Pontius Pilate in a Different Light: A Little Known Apocryphal Gospel

Episode Outline:
00:00 – Introducing Pontius Pilate and the Acts of Pilate
01:03 – How Bart first encountered the Pilate literature
03:43 – Why apocryphal texts matter for Christian history
06:24 – What is the Acts of Pilate?
08:29 – Why the Acts of Pilate became so popular
09:38 – The Harrowing of Hell and different versions of the text
13:09 – Nicodemus, Ananias, and the text’s fictional framework
16:44 – Pilate’s role in the Acts of Pilate
19:02 – The Roman standards bow before Jesus
22:04 – How Pilate becomes increasingly innocent over time
24:39 – Anti-Jewish themes in later Pilate traditions
31:46 – Joseph of Arimathea and other legendary details

Episode Description
Pontius Pilate is a relatively minor figure in the gospels of the New Testament, but one who plays a vital role as the Roman official in charge of Jesus’ sentencing. Given that he’s the face of Rome in the New Testament Gospels, he’s presented in a surprisingly positive light! The same is true for his appearances in some other early Christian writings. To try and get to the bottom of exactly why the official representative of the big, bad Roman empire is presented as such a sympathetic figure, we’re going to be taking a look at one of these non-canonical texts in a bit more detail.

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Is The Gospel of John Anti-Semitic?
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Megan asks Bart:

- When did you first come across the Acts of Pilate?

- Why has this collection been so understudied by academics?

- Why is this important to talk about?

- What IS the Acts of Pilate?

- Why do you think it was so widely disseminated?

- There are various versions of the Acts of Pilate - do they have substantial differences?

- Do we know who wrote it and copied the acts?

- Does the language tell us anything about the educational background of the composer?

- What role does Pilate play in the acts?

- What kinds of things is Pilate doing in the acts?

- What do you think the author’s intent was in making him a more central figure than he is in the gospels of the NT?

- Do we know if there’s a similar anti-jewish sentiment in the other apocryphal texts?

- Why is there a shift from the Romans as the bad guy to the Jews as bad?

- Does this shift increase when the Roman empire converts to Christianity?

- Do you have a recommended translation for people to read?