{"product_id":"memoirs-of-pontius-pilate-isbn-9780345443502","title":"Memoirs of Pontius Pilate","description":"It's been thirty years since he sentenced the troublemaker to die,\u003cbr\u003ebut Pontius Pilate can't get Jesus out of his mind. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForced to live out his life in exile, Pontius Pilate, the former governor of Judea, is now haunted by the executions that were carried out on his orders. The life and death of a particular carpenter from Nazareth lay heavily on his mind. With years of solitude stretched out before him, Pilate sets out to uncover all he can about Jesus—his birth, boyhood, ministry, and the struggles that led to his crucifixion. With unexpected wit and candor, Pilate reveals a unique, compelling picture of Jesus that only one of his enemies could give.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a vibrant, inventive, completely engaging novel that places Jesus and his teachings in a wonderfully accurate historical setting, James R. Mills has created nothing less than a new gospel that illuminates the beginnings of Christianity from an astonishing and unexpected point of view.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"OUTSTANDINGLY ORIGINAL, SUPERBLY WRITTEN, FASCINATING AND ENGAGING.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Midwest Book ReviewPrologue\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe time has come for me when I, like Julius Caesar, can say, \"I have\u003cbr\u003elived long enough, whether for fame or fortune.\" My wife is dead, and I\u003cbr\u003ehave no friends here in my place of exile, so I spend my days reflecting\u003cbr\u003eupon the past, as old men do for lack of better ways to occupy their\u003cbr\u003etime.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I reflect upon my experiences of long ago, I find that they are\u003cbr\u003efading in my memory, losing their colors and details, growing as muzzy\u003cbr\u003eas wall paintings exposed to the elements in some ancient ruin. However,\u003cbr\u003eone action of mine is still as vivid in my mind as it ever was. I refer\u003cbr\u003eto my ordering of the crucifixion of that now famous Jewish carpenter\u003cbr\u003ecalled Jesus of Nazareth, while I was governor of Judea, Samaria, and\u003cbr\u003eIdumea.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThree years after I was exiled to Gaul by Caligula, that mad young\u003cbr\u003eemperor banished Herod Antipas to Lugdunum, just a few miles up the\u003cbr\u003eriver that flows outside my window as I sit here writing this. Herod did\u003cbr\u003enot deserve to be disgraced, even as I did not, but we both had powerful\u003cbr\u003eenemies, and we both became the victims of those enemies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHerod had been, like his father, Herod the Great, a loyal ally of Rome\u003cbr\u003eand a pragmatic ruler of his people. However, his youthful nephew Herod\u003cbr\u003eAgrippa was a close boyhood friend of Caligula's, and he wanted to be\u003cbr\u003eking of all the Jews, so the realm of Herod Antipas was added to his\u003cbr\u003eown, and Herod Antipas was banished to Gaul in his old age to die.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had dinner with Herod Antipas once in the last year of his life, and\u003cbr\u003ewe talked for over an hour about that strange carpenter. His wife was\u003cbr\u003epresent, and she tried to turn our conversation to another odd Jewish\u003cbr\u003emystic, one called John the Baptist, a fellow she had snared her husband\u003cbr\u003einto beheading. Herod muttered through his beard that it had been a\u003cbr\u003emistake to kill John, which it clearly had been, and he spoke again of\u003cbr\u003ethe carpenter, expressing a belief that the man's miracles had been\u003cbr\u003egenuine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the long years I have been in exile here, I have had few other\u003cbr\u003eoccasions to talk about Jesus of Nazareth. However, an agent of the\u003cbr\u003eEmperor came here recently to question me about the man. The reason for\u003cbr\u003ethat sudden imperial interest was, of course, the great fire that\u003cbr\u003edestroyed Rome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI must acknowledge in passing that there are people who think the\u003cbr\u003eChristians are not guilty of the crime of starting that fire. Such\u003cbr\u003eskeptics say it is not in accordance with Christian principles to cause\u003cbr\u003eso much random death and destruction. Be that as it may, scandal mongers\u003cbr\u003ein Rome have been spreading a rumor that it was the Emperor himself who\u003cbr\u003ewas responsible for the conflagration, and that created a need to assign\u003cbr\u003eblame elsewhere and to proceed at once with spectacular punishments.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhether or not persons punished are responsible for the crimes of which\u003cbr\u003ethey are accused is not the only factor to be taken into account\u003cbr\u003esometimes. That can be an uncomfortable truth, as it was for me in the\u003cbr\u003ecase of the carpenter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt seems the Emperor wants to get rid of the Christians in any event.\u003cbr\u003eThey have become subversive of the interests of the empire in their\u003cbr\u003eefforts to woo the general populace away from its beliefs in the\u003cbr\u003eofficially recognized gods of Rome, including Nero himself, whose\u003cbr\u003edivinity seems important to him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePunishing those wretches is easy to do, and watching them die provides\u003cbr\u003epopular entertainment for the citizens of the charred and blackened\u003cbr\u003ecity. Because of the stories of their drinking blood as a part of their\u003cbr\u003erituals, the Christians had already become objects of public loathing,\u003cbr\u003eand severe governmental condemnation became an appropriate way to\u003cbr\u003eappease that popular feeling of antipathy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe current concern about this sect has caused me to sit down here at my\u003cbr\u003edesk with a long roll of papyrus, a lot of goose quills, and a pot of\u003cbr\u003eink before me. My purpose is to spend a month of my otherwise idle time\u003cbr\u003erelating and explaining the events in the life of this fellow Jesus of\u003cbr\u003eNazareth. I think it important to let readers know how the man was seen\u003cbr\u003eby his own people during his lifetime. Therefore I shall point out those\u003cbr\u003epeculiarities that set him apart from the other charlatans, demagogues,\u003cbr\u003eand zealots who have recently declared themselves to be the messiah, by\u003cbr\u003ewhich they mean the deliverer of the Jewish nation from Roman rule. Some\u003cbr\u003eof those pretenders have attracted considerable followings and have\u003cbr\u003ethereby caused a great deal of Jewish blood to flow. However, with the\u003cbr\u003eexception of this single individual, the execution of each of them has\u003cbr\u003eresulted in the disillusionment of his followers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI'll give two examples. When Felix was governor of Judea, he had to deal\u003cbr\u003ewith an Egyptian Jew who proclaimed he would bring down the walls of\u003cbr\u003eJerusalem with a breath from his mouth. This shatterbrain presented\u003cbr\u003ehimself east of the city, upon the Mount of Olives, where the messiah is\u003cbr\u003eexpected to appear. He was able to assemble four thousand fools to\u003cbr\u003eattack the city, but Felix dispatched troops to take him prisoner. On\u003cbr\u003ethe morning that maniac was executed, his movement vanished. Later, when\u003cbr\u003eFadus was governor there, a magi-cian named Theudas persuaded a\u003cbr\u003emultitude of Jews to go with him to the Jordan River, which he told them\u003cbr\u003ehe would divide to allow them to walk through it dry-shod. To deal with\u003cbr\u003ethem, Fadus sent a large detachment of cavalry which killed many of that\u003cbr\u003emob and took a lot of prisoners. Among them was Theudas. The soldiers\u003cbr\u003ecrucified him there on the bank of the river, and they cut off his head\u003cbr\u003eand took it to Fadus in Jerusalem.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfterward none of his followers ever spoke of him again. It is\u003cbr\u003esurprising that a similar falling away has not taken place among the\u003cbr\u003eadherents of that carpenter, even though the measures now being taken to\u003cbr\u003esuppress them are thorough and systematic. The agent of the Emperor who\u003cbr\u003ecame to see me here informed me that one of those who have been\u003cbr\u003ecrucified in Rome recently was a Galilean fisherman named Peter who was\u003cbr\u003ea leader among them because he had been close to the carpenter. That\u003cbr\u003eimperial representative also told me that another man who had great\u003cbr\u003eauthority among the Christians--an aged Jew named Paul--was beheaded not\u003cbr\u003elong ago in Rome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo doubt this singular sect will disappear with the execution of its\u003cbr\u003eleaders and the extermination of its members throughout the Roman\u003cbr\u003eEmpire. At most it may persist for a time in isolated parts of the East\u003cbr\u003eas a small and esoteric cult.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is difficult for reasonable men to understand how that dead carpenter\u003cbr\u003ecan continue to attract followers who cling to his memory even while\u003cbr\u003ethey are being nailed to their own crosses. I shall try to shed light on\u003cbr\u003ethat mystery by setting forth in writing the facts relating to his life\u003cbr\u003eand death that have given rise to the legends now current about him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver thirty years ago, in Caesarea, I heard with some interest reports\u003cbr\u003efrom Galilee about that charismatic carpenter and the stir he occasioned\u003cbr\u003ethere when he laid down his tools and assumed his new identity, that of\u003cbr\u003ea wonder-working prophet. Those earliest reports did not concern me\u003cbr\u003edirectly, because the provinces I governed did not include Galilee. I\u003cbr\u003edid not order my agents to start collecting information about him until\u003cbr\u003ehe had left Galilee and was no longer the responsibility of Herod\u003cbr\u003eAntipas and had become mine by coming into Judea. From that time until\u003cbr\u003ethe end of his life, I continued to receive reports about him as a\u003cbr\u003epotential leader of insurrection in the region for which I was\u003cbr\u003eresponsible. The more his following grew, the more I had to take an\u003cbr\u003einterest in him, until at last he stood before me in the judgment hall\u003cbr\u003eof the Fortress Antonia on the last day of his life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI remained as military governor of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea for four\u003cbr\u003eyears after that. During that short time Christianity was already\u003cbr\u003ebecoming a rapidly growing element among the Jews. Therefore I told my\u003cbr\u003eagents to continue to collect information about the crucified carpenter\u003cbr\u003eand the increasing legions of his worshipers. When I was dismissed by\u003cbr\u003eVitellius and sent back to Rome to be tried before the emperor, I\u003cbr\u003ebrought all that information with me, along with other material bearing\u003cbr\u003eupon the danger of messianic movements in that troubled land.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn addition, I still receive letters from the few friends I have left in\u003cbr\u003eRome, and one of those friends recently sent me a biography of the\u003cbr\u003ecarpenter that was taken from a group of his worshipers who were\u003cbr\u003ecaptured and then crucified in the arena in Rome. Fortunately that book\u003cbr\u003econtains a number of direct quotations of things the man said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBecause I possess these materials, and because I acquainted myself with\u003cbr\u003ethe customs and beliefs and history of the Jews during the years when I\u003cbr\u003ewas their governor, I can tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth and\u003cbr\u003eexplain why he lived and died as he did.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBallantine Reader's Circle","brand":"Ballantine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301283909861,"sku":"NP9780345443502","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780345443502.jpg?v=1767732539","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/memoirs-of-pontius-pilate-isbn-9780345443502","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}