Pontius Pilate Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Modern literature=== Pontius Pilate appears as a character in a large number of literary works, typically as a character in the judgment of Christ.{{sfn|MacAdam|2001|p=90}} One of the earliest literary works in which he plays a large role is French writer [[Anatole France]]'s 1892 short story {{lang|fr|"Le Procurateur de Judée"|italics=no}} ("The Procurator of Judaea"), which portrays an elderly Pilate who has been banished to [[Sicily]]. There he lives happily as a farmer and is looked after by his daughter, but suffers from gout and obesity and broods over his time as governor of Judaea.{{sfn|Wroe|1999|p=358}} Spending his time at the baths of [[Baiae]], Pilate is unable to remember Jesus at all.{{sfn|Demandt|2012|p=107}} [[John Masefield]]'s play in verse, [[Good Friday: A Play in Verse|Good Friday]] was written in 1916. Pilate is the protagonist.<ref name=JMSYT>[[John Masefield Society]]: ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmp_IDlvzPw Good Friday: A Play in Verse (1916)]''</ref> Pilate makes a brief appearance in the preface to [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s 1933 play ''[[On the Rocks: A Political Comedy|On the Rocks]]'' where he argues against Jesus about the dangers of revolution and of new ideas.{{sfn|Wroe|1999|p=195}} Shortly afterwards, French writer [[Roger Caillois]] wrote a novel ''Pontius Pilate'' (1936), in which Pilate acquits Jesus.{{sfn|MacAdam|2017|p=133}} Pilate features prominently in Russian author [[Mikhail Bulgakov]]'s novel ''[[The Master and Margarita]]'', which was written in the 1930s but only published in 1966, twenty six years after the author's death.{{sfn|Langenhorst|1995|p=90}} Henry I. MacAdam describes it as "the 'cult classic' of Pilate-related fiction."{{sfn|MacAdam|2017|p=133}} The work features a novel within the novel about Pontius Pilate and his encounter with Jesus (Yeshu Ha-Notsri) by an author only called the Master. Because of this subject matter, the Master has been attacked for "Pilatism" by the Soviet literary establishment. Five chapters of the novel are featured as chapters of ''The Master and Margarita''. In them, Pilate is portrayed as wishing to save Jesus, being affected by his charisma, but as too cowardly to do so. Russian critics in the 1960s interpreted this Pilate as "a model of the spineless provincial bureaucrats of Stalinist Russia."{{sfn|Wroe|1999|p=273}} Pilate becomes obsessed with his guilt for having killed Jesus.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|1992|p=165}} Because he betrayed his desire to follow his morality and free Jesus, Pilate must suffer for eternity.{{sfn|Bond|1998|p=xiii}} Pilate's burden of guilt is finally lifted by the Master when he encounters him at the end of Bulgakov's novel.{{sfn|Wroe|1999|p=371}} The majority of literary texts about Pilate come from the time after the Second World War, a fact which Alexander Demandt suggests shows a cultural dissatisfaction with Pilate having washed his hands of guilt.{{sfn|Demandt|2012|p=107}} One of Swiss writer [[Friedrich Dürrenmatt]]'s earliest stories ("Pilatus," 1949) portrays Pilate as aware that he is torturing God in the trial of Jesus.{{sfn|Demandt|2012|p=108}} Swiss playwright [[Max Frisch]]'s comedy {{lang|de|Die chinesische Mauer|italics=yes}} portrays Pilate as a skeptical intellectual who refuses to take responsibility for the suffering he has caused.{{sfn|Demandt|2012|pp=107–109}} The German Catholic novelist [[Gertrud von Le Fort]]'s {{lang|de|Die Frau des Pilatus|italics=yes}} portrays Pilate's wife as converting to Christianity after attempting to save Jesus and assuming Pilate's guilt for herself; Pilate executes her as well.{{sfn|Demandt|2012|p=108}} In 1986, Soviet-Kyrgiz writer [[Chingiz Aitmatov]] published a novel in Russian featuring Pilate titled {{lang|ru|Plakha|italics=yes}} (''The Place of the Skull''). The novel centers on an extended dialogue between Pilate and Jesus witnessed in a vision by the narrator Avdii Kallistratov, a former seminarian. Pilate is presented as a materialist pessimist who believes mankind will soon destroy itself, whereas Jesus offers a message of hope.{{sfn|Langenhorst|1995|p=90}} Among other topics, the two anachronistically discuss the meaning of the last judgment and the second coming; Pilate fails to comprehend Jesus's teachings and is complacent as he sends him to his death.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|1992|pp=167–168}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! 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