Pontius Pilate by Aldo Schiavone

Author:Aldo Schiavone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright

PILATE LEAVES JESUS, THEN, and once again steps outside the Praetorium, toward the waiting priests. The sun must by now have been high in the sky. Difficult hours lay ahead.

4

THE DESTINY OF THE PRISONER

1.

The dialogue with Jesus was accompanied, now, for Pilate, by discussion with the Jewish notables gathered in front of the palace. An unexpected situation had arisen, brought about by the conduct of the prisoner, the answers he had given, and the force— evidently perturbing—of his personality. Pilate was no longer ready to accept the guilt of the man under investigation—as perhaps he had been preparing to do—and had decided to inform his accusers of this. Before going outside, did he tell Jesus about the view forming in his mind? Was the latter aware of the governor’s inclination? We cannot say, but it is hard to believe—even supposing silence or reticence on the prefect’s part—that he did not intuit anything, did not realize that the interrogation was taking a different and, for his accusers, unfavorable turn. How would Jesus have reacted to the direction in which things were going? Heart-ened, perhaps, like someone who sees the dense clouds over his head suddenly thinning out? It is a crucial question—as we shall see—but for the time being we will leave it in abeyance.

Pilate now addresses the Jews: “I find no reason to condemn him,” he says, in John, while Luke is even more detailed: “You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found . . . any of the reasons for which you accuse him.” (We should not be deceived by that “in your presence”— enópion ymôn: it does not necessarily mean that Pilate carried out his interrogation in front of the accusers—contradicting John’s version—but simply that the inquiry had been conducted while the Jews were waiting outside. Luke’s reference to the prefect “[calling] together the chief priests, the elders, and the people,” would make no sense if they were all already there.)

Pilate’s statement was interlocutory, and not a verdict. It communicated an orientation rather than a decision. Jesus was still in the Praetorium, and the questioning could be resumed at any moment, as in fact it soon would. Could the prefect have gone further and released the prisoner? Of course: he was quite within his powers. But he decided not to, so as not to force the situation. His relations with Annas and Caiaphas were delicate and complex; Judaea was a difficult country; and he knew perfectly well that he was on a razor edge. But even so, his declaration came as a complete surprise to the members of the Sanhedrin, especially to the two high priests, after the negotiations preceding the arrest, which had been expedited with Roman collaboration, and after the hurried nighttime meeting in Annas’s house.

A stalemate was forming, charged with a tension we can readily imagine. The governor’s words, though cautious, were strong, and there was the risk of arriving at a point of no return.

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