Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/Acts of Pilate: First Greek Form/Chapter 4

Chapter 4.

And leaving Jesus within the pr&#230;torium, Pilate went out to the Jews, and said to them:&#160; I find no fault in him.&#160; The Jews say to him:&#160; He said, I can destroy this temple, and in three days build it.&#160; Pilate says:&#160; What temple?&#160; The Jews say:&#160; The one that Solomon built in forty-six years, and this man speaks of pulling it down and building it in three days.&#160; Pilate says to them:&#160; I am innocent of the blood of this just man.&#160; See you to it.&#160; The Jews say:&#160; His blood be upon us, and upon our children.

And Pilate having summoned the elders and priests and Levites, said to them privately:&#160; Do not act thus, because no charge that you bring against him is worthy of death; for your charge is about curing and Sabbath profanation.&#160; The elders and the priests and the Levites say:&#160; If any one speak evil against C&#230;sar, is he worthy of death or not?&#160; Pilate says:&#160; He is worthy of death.&#160; The Jews say to Pilate:&#160; If any one speak evil against C&#230;sar, he is worthy of death; but this man has spoken evil against God.

And the procurator ordered the Jews to go outside of the pr&#230;torium; and summoning Jesus, he says to Him:&#160; What shall I do to thee?&#160; Jesus says to Pilate: &#160;As it has been given to thee.&#160; Pilate says:&#160; How given?&#160; Jesus says:&#160; Moses and the prophets have proclaimed beforehand of my death and resurrection.&#160; And the Jews noticing this, and hearing it, say to Pilate:&#160; What more wilt thou hear of this blasphemy? &#160;Pilate says to the Jews:&#160; If these words be blasphemous, do you take him for the blasphemy, and lead him away to your synagogue, and judge him according to your law.&#160; The Jews say to Pilate:&#160; Our law bears that a man who wrongs his fellow-men is worthy to receive forty save one; but he that blasphemeth God is to be stoned with stones.

Pilate says to them:&#160; Do you take him, and punish him in whatever way you please.&#160; The Jews say to Pilate:&#160; We wish that he be crucified.&#160; Pilate says:&#160; He is not deserving of crucifixion.

And the procurator, looking round upon the crowds of the Jews standing by, sees many of the Jews weeping, and says:&#160; All the multitude do not wish him to die.&#160; The elders of the Jews say:&#160; For this reason all the multitude of us have come, that he should die.&#160; Pilate says to the Jews:&#160; Why should he die?&#160; The Jews say:&#160; Because he called himself Son of God, and King.