Pilate cycle

The most notable example was the Gospel of Nicodemus (or "Acts of Pilate"), which proved quite popular and influential in medieval and Renaissance Christianity.

The gospels are generally agreed to have been written between 70 and 110 AD, and provide a snapshot of Christian traditions about Pilate in the decades after Jesus's death.

They aimed to reassure Christians that something amazing had happened in Judea during the time of Jesus, and reliable neutral parties such as Pilate confirmed it.

More recent scholars to publish collections and translations include James Keith Elliott, Bart Ehrman, and Zlatko Pleše.

[5][6] The Acta Pilati or Acts of Pilate is a Christian text that records Jesus's trial, execution, and resurrection and expands upon the details given from the gospels.

Pilate says he is innocent of the matter, while the Jews quote the Gospel of Matthew's claim that they said "his blood be upon us and our children," a phrase repeated three times in the work.

Herod's daughter Herodia is bizarrely decapitated after her mother grabs her head trying to save her from a sudden flood of the river.

Herod adds that Longinus, who stabbed Jesus with his spear, had also suffered lopsided punishment: he was being eternally devoured by a lion.

Another is that the letter was originally to Tiberius, but when it was incorporated into the Acts of Peter and Paul, its recipient was updated to fit better into that story.

Pilate, Herod Archelaus, Philip, Annas, Caiaphas, and the Jewish leaders are to be arrested and brought to Rome.

[4] The Mors Pilati or The Death of Pilate Who Condemned Jesus is a late medieval work written in Latin.

Demas, the good thief, is a Galilean innkeeper and a proto-Robin Hood; he steals from the rich and treats the poor well.

Judas is bribed by the Jews for thirty pieces of gold to gain evidence (rather than the usual silver), and accuses Jesus of the crime Demas committed.

The three depart for Galilee, where they meet John the Apostle, who is amazed at the robber Demas's new ineffable and beatific appearance.

Tiberius authorizes a decree to the Roman governor to enslave and disperse the inhabitants of Judea, and lay the nation waste.

A voice from heaven responds and says that all the races and families of the gentiles will bless Pilate because the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies of Jesus happened under him.

[39][38][40] The work is deeply anti-Jewish, and is a revenge fantasy wherein the Jews suffer horrifically for their collective crime of killing the Messiah.

For example, the work writes that Titus was a client ruler of "Libiae" (rather than a Roman Emperor who would reign decades later); includes Herod the Great, Tiberius, Titus, and Vespasian as contemporaries (their lives and reigns were separated by decades); and incorrectly believes Auster to be the north wind (it is the southern wind).

The work is also an expansion of the Cura sanitatis Tiberii legend from the 6th and 7th centuries, wherein Saint Veronica cures Tiberius.

[38][40] In The Vengeance of the Savior, Nathan, an Ishmaelite (Arab), leaves Judea and travels the Empire to collect a tribute for Emperor Tiberius.

Winds blow him off-course north to the city of Burdigala, where the ruler Tyrus suffers from cancer and a mangled face.

There, Nathan tells Tyrus of Jesus's miracles, trial, execution, saving of the human race from hell, and resurrection.

He swears that if he had known earlier, he would have avenged his death, killed Jesus's enemies, and hung their bodies from a dry tree.

Angered at what he has learned, Volosianus has Pilate thrown in an iron cage for killing the perfect man, and orders his punishment by the foulest death.

While no ancient sources directly refer to such a gospel, Paulin Ladeuze and Carl Anton Baumstark first proposed that such a book existed in 1906.

Scholars who believe such a book once existed have reconstructed it from a homily, the "Lament of Mary" (Laha Maryam) by a bishop named Cyriacus.

Regardless of whether Laha Maryam is quoting a lost gospel or is simply building on extant legends, it keeps to the Coptic and Ethiopian traditions in painting Pilate in an extremely positive light.

Eusebius denounces it as a forgery, due to a chronological inconsistency between it and the timeline described in Josephus's histories; its claimed date was before Pilate was appointed governor.

Eusebius writes it was "full of every kind of blasphemy against Christ";[44] presumably, it recorded that Jesus was a common criminal who had no special authority or power.

[2] As it was part of a propaganda campaign aimed at common people, it was likely short and simple: a list of charges against Jesus and an account of his trial, perhaps.