Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/The Death of Pilate, Who Condemned Jesus

The Death of Pilate, Who Condemned Jesus.

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And when Tiberius C&#230;sar, the emperor of the Romans, was labouring under a grievous disease, and understanding that there was at Jerusalem a certain physician, Jesus by name, who by a single word cured all infirmities, he, not knowing that the Jews and Pilate had put Him to death, ordered a certain friend of his named Volusianus:&#160; Go as quickly as possible across the seas; and thou shalt tell Pilate, my servant and friend, to send me this physician, that he may restore me to my former health.&#160; And this Volusianus, having heard the emperor&#8217;s command, immediately departed, and came to Pilate, as he had been commanded.&#160; And he related to the same Pilate what had been entrusted to him by Tiberius C&#230;sar, saying:&#160; Tiberius C&#230;sar, the emperor of the Romans, thy master, having heard that in this city there is a physician who by his word alone heals infirmities, begs thee earnestly to send him to him for the curing of his infirmity.&#160; Pilate, hearing this, was very much afraid, knowing that through envy he had caused Him to be put to death.&#160; Pilate answered the same messenger thus, saying:&#160; This man was a malefactor, and a man who drew to himself all the people; so a council of the wise men of the city was held, and I caused him to be crucified.&#160; And this messenger returning to his inn, met a certain woman named Veronica, who had been a friend of Jesus; and he said:&#160; O woman, a certain physician who was in this city, who cured the sick by a word alone, why have the Jews put him to death?&#160; And she began to weep, saying:&#160; Ah me! my lord, my God and my Lord, whom Pilate for envy delivered, condemned, and ordered to be crucified.&#160; Then he, being exceedingly grieved, said:&#160; I am vehemently grieved that I am unable to accomplish that for which my lord had sent me.&#160; And Veronica said to him:&#160; When my Lord was going about preaching, and I, much against my will, was deprived of His presence, I wished His picture to be painted for me, in order that, while I was deprived of His presence, the figure of His picture might at least afford me consolation.&#160; And when I was carrying the canvas to the painter to be painted, my Lord met me, and asked whither I was going.&#160; And when I had disclosed to Him the cause of my journey, He asked of me the cloth, and gave it back to me impressed with the image of His venerable face.&#160; Therefore, if thy lord will devoutly gaze upon His face, he shall obtain forthwith the benefit of health.&#160; And he said to her:&#160; Is a picture of such a sort procurable by gold or silver?&#160; She said to him:&#160; No; but by the pious influence of devotion.&#160; I shall therefore set out with thee, and shall carry the picture to be seen by C&#230;sar, and shall come back again.

Volusianus therefore came with Veronica to Rome, and said to Tiberius the emperor:&#160; Jesus, whom thou hast been longing for, Pilate and the Jews have delivered to an unjust death, and have through envy affixed to the gibbet of the cross.&#160; There has therefore come with me a certain matron, bringing a picture of Jesus himself; and if thou wilt devoutly look upon it, thou shalt immediately obtain the benefit of thy health.&#160; C&#230;sar therefore ordered the way to be strewn with silk cloths, and the picture to be presented to him; and as soon as he had looked upon it, he regained his former health.

Pontius Pilate, therefore, by the command of C&#230;sar, is taken and brought through to Rome.&#160; C&#230;sar, hearing that Pilate had arrived at Rome, was filled with exceeding fury against him, and caused him to be brought to him.&#160; But Pilate brought down with him the seamless tunic of Jesus; and he wore it on him in presence of the emperor.&#160; And as soon as the emperor saw him, he laid aside all his anger, and forthwith rose up to meet him.&#160; Nor was he able to speak harshly to him in anything; and he who seemed so terrible and fierce in his absence, now in his presence is somehow found to be mild.&#160; And when he had sent him away, immediately he blazed out against him terribly, crying out that he was a wretch, inasmuch as he had not at all shown him the fury of his heart.&#160; And immediately he made him be called back, swearing and declaring that he was the son of death, and that it was infamous that he should live upon the earth.&#160; And as soon as he saw him, he forthwith saluted him, and threw away all the ferocity of his mind.&#160; All wondered; and he himself wondered that he should thus blaze out against Pilate when he was absent, and that while he was present he could say nothing to him roughly.&#160; Then, by a divine impulse, or perhaps by the advice of some Christian, he caused him to be stripped of that tunic, and immediately resumed against him his former ferocity of mind.&#160; And when at this the emperor wondered very much, it was told him that that tunic had belonged to the Lord Jesus.&#160; Then the emperor ordered him to be kept in prison, until he should deliberate in a council of the wise men what ought to be done with him.&#160; And a few days after, sentence was therefore passed upon Pilate, that he should be condemned to the most disgraceful death.&#160; Pilate, hearing this, killed himself with his own knife, and by such a death ended his life.

When C&#230;sar knew of the death of Pilate, he said:&#160; Truly he has died by a most disgraceful death, whom his own hand has not spared.&#160; He is therefore bound to a great mass, and sunk into the river Tiber.&#160; But malignant and filthy spirits in his malignant and filthy body, all rejoicing together, kept moving themselves in the waters, and in a terrible manner brought lightnings and tempests, thunders and hail-storms, in the air, so that all men were kept in horrible fear.&#160; Wherefore the Romans, drawing him out of the river Tiber, in derision carried him down to Vienna, and sunk him in the river Rhone.&#160; For Vienna is called, as it were, Via Gehenn&#230;, the way of Gehenna, because it was then a place of cursing.&#160; But there evil spirits were present, working the same things in the same place.&#160; Those men therefore, not enduring such a visitation of demons, removed from themselves that vessel of malediction, and sent him to be buried in the territory of Losania. &#160; And they, seeing that they were troubled by the aforesaid visitations, removed him from themselves, and sunk him in a certain pit surrounded by mountains, where to this day, according to the account of some, certain diabolical machinations are said to bubble up.