Pilate - Softcover

Wroe, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0224059424 ISBN 13: 9780224059428

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

The facts about Pontius Pilate are very few. We don't know when he was born or when he died. We know nothing of his career before he became Govenor of Judea, and nothing of what happened to him after he was recalled by Tiberius. Some say he came from Rome, others from Spain or Germany. Everyone - from the evangelists to the writers of the medieval mystery plays - has his own Pilate, each symbolic of something, each a projection of his own ideas and anxieties. This extraordinary book is all about our Pilates, real, half-real and invented. Some are familiar, some surprising. They have depths and contrasts that are unexpected. They do remarkable things. Among these surprises, perhaps, are the glimpses we get of a man actually walking on a marble floor in Caesarea, feeling his shoes pinch, clicking his fingers for a slave, while the clouds of lasting infamy gather over his head.

About this title

Review:

As one of the most remembered and controversial minor characters from the bestselling book of all time, Pontius Pilate makes an intriguing subject for a book of his own. His own ambivalent role in the drama leading up to the crucifixion, and his actions afterwards, have made him a character of great fascination over the centuries. He is not an easy man to pin down though and is, therefore, not an immediately obvious candidate for a biography. However this isn't strictly speaking your typical biographical work.

Pilate the man has become far more over the centuries since his destiny briefly and fatefully met that of Jesus of Nazareth, far more; a symbol, a portmanteau character, a name rich in meaning and filled with a subtle ambiguity that reaches to the essence of people's souls. The Bible says very little about him and accounts from the Gospels of events leading up to the crucifixion are inconsistent. According to St John, Pilate and Jesus entered into a serious discussion about the nature of God's kingdom before Pilate, finding no fault with Jesus, offered the Jewish crowd the opportunity of having "their King" released. They chose instead to free Barabbas, a robber and a murderer, and Pilate, no doubt mindful of the precarious political minefield he was navigating, ceded to their yobbish preference. Whether he ever really had a choice or was simply a pawn fulfilling his role is an unanswerable question that reaches to the very heart of the Christian religion. Anne Wroe has researched this study of an elusive man thoroughly and come up with an engaging book that explores every aspect of the man that can be discerned from the historical record, together with the layers of myth and legend, interpretation and judgement that have been laid down on top for the 2,000 years since. --Alisdair Bowles

Review:

"The sheer skill of the writing... the touch of a master-novelist... Few have ever explored so imaginatively, or with such passionate attention to detail." - "Sunday Telegraph" "Extraordinary and compelling." - "Sunday Telegraph" "Ann Wroe's knowledge of the past 2,000 years is encyclopaedic--She manages to keep Pilate living and breathing in the text, and occasionally kicking and screaming." - "Independent on Sunday" "From the Trade Paperback edition."

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0224059424
• ISBN 13: 9780224059428
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 381