"Still more explicit is the testimony of Tertullian. It may be found in
Apologeticus (chap. 2) where he says that out of envy Jesus was
surrendered to Pilate by the Jewish ceremonial lawyers, and by him,
after he had yielded to the cries of the people, given over for
crucifixion; that while hanging on the cross he gave up the ghost with a
loud cry, and so anticipated the executioner's duty; that at that same
hour the day was interrupted by a sudden darkness; that a guard of
soldiers was set at the grave for the purpose of preventing his
disciples stealing his body, since he had predicted his resurrection,
but that on the third day the ground was suddenly shaken and the stone
rolled away from before the sepulchre; that in the grave nothing was
found but the articles used in his burial; that the report was spread
abroad by those who stood outside that the disciples had taken the body
away; that Jesus spent forty days with them in Galilee, teaching them
what their mission should be, and that after giving them their
instructions as to what they should preach, he was raised in a cloud to
heaven. Tertullian closes this account with the words, 'All this was
reported to the Emperor at that time, Tiberius, by Pilate, his
conscience having compelled even him to become a Christian.'
"The document now in our possession corresponds with this evidence of
Justin and Tertullian. Even in the title it agrees with the account of
Justin, although instead of the word _acta_, which he used, and which is
manifestly much more Latin than Greek, a Greek expression is employed
which can be shown to have been used to indicate genuine Acts. The
details recounted by Justin and Tertullian are all found in our text of
the Acts of Pilate, with this variation, that nothing corresponds to
what is joined to the declaration of the prophet, 'They dragged him to
the seat of judgment and set him upon it and said,' etc. Besides this,
the casting lots for the vesture is expressed simply by the allusion to
the division of the clothes. We must give even closer scrutiny to one
point. Justin alludes to the miracles which were performed in
fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, on the lame, the dumb, the blind,
the dead, and on lepers. In fact, in our Acts of Pilate there are made
to appear before the Roman governor a palsied man who had suffered for
thirty-eight years, and was brought in a bed by young men, and healed on
the Sabbath day; a blind man cured by the laying on of hands; a cripple
who had been restored; a leper who had been cleansed; the woman whose
issue of blood had been stanched, and a witness of the raising of
Lazarus from the dead. Of that which Tertullian cites we will adduce
merely the passage found in no one of our gospels, that Jesus passed
forty days after his resurrection in company with his disciples in
Galilee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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