Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/107

Rh Have we Pilate's official letter? Certainly not. The so-called Acts of Pilate cannot be distorted into any resemblance to such a thing, and the consciousness of this has led to sundry fictions as to their origin, and even to the supplementing of them with letters said to have been written by Pilate. One such letter will be found translated in this volume at the end of the first Latin version of the Descent to the Underworld. Other similar documents are contained in this collection, as well as one avowedly addressed to Herod, whose so-called letter is also given. Of these I shall now proceed very briefly to speak.

(1.) The letter which Pilate is said to have sent to Cæsar is from a copy found in a Persian "History of Christ," written by a Jesuit named Jerome Xavier in 1602. This book is full of lying legends and fables, and was translated into Latin by De Dieu in 1639. The letter occurs at p. 388 of the translation. De Dieu thinks its author was more likely Xavier than Pilate, and, as I have found it nowhere else, I am inclined to think so too; but since it is fathered upon Pilate I have included it in this collection. The hint for it was probably taken from Josephus, Antiq. xviii. 3, 3. My version is from the Latin, but as