Pontius Pilate arrived in Judaea in the year 26, sent to collect taxes and oversee the firm establishment of Roman law. His ten-year term was a tim...
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Sep 27, 2010
http://nhw.livejournal.com/540718.html[return][return]So little is known about the historical Pilate that Ann Wroe has bulked out the book considerably with stories told about him (the Copts seem to have had a lot). A couple of points I hadn't realised - the image of the emperor on Roman coins made them unacceptable for use in Temple rituals, which adds extra point to "Render unto Caesar" and also explains what the money-changers were doing at the Temple. But most of the book reflects
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Jun 26, 2010
Nathan
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I approached this book with a fair amount of ambivalence. Speculative history is generally not something I have any interest in. Wroe does her share of grasping at straws and makes no excuse for the necessity to conjecture, surmise, even fabricate. Every solitary detail is noticed and given some significance, from the political climate to the type of thorns that Jesus wore. What saves her, and what made the book sort of grow on me, was her willingness to let the importance of the story carry the
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Mar 15, 2009
Carrie
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A really lovely and thought-provoking of the little we know about Pilate for sure and the huge amount of legend and myth surrounding him. Wroe explores a wide variety of sources, from ancient Roman documents to medieval mystery plays, to investigate why certain versions of Pilate have appealed to people at various times in history. She also does a wonderful job setting the scene in Judaea and explaining the core conflicts between the Roman governors, the established Jewish leaders, and Jesus's
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Aug 16, 2009
Cappy
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This book tries to navigate twenty centuries' worth of contradictory (and mostly imaginary) stories of Pilate's life - struggling, at times, to articulate a plausible one of its own.
"We do not even know [Pilate's:] praenomen, the name his mother and wife and friends called him by." (pg. xii)
"To have a faceless bureaucrat at the heart of [The Passion:] was unacceptable: something had to be made of this man." (pg. xii)
"But biography is o More...
"We do not even know [Pilate's:] praenomen, the name his mother and wife and friends called him by." (pg. xii)
"To have a faceless bureaucrat at the heart of [The Passion:] was unacceptable: something had to be made of this man." (pg. xii)
"But biography is o More...
Mar 09, 2009
Alicia
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Combining historical truth and speculation was never this interesting in college. Both the content and the writing were enjoyable.
P. 230 of the book speaks to Pilate's appeal: "...people continue to cling to Pilate as the great equivocator. Like an audience at a show, they love to watch him teeter, struggle, almost save himself, and fall. In some sense, they feel they are watching themselves."
P. 230 of the book speaks to Pilate's appeal: "...people continue to cling to Pilate as the great equivocator. Like an audience at a show, they love to watch him teeter, struggle, almost save himself, and fall. In some sense, they feel they are watching themselves."
Jan 14, 2012
John
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Oh, how I wish more historical biographies were written to be so engaging! I would love to see Ann Wroe try her hand a similar biographic of Judas Iscariot.
Dec 16, 2010
Ian
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This book is a fine example of what you get when a non-academic tries to seriously engage an academic subject. That is to say, a mess. It's main appeal is the exploration of the traditions and beliefs which emerged surrounding the figure of Pontius Pilate in popular Western Christian culture over the centuries -- in that respect, it is interesting and rather fun. But as a serious examination of the historical figure of Pontius Pilate it is a large failure.
Aug 20, 2011
John
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Anne Wroe is a fine writer and historian. She brings new life into the Passion of Christ by looking at it from the prespective that Pntius Pilate might have had. The book discusses the medival passion plays and the various interpertations of Pilate.
In some Copic churches he is a saint. The views of Pontius Pilate range from sainthood to the devil's helper by way of being mere tool of the Jews and an ineffective representative of Rome.
Perhaps the greatest question is how wo More...
In some Copic churches he is a saint. The views of Pontius Pilate range from sainthood to the devil's helper by way of being mere tool of the Jews and an ineffective representative of Rome.
Perhaps the greatest question is how wo More...
Oct 21, 2007
Lesley
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I really, really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't get past the first 30 pages. Ann Wroe was all, "Maybe Pontius Pilate did this. Maybe Pontius Pilate did that. Maybe Pontius Pilate did a little bit of this and a little bit of that." Snoresville.
Maybe I'll try to read it again someday. Maybe I won't.
Maybe I'll try to read it again someday. Maybe I won't.
Apr 30, 2010
Tarotemp
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A plodding, ponderous read, to be sure. So dry I half expected the very same Galilean sand Jesus trod upon while preaching the gospels to spill forth from the book each time I opened it up.
Aug 02, 2011
MikeFromQueens
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Pretty good from a historical perspective. This clears up any misunderstandings that might have been intuited about this very roman citizen who was capable of and performed some good works.
Sep 07, 2007
Leif Erik
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This is more of a history of an idea of what is Pilate than a biblical study ala Pagels or Armstrong. Interesting stuff, but not groundshaking.
Apr 14, 2009
Suzanne
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This is an excellent book, precisely, and absolutely, as its title says, the "biography of an invented man". Who was Pilate? He could, as Wroe suggests, be any one of three individuals: born of the tribe of Pontii, the Samnite nobility in the ancient Roman empire, relative of Gavius Pontius; a Spaniard, born in Seville, whose "residents had the right of Roman citizenship", "saturnine and ingratiating, [who:] hung around Rome, and especially round the court of the empe
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