Books by Paul L. Maier
FICTION
Pontius Pilate
The Flames of Rome
A Skeleton in God’s Closet
More Than a Skeleton
The Constantine Codes
NONFICTION
A Man Spoke, A World Listened
The Best of Walter A. Maier (ed.)
Josephus: The Jewish War (ed., with G. Cornfeld)
Josephus: The Essential Works (ed., trans.)
In the Fullness of Time
Eusebius: The Church History (ed., trans.)
The First Christmas
The Da Vinci Code—Fact or Fiction? (with Hank Hanegraaff)
FOR CHILDREN
The Very First Christmas
The Very First Easter
The Very First Christians
Martin Luther—A Man Who Changed the World
The Real Story of Creation
The Real Story of the Flood
The Real Story of the Exodus
Pontius Pilate: A Novel
© 1968, 2014 by Paul L. Maier
First edition 1968.
Second edition 2014.
Published by Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel, Inc., 2450 Oak Industrial Dr. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505.
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For Joan
Contents
Preface
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the Third Edition
Notable Characters
PONTIUS PILATE
Epilogue
Historical Note
Notes
Maps
Preface
The trial would become the central event in history. But for the judgment of one man, a faith shared by nearly a billion people today might not have been born. At least it would not have developed as we know it. The decision of the Roman prefect of Judea on the day called Good Friday may have stemmed from pressures of the moment, but it was conditioned by the turbulent politics of the Mediterranean world at that time. What really happened at that most famous of all trials? Was Pilate’s judgment motivated by cowardice, expedience, or necessity? Where did he come from, and what became of him afterward—this man who unwittingly switched the flow of history into a new channel? This book proposes several answers.
There is too little source material on Pontius Pilate for a biography, yet too much for recourse to mere fiction. These pages attempt a compromise which might be called the documented historical novel. It seemed an appropriate genre for a case, such as Pilate’s, in which much authentic data is available, yet with insurmountable gaps in the information.
In constructing this account, I first searched for all surviving bricks of fact, then cemented them together with regrettably fictional mortar into what I hope is something of an accurate restoration of the original structure of Pilate’s career. As a documentary novel, it differs from regular historical fiction in that no liberties were taken with the facts: the bricks were used as discovered, without alteration. Reference notes on the most significant and controversial points of scholarship are provided at the end of the book. Most of these notes involve original sources, some of which provide new historical data.
To aim for accuracy, I adopted the following rules: (1) All persons named in this book are historical characters; no proper name has been invented—if it is not known, it is not given. (2) No portrayal of any personality, no description of any event, and no episode, or even detail contradicts known historical fact (unless by author’s error). (3) Only where all evidence is lacking is “constructed history,” based on probabilities, used to fill in the gaps. Even here, as much use as possible is made of authentic historical data as ballast, also in dialogue. Important constructed segments have been identified as such in the Historical Note at the close of the book.
The role of the prosecution on Good Friday has, of course, been bitterly debated. I have largely followed the New Testament version of the trial because even Talmudic sources concerning Jesus substantially accord with it, as demonstrated in the Notes. But for later generations to draw anti-Semitic conclusions from Jewish involvement on Good Friday was an incredible blunder. The prosecution, acting in absolute good faith, still represented only a very small fraction of the Jews of the time, and its responsibility was never transferable. Indeed, to be anti-Semitic because of Good Friday is as ridiculous as hating Italians because Nero once threw Christians to the lions.
This portrayal has also tried to tell “the greatest story ever told” from its least-told vantage point, uncovering what may be one of the last aspects of that story which still needs telling. What happened in Palestine in the early first century is usually viewed from a Christian or Jewish—not Roman—perspective. Events in Judea are rarely linked to that larger complex which controlled the province: the Roman Empire. Yet the culmination of Jesus’ career was not a story of one city, but a tale of two—Jerusalem and Rome. This, then, is the other part of the story.
Paul L. Maier
Western Michigan University
January 22, 1968