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The Church History of Eusebius
Chapter IX.--The Times of Pilate.
1. The historian already mentioned agrees with the evangelist in regard to the fact that Archelaus 1 succeeded to the government after Herod. He records the manner in which he received the kingdom of the Jews by the will of his father Herod and by the decree of Caesar Augustus, and how, after he had reigned ten years, he lost his kingdom, and his brothers Philip 2 and Herod the younger, 3 with Lysanias, 4 still ruled their own tetrarchies. The same writer, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, 5 says that about the twelfth year of the reign of Tiberius, 6 who had succeeded to the empire after Augustus had ruled fifty-seven years, 7 Pontius Pilate was entrusted with the government of Judea, and that he remained there ten full years, almost until the death of Tiberius.
2. Accordingly the forgery of those who have recently given currency to acts against our Saviour 8 is clearly proved. For the very date given in them 9 shows the falsehood of their fabricators.
3. For the things which they have dared to say concerning the passion of the Saviour are put into the fourth consulship of Tiberius, which occurred in the seventh year of his reign; at which time it is plain that Pilate was not yet ruling in Judea, if the testimony of Josephus is to be believed, who clearly shows in the above-mentioned work 10 that Pilate was made procurator of Judea by Tiberius in the twelfth year of his reign.
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Archelaus was a son of Herod the Great, and own brother of the Tetrarch Herod Antipas, with whom he was educated at Rome. Immediately after the death of Antipater he was designated by his father as his successor in the kingdom, and Augustus ratified the will, but gave him only the title of ethnarch. The title of King he never really received, although he is spoken of as king in Matt. ii. 22, the word being used in a loose sense. His dominion consisted of Idumea, Judea, Samaria, and the cities on the coast, comprising a half of his father's kingdom. The other half was divided between Herod Antipas and Philip. He was very cruel, and was warmly hated by most of his subjects. In the tenth year of his reign (according to Josephus, Ant. XVII. 13. 2), or in the ninth (according to B. J. II. 7. 3), he was complained against by his brothers and subjects on the ground of cruelty, and was banished to Vienne in Gaul, where he probably died, although Jerome says that he was shown his tomb near Bethlehem. Jerome's report, however, is too late to be of any value. The exact length of his reign it is impossible to say, as Josephus is not consistent in his reports. The difference may be due to the fact that Josephus reckoned from different starting-points in the two cases. He probably ruled a little more than nine years. His condemnation took place in the consulship of M. Æmilius Lepidus and L. Arruntius (i.e. in 6 a.d.) according to Dion Cassius, LV. 27. After the deposition of Archelaus Judea was made a Roman province and attached to Syria, and Coponius was sent as the first procurator. On Archelaus, see Josephus, Ant. XVII. 8, 9, 11 sq., and B. J. I. 33. 8 sq.; II. 6 sq. ↩
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Philip, a son of Herod the Great by his wife Cleopatra, was Tetrarch of Batanea, Trachonitis, Aurinitis, &c., from b.c. 4 to a.d. 34. He was distinguished for his justice and moderation. He is mentioned only once in the New Testament, Luke iii. 1. On Philip, see Josephus, Ant. XVII. 8. 1; 11. 4; XVIII. 4. 6. ↩
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Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great by his wife Malthace, was Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from b.c. 4 to a.d. 39. In 39 a.d. he went to Rome to sue for the title of King, which his nephew Herod Agrippa had already secured. But accusations against him were sent to the emperor by Agrippa, and he thereby lost his tetrarchy and was banished to Lugdunum (Lyons) in Gaul, and died (according to Josephus, B. J. II. 9. 6) in Spain. It was he who beheaded John the Baptist, and to him Jesus was sent by Pilate. His character is plain enough from the New Testament account. For further particulars of his life, see Josephus, Ant. XVII. 8. 1; 11. 4; XVIII. 2. 1; 5 and 7; B. J. II. 9. ↩
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The Lysanias referred to here is mentioned in Luke iii. 1 as Tetrarch of Abilene. Eusebius, in speaking of Lysanias here, follows the account of Luke, not that of Josephus, for the latter nowhere says that Lysanias continued to rule his tetrarchy after the exile of Archelaus. Indeed he nowhere states that Lysanias ruled a tetrarchy at this period. He only refers (Ant. XVIII. 6. 10; XIX. 5. 1; XX. 7. 1; and B. J. II. 12. 8) to "the tetrarchy of Lysanias," which he says was given to Agrippa I. and II. by Caligula and Claudius. Eusebius thus reads more into Josephus than he has any right to do, and yet we cannot assume that he is guilty of willful deception, for he may quite innocently have interpreted Josephus in the light of Luke's account, without realizing that Josephus' statement is of itself entirely indefinite. That there is no real contradiction between the statements of Josephus and Luke has been abundantly demonstrated by Davidson, Introduction to the New Testament, I. p. 215 sq. ↩
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Josephus, Ant. XVIII. 2. 2 and 4. 2. ↩
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Josephus reckons here from the death of Augustus (14 a.d.), when Tiberius became sole emperor. Pilate was appointed procurator in 26 a.d. and was recalled in 36. ↩
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Josephus dates the beginning of Augustus' reign at the time of the death of Julius Caesar (as Eusebius also does in chap. 5, §2), and calls him the second emperor. But Augustus did not actually become emperor until 31 b.c., after the battle of Actium. ↩
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Eusebius refers here, not to the acts of Pilate written by Christians, of which so many are still extant (cf. Bk. II. chap. 2, note 1), but to those forged by their enemies with the approval of the emperor Maximinus (see below, Bk. IX. chap. 5). ↩
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ho tes parasemeioseos chronos. "In this place paras. is the superscription or the designation of the time which was customarily prefixed to acts. For judicial acts were thus drawn up: Consulatu Tiberii Augusti Septimo, inducto in judicium Jesu, &c." (Val.) ↩
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Ant.XVIII. 2. 2. Compare §1, above. ↩
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Histoire ecclésiastique
CHAPITRE IX : LES TEMPS DE PILATE
L'historien mentionné plus haut noue apprend aussi, en accord avec l'Évangile, l'avènement d'Archélaüs au pouvoir après Hérode. Il explique comment le testament de son père et le consentement de César Auguste lui donnèrent le trône des Juifs, et comment lors de sa 83 chute du trône, arrivée dix ans plus tard, ses frères, Philippe et Hérode le jeune, ainsi que Lysanias obtinrent chacun leur tétrarchie.1
[2] Le même Josèphe nous montre encore au dix-huitième livre de ses Antiquités que la douzième année du règne de Tibère, le successeur au pouvoir suprême d'Auguste qui avait régné cinquante-sept ans, le gouvernement de la Judée fut confié à Ponce-Pilate, qui y demeura dix ans entiers, presque jusqu'à la mort du prince. [3] Ainsi donc apparaît évidente la fausseté des Mémoires de notre Seigneur publiés tout récemment (voy. l'Appendice). Le temps indiqué dans l'en-tête est d'abord une preuve du mensonge de leur fiction.[^2] [4] Ils disent que ce fut sous le quatrième consulat de Tibère, c'est-à-dire la septième année de son règne (21 ap. J.-C.], qu'eurent lieu les crimes des Juifs concernant la passion du Sauveur. Or, il est démontré qu'à cette époque Pilate ne gouvernait pas encore la Judée, s'il faut en croire le témoignage de Josèphe. Celui-ci déclare clairement, dans le livre cité plus haut, que ce lui la douzième année du règne de Tibère que Pilate fut établi, par ce prince, procurateur de Judée.
[^2] Ces Mémoires sont ce qu'on appelle les Actes de Pilate, apocryphe formant la première partie du recueil connu sous le nom d'Évangile de Nicodème. Ils portaient en tête une date servant d'intitulé ; c'est ce qu'Eusèbe appelle τταρασημείωσις.
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Les indications d'Eusèbe sont inexactes. Après la mort d'Hérode (4 av. J,-C.), Archélaüs, désigné par lui, reçut d'Auguste, avec le titre d'ethnarque, la Judée, la Samarie et l'Idumée. Ses deux frères furent nommes tétrarques et reçurent, Antipas, la Galilée et la Pérée; Philippe, la Batanée, la Trachonitide et le Hauran. Philippe mourut en 34 et son domaine fut annexé à la province de Syrie. Hérode Antipas, le persécuteur de saint Jean-Baptiste, 497 fut dépouillé de sa tétrarchie par Caligula, à l'instigation d'Agrippa, en 39; dés 37, Agrippa en avait été investi. Archélaüs fut, à la suite d'une plainte des Juifs, exilé par Auguste à Vienne, en 6. Son domaine devint une annexe de la province de Syrie, avec un gouverneur de rang équestre, qui dut porter d'abord le titre de préfet, mais reçut bientôt celui de procurateur. Quant à Lysanias, il est mentionné comme tétrarque d'Abilène et sa tétrarchie est annexée au domaine d'Agrippa I en 37, avec celle de Philippe. Ce Lysanias doit être distingué d'un autre, qui avait le royaume d'Iturée, au temps d'Antoine et de Cléopâtre. Il n'a probablement rien de commun avec lui, pas plus qu'avec les Hérodiens. Voy. SCHUEURER, t. I, p. 717 suiv. ↩