Pontius Pilate: Deciphering a Memory

Aldo Schiavone; Jeremy Carden

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1631492357 ISBN 13: 9781631492358

Publisher: Liveright, 2017

"[Aldo Schiavone] offers new insights into the final days of Jesus...The result is a history still being contested all these centuries later. Schiavone's account nicely lures Pilate out of the shadows, albeit briefly, even providing a measure of rehabilitation." The New York Times

The only historic figure outside the early Christian tradition to whom the Gospels ascribe a dialogue with Jesus is the first-century Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. Presiding over the trial and execution of Jesus, Pilate is a figure who has straddled history and legend for over two thousand years. Now, Aldo Schiavone presents a comprehensive, revisionist biography of Pilate that meticulously reconstructs the social, religious and political context in which his fateful encounter with Jesus took place.

Drawing on a wealth of original research, Schiavone weaves together the sources, from epigraphs to the Gospels, from Josephus to Tacitus and Philon, to create a portrait that approaches its subject as if for the first time, without any other intent than to try to explain what happened.

Review:

"In this slender, elegantly translated work geared toward lay readers, Schiavone navigates between memory by the four writers of the Gospels, especially John, the closest to the context of first century Palestine and history Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, 'two first-century intellectuals' to help in the reconstruction of these contested events...A levelheaded, engaging reading of the Gospels and historical account that forms a solid sense of this pivotal personage and his role on the epic stage." --Kirkus Reviews

"In this slender, elegantly translated work geared toward lay readers, Schiavone navigates between memory by the four writers of the Gospels, especially John, the closest to the context of first century Palestine and history Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, 'two first-century intellectuals' to help in the reconstruction of these contested events...A levelheaded, engaging reading of the Gospels and historical account that forms a solid sense of this pivotal personage and his role on the epic stage." --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

Aldo Schiavonne is the author of Spartacus and was a professor of Roman law at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, which he founded. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he lives in Rome. Jeremy Carden lived in Italy from 1987 to 2014. Now based in the UK, he works as a freelance translator.