Here's an odd factoid I came across:
The tendency, already discernible in the canonical Gospels, to lay stress on the efforts of Pilate to acquit Christ, and thus pass as lenient a judgment as possible upon his crime, goes further in the apocryphal Gospels and led in later years to the claim that he actually became a Christian. The Abyssinian Church reckons him as a saint, and assigns 25 June to him and to Claudia Procula, his wife. The belief that she became a Christian goes back to the second century, and may be found in Origen (Hom., in Mat., xxxv). The Greek Church assigns her a feast on 27 October. Tertullian and Justin Martyr both speak of a report on the Crucifixion (not extant) sent in by Pilate to Tiberius, from which idea a large amount of apocryphal literature originated. Some of these were Christian in origin (Gospel of Nicodemus), others came from the heathen, but these have all perished. [source]
Addendum: I've yet to locate Origen (Hom., in Mat., xxxv). I have though noticed, after about 45 minutes of searching, that no one else appears to have it either. There are plentiful references to Origen (Hom., in Mat., xxxv), but not any pay-off. I'm open to suggestions... I'm tempted to say... it doesn't exist, or is some sort of typo. This document is numbered "35" by Migne, but doesn't appear to be the source.
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9 comments:
Eusebius and Jerome only tell of 25 Homilies (Books). Apparently, there is a Latin translation that goes in Chapter 27 of Matthew where Pilate's wife appears (27:19). It appears to be a typo dating back to a dictionary written in the 1860's.
Here is some information about what still exists of Origen's Commentary on Matthew:
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/info/origen-wace.html
Interesting. One of my "problems" is looking up stuff. I tend to be easily distracted by tedium.
I find it facinating how information spreads across the Internet, and very few stop to check the facts.
by the way Paul, a homily is a book?
Just curious.
Hi Mr. Swan,
We have run across this problem before, haven't we? I was fascinated how the typo got repeated in every book practically about Origen or Claudia Procula upto when Algore "invented" the internet. I couldn't even find the additional material that was supposedly in Latin anywhere.
According to Wace, there were 25 homiles, 25 books on Matthew; 15 books, 39 homilies on Mark; 4 books on Luke and 132 on St. John.
Perhaps someone more skilled at research than I can find the Latin version with the additional commentary and answer your question.
God bless!
Very interesting, as Pilate is a sort of symbol of moral cowardice. It's a shame that we don't have a well-attested conversion story. It would be a wonderful tale.
I thought a "homily" is a sermon.
Hi Brigitte, Going back over my comments, let me clarify. I am not saying that a homily is a book. What Wace inidcated is that Origen's Commnetary on St. Matthew wrote one homily per "book."
As for homilies and sermons, the terms are used interchangeably but they are not quite the same thing. As I understand it, a homily is a scripturally based reflection asking the faithful to take the Word of God and apply it in their daily lives. A sermon is a bit more formal as it is a lecture or discourse designed to provide religious instruction or teaching moral behavior.
God bless!
We have run across this problem before, haven't we?
I don't recall.
I was fascinated how the typo got repeated in every book practically about Origen or Claudia Procula upto when Algore "invented" the internet.
Yes, this factoid has circulated for quite some time.
I couldn't even find the additional material that was supposedly in Latin anywhere.
And, I'm not hopeful the additional material will be found.
According to Wace, there were 25 homiles, 25 books on Matthew; 15 books, 39 homilies on Mark; 4 books on Luke and 132 on St. John.
Homilies are not books, a per your previous comment.
Perhaps someone more skilled at research than I can find the Latin version with the additional commentary and answer your question.
This isn't that big of a deal to me, so I won't be looking any further for it. It does serve as reminder to not simply take things at face value. "He that has ever so little examined the citations of writers cannot doubt how little credit the quotations deserve when the originals are wanting."
It's a shame that we don't have a well-attested conversion story.
Nah, we've got infallible conversion stories in the Bible. I don't require any others.
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