Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/108

civ the copy I use has been carefully read by the celebrated Oriental scholar Schultens, I think it may be depended upon.

(2.) The Letter of Herod to Pilate. — This is from the Syriac, and may have been forged in the fourth century. Dr. Tischendorf says he has the same in Greek with considerable variations, but it is unpublished.

(3.) The Letter of Pilate to Herod, in reply to the preceding, is from the same source, and equally fictitious. Three extracts are appended to it, but form no portion of it, although joined with it in the manuscript.

(a.) The writer called Justinus is not identified, unless, as I think, he is Justus of Tiberias whose history is lost. But if he be meant, the quotation may be false, as Photius says he wrote nothing about Christ.

(b.) By Theodorus, no doubt Tiberius is intended. The emperor is represented as asking Pilate a reason for his conduct in reference to Christ. The answer of Pilate to this request is also given. The passage seems to come from an apocryphal book, similar to the so-called "Paradosis" of Pilate, which contains much the same matter.