pope. The Avignon Papacy developed a reputation for corruption that estranged major parts of Western Christendom. The Avignon schism was ended by the Council of Constance . Before the modern period, Christendom was in a general crisis at the time of the Renaissance Popes because of the moral laxity of these pontiffs and their willingness to seek and rely on temporal power as secular rulers did. Many in

47610-434: The truth more than the entire multitude of the Jews, and directly expresses his hope at the conclusion that "all   ... [will] no longer serve the law of Moses." The work goes into some detail on the thieves who were crucified with Jesus. Gestas , the evil thief, is a psychotic murderer and highwayman who drinks the blood of babies. Demas , the good thief, is a Galilean innkeeper and a proto- Robin Hood ; he steals from

47840-626: The various Herods in the Bible), which claims to respond to a letter from Pilate in which Pilate spoke of his remorse for Jesus' crucifixion and of having had a vision of the risen Christ; "Herod" asks Pilate to pray for him. In the so-called Book of the Cock , a late-antique apocryphal passion Gospel only preserved in Ge'ez (Ethiopic) but translated from Arabic, Pilate attempts to avoid Jesus's execution by sending him to Herod and writing further letters arguing with Herod not to execute Jesus. Pilate's family become Christians after Jesus miraculously cures Pilate's daughters of their deaf-muteness. Pilate

48070-424: The vestments of the High Priest in the Antonia Fortress . Unlike his predecessor, Valerius Gratus , Pilate retained the same high priest, Joseph ben Caiaphas , for his entire tenure. Caiaphas would be removed following Pilate's own removal from the governorship. This indicates that Caiaphas and the priests of the Sadducee sect were reliable allies to Pilate. Moreover, Maier argues that Pilate could not have used

48300-525: The work. At Jesus's execution, the day turning to night is written off by the Jews as a natural eclipse of the sun . Jesus's resurrection proceeds similar to a harmonized account that attempts to combine all the gospel versions. Nicodemus searches for the resurrected Jesus, but instead finds only Joseph of Arimathea . Joseph, a rabbi named Levi, and other witnesses testify to Jesus's resurrection and divine nature. The B version includes various content not directly related to Pilate. It includes chapters on

48530-465: Was 'killed' by the First World War (1914–18), which led to the fall of the three main Christian empires ( Russian , German and Austrian ) of Europe, as well as the Ottoman Empire, rupturing the Eastern Christian communities that had existed on its territory. The Christian empires were replaced by secular, even anti-clerical republics seeking to definitively keep the churches out of politics. The only surviving monarchy with an established church, Britain,

48760-437: Was a fragmentary, undated inscription on a large piece of marble recorded in Ameria , a village in Umbria , Italy. The inscription read as follows: The only clear items of text are the names "Pilate" and the title quattuorvir ("IIII VIR"), a type of local city official responsible for conducting a census every five years. The inscription was formerly found outside the church of St. Secundus, where it had been copied from

48990-455: Was a particularly brutal and ineffective governor, others believe that his long time in office implies reasonable competence. According to one prominent post-World War II theory, Pilate's mistreatment of the Jews was motivated by antisemitism , but most contemporary historians do not accept this theory. In Late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages , Pilate became the focus of a large group of New Testament apocrypha expanding on his role in

49220-419: Was a vision of a Christian theocracy , a government founded upon and upholding Christian values , whose institutions are spread through and over with Christian doctrine . In this period, members of the Christian clergy wield political authority . The specific relationship between the political leaders and the clergy varied but, in theory, the national and political divisions were at times subsumed under

49450-400: Was before Pilate was appointed governor. Eusebius writes it was "full of every kind of blasphemy against Christ"; presumably, it recorded that Jesus was a common criminal who had no special authority or power. As it was part of a propaganda campaign aimed at common people, it was likely short and simple: a list of charges against Jesus and an account of his trial, perhaps. It is possible that

49680-448: Was called Eastern Christendom ). From the 11th to the 13th centuries, Latin Christendom rose to the central role of the Western world . The history of the Christian world spans about 2,000 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advancements in the arts , architecture , literature , science , philosophy , politics and technology. The Anglo-Saxon term crīstendōm appears to have been coined in

49910-523: Was caught up, if historical, may well be another example." At the Passover of most likely 30 or 33, Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus of Nazareth to death by crucifixion in Jerusalem. The main sources on the crucifixion are the four canonical Christian Gospels , the accounts of which vary. Helen Bond argues that the evangelists' portrayals of Pilate have been shaped to a great extent by their own particular theological and apologetic concerns. [...] Legendary or theological additions have also been made to

50140-402: Was discovered; Latin is still believed to be the original language of composition, with the Anglo-Saxon version a translation. Despite Pilate only featuring in a minor role, it is generally grouped with other works of the Pilate cycle, due to it including the legend of Veronica and Tiberius that features in other Pilate literature. The work is deeply anti-Jewish, and is a revenge fantasy wherein

50370-509: Was done away with by order of Pope Innocent III. Christendom ultimately was led into specific crisis in the late Middle Ages , when the kings of France managed to establish a French national church during the 14th century and the papacy became ever more aligned with the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . Known as the Western Schism , western Christendom was a split between three men, who were driven by politics rather than any real theological disagreement for simultaneously claiming to be

50600-432: Was extremely widespread in both Latin and the vernacular, and each version contains significant variation, often relating to local traditions. The earliest extant legendary biography is the De Pilato of c.  1050 , with three further Latin versions appearing in the mid-twelfth century, followed by many vernacular translations. Howard Martin summarizes the general content of these legendary biographies as follows:

50830-414: Was gradual and not as clear to pin down as its 4th-century establishment, the "transition to the post-Constantinian, or post-Christendom, situation (...) has already been in process for a century or two", beginning with the 18th-century rationalist Enlightenment and the French Revolution (the first attempt to topple the Christian establishment). American Catholic bishop Thomas John Curry stated in 2001 that

51060-421: Was likely educated, somewhat wealthy, and well-connected politically and socially. He was probably married, but the only extant reference to his wife , in which she tells him not to interact with Jesus after she has had a disturbing dream ( Matthew 27 :19), is generally dismissed as legendary. According to the cursus honorum established by Augustus for office holders of equestrian rank, Pilate would have had

51290-473: Was misinformed about the correct timeframes of the succession of Roman emperors. Another is that the letter was originally to Tiberius, but when it was incorporated into the Acts of Peter and Paul, its recipient was updated to fit better into that story. In the Acts, the apostle Simon Peter and the deceiver Simon Magus appear before Emperor Nero . When Nero hears about Christ, he asks how he can learn more about him. Peter suggests retrieving Pilate's letter to

51520-632: Was no longer a need to justify to pagan rulers that Christians were harmless and not criminals. The first major scholarly collection of the Pilate cycle was by Constantin von Tischendorf , who published a series of collections of apocrypha in their oldest known versions, notably the Evangelia Apocrypha in 1853. Since Tischendorf's time, more works have been discovered, but much of the baseline terminology and assumptions were set by his pioneering work. More recent scholars to publish collections and translations include James Keith Elliott, Bart Ehrman , and Zlatko Pleše. The Acta Pilati or Acts of Pilate

51750-643: Was not only an effective secular leader in military affairs, a deviously effective politician but foremost one of the greatest patron of the Renaissance period and person who also encouraged open criticism from noted humanists. The blossoming of renaissance humanism was made very much possible due to the universality of the institutions of Catholic Church and represented by personalities such as Pope Pius II , Nicolaus Copernicus , Leon Battista Alberti , Desiderius Erasmus , sir Thomas More , Bartolomé de Las Casas , Leonardo da Vinci and Teresa of Ávila . George Santayana in his work The Life of Reason postulated

51980-443: Was of relatively low prestige and nothing is known of how Pilate obtained the office. Josephus states that Pilate governed for ten years ( Antiquities of the Jews 18.4.2), and these are traditionally dated from 26 to 36/37, making him one of the two longest-serving governors of the province. As Tiberius had retired to the island of Capri in 26, scholars such as E. Stauffer have argued that Pilate may have actually been appointed by

52210-427: Was possibly influenced by the Paradosis Pilati , or the same traditions that inspired it. Some scholars suggest that the Paradosis Pilati may have been a sequel of sorts to the Anaphora Pilati , describing Tiberius's response; however, as the Paradosis Pilati does not describe an author, other scholars such as Ehrman and Plese reject this possibility, although suggest that the author may well have been familiar with

52440-489: Was recalled to Rome due to the disgrace he was in. Eusebius dates this to 39. Paul Maier notes that no other surviving records corroborate Pilate's suicide, which is meant to document God's wrath for Pilate's role in the crucifixion, and that Eusebius explicitly states that "tradition" is his source, "indicating that he had trouble documenting Pilate's presumed suicide". Daniel Schwartz, however, argues that Eusebius's claims "should not lightly be dismissed." More information on

52670-407: Was severely damaged by the war, lost most of Ireland due to Catholic–Protestant infighting, and was starting to lose grip on its colonies. Changes in worldwide Christianity over the last century have been significant, since 1900, Christianity has spread rapidly in the Global South and Third World countries. The late 20th century has shown the shift of Christian adherence to the Third World and

52900-423: Was the prefect (governor) of the Roman province of Judea approximately from 26 to 36 AD. He presided over the execution of Jesus , likely due to accusations that Jesus had called himself "King of the Jews", leading Pilate to believe he was possibly fomenting a rebellion against the Herodian dynasty to bring about a " Kingdom of God ". His activities are described in the Christian gospels that were canonized in

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