(28) Pilate Sent to Rome for Trial

An impostor promises to show the Samaritans the sacred vessels buried by Moses under Mount Gerizim. Crowds assemble at a village, Tirathana, at the foot of the mountain, to make the ascent.

A.D. 36

Pilate, however, forestalled their ascent by despatching a force of cavalry and heavy-armed infantry, who attacked the multitude assembled in readiness in the village, and in the ensuing engagement killed some, routed others, and took a large number of prisoners. The chief prisoners and the most influential of the fugitives were put to death by Pilate.

When the tumult was quelled, the Samaritan council approached Vitellius, the governor of Syria, of consular rank, with accusations against Pilate for his butchery of the victims. They said that the object of the expedition to Tirathana was not revolt from Rome, but to seek refuge from Pilate’s insolence. Vitellius thereupon sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take over the administration of Judæa, and ordered Pilate to depart for Rome, to render his account to the Emperor of the charges brought against him by the Samaritans. Pilate, accordingly—after ten years’ residence in Judæa—went in haste to Rome on the instructions of Vitellius, which he must needs obey. |A.D. 37| But before he reached Rome, Tiberius was no more.—Ant. XVIII. 4. 1 f. (87-89.)

Josephus proceeds to tell how Vitellius went up to Jerusalem and pacified the Jews by restoring to them the custody of the high priest’s vestments, recently in Roman hands. Also how he deposed the high priest “Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas.” Thus the three responsible authorities for the trial of our Lord—the Emperor, Pilate and Caiaphas—quit the scene simultaneously. After the next extract, we pass from the period of the Gospel history to the period covered by the Acts.

About

Jewish historian, military leader and Roman citizen, Titus Flavius Josephus, provides the most thorough history of the 1st century Roman Empire deals with the Jewish people. Born in Jerusalem during the reign of Caligula; present with the Roman Army of Vespasian and Titus at the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, Josephus stands preeminent among early Christian period writers.

"I have selected the passages most relevant to Christian origins and New Testament study," writes Henry St. James Thackery of King's College, UK, leading biblical scholar on Josephus and Koine Greek translator.

"Some figures which in the New Testament are little more than names, become clothed with life" by Josephus as he "gives us the background of Jewish and world history in the time of our Lord and the infant church. ... And we have full and life-like portraits of Roman governors and generals."

More than 400 footnotes and extensive appendix notes have been woven through the audio recording that the listener might experience Thackery's insights and teaching, as if in his class at King's. Many of the names and places are read with Erasmian Koine Greek pronunciation. (Summary by Rebecca Eden Walker)