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

Chapter 4.

Pilate therefore, leaving Christ alone, went outside, and says to the Jews:&#160; I find no fault in this man.&#160; The Jews answered:&#160; Let us tell your highness what he said.&#160; He said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and in three days to build it.&#160; Pilate says:&#160; And what temple did he say that he was to destroy?&#160; The Hebrews say:&#160; The temple of Solomon, which Solomon built in forty-six years.

Pilate says privately to the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees: &#160;I entreat you, do nothing evil against this man; for if you do evil against him, you will do unjustly:&#160; for it is not just that such a man should die, who has done great good to many men.&#160; They said to Pilate:&#160; If, my lord, he who has dishonoured C&#230;sar is worthy of death, how much more this man who dishonours God!

Then Pilate dismissed them, and they all went outside.&#160; Thereupon he says to Jesus:&#160; What dost thou wish that I shall do to thee?&#160; Jesus says to Pilate:&#160; Do to me as is determined.&#160; Pilate says:&#160; How is it determined?&#160; Jesus answered:&#160; Moses and the prophets wrote about me being crucified, and rising again.&#160; The Hebrews, hearing this, said to Pilate:&#160; Why do you seek to hear a greater insult out of him against God?&#160; Pilate says:&#160; These words are not an insult against God, since they are written in the books of the prophets.&#160; The Hebrews said:&#160; Our Scripture says, If a man offend against a man, that is to say, if he insult him, he is worthy to receive forty strokes with a rod; but if any one insult God, to be stoned.

Then came a messenger from Procle, the wife of Pilate, to him; and the message said:&#160; Take care that thou do not agree that any evil should happen to Jesus the good man; because during this night I have seen fearful dreams on account of him. &#160; And Pilate spoke to the Hebrews, saying:&#160; If you hold as insult against God the words which you declare Jesus to have spoken, take and judge him yourselves according to your law. &#160; The Jews said to Pilate:&#160; We wish that you should crucify him.&#160; Pilate says:&#160; This is not good.

And Pilate, turning towards the people, saw many weeping, and said:&#160; To me it seems that it is not the wish of all the people that this man should die.&#160; The priests and the scribes say:&#160; We on this account have brought all the people, that thou mightst have full conviction that all wish his death.&#160; Pilate says:&#160; For what evil hath he done?&#160; The Hebrews said:&#160; He says that he is a king, and the Son of God.