II. REDATING JESUS' DEATH
10. EXIT PILATE - ARMY MANOEUVRES IN THE EAST
Up to this point, our reasoning is evidently set upon the fact that Pilate was actually in office during Pessah 36.
What does Flavius Josephus have to say upon this matter ?
He writes in Jewish Antiquities (J.W. XVIII, 89) " that Vitellius sent Pilate to explain his misdemeanours to Tiberius before coming to Jerusalem For Pessah".
In which year does this take place ?
The answer is given in J.A. (XVIII, 89) where we learn that "Pilate arrived after Tiberius' death". His death is dated by historians on March, 16th, 37.
It is therefore in 37 that Pilate left Judæa, since the journey by sea took from 15 days to a month.
Hence Pilate was still Judæa prefect during the feast of Pessah 36.
What misdemeanours is he talking about ?
Flavius Josephus provides us with two notorious exactions of Pilate in Judæa.
- (J.A. XVIII, 55-59) : when coming into office in 26 he brings with him in Jerusalem ensigns of Cæsar, which causes a rebellion among the Jews - subtly but harshly quelled.
- (J.A. XVIII, 60-62) : he plunders the "Korban", i.e. the Temple treasury, to lay on water in Jerusalem.
We do not know the precise date of this second infamy but the Slavonic version of Jewish Antiquities9, in an insertion after J.W. (II, 9, 174), sets this event after the crucifixion of a "thaumaturgist" who can only be Jesus by the depicted circumstances. It thence suggests a scenario which could be the following :
Did Pilate, furious with the priests for putting pressure on him during Pessah 36, plead a water shortage during the summer to seize the Temple treasury as a revenge ?
In fact we know25 (Ta'anit 19b and 20 a) of some negociations between Naqdimon ben Gourion and the Roman authorities, during the pilgrimage feasts, to bargain the water of the swimming pools reserved for the Romans. So there was actually a problem in supplying water to Jerusalem during the summer.
Faced with complaints and after Pilate's brutal quelling of the people rebellion following his seizing, Vitellius, the imperial legate, dismisses Judæa prefect at the end of 36 and sends him to vindicate himself in Emperor Tiberius' eyes as soon as navigation was possible again in the beginning of March 3726.
Indeed the continuous policy of the Roman Empire was to respect the minorities institutions, all the more so since the Jewish religion had been declared "licit".
The vacancy of the local Roman authority and the popular unruliness force Vitellius into coming back to Jerusalem for Pessah 37 in order to show off his determination in allowing no renewed troubles of the year 36.
This scenario has the advantage of providing us with three informations we did not have before :
- The "Korban" was plundered in 36,
- The reason of Pilate's exile, consequence of this plundering, which was itself a consequence of "the Jesus affair", implies certain oriental traditions.
- We know why Vitellius came to Jerusalem two years in a row.
