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SECT. III. Of the Letters of Lentulus and Pilate concerning Jesus Christ.
THere is no need of shewing the falsity of a Letter attributed to Lentulus, written to the Senate and People of Rome concerning the Actions of Jesus Christ; since the Forgery of it is Self-Evident. They make Lentulus to write it in the Quality of Governor of Jerusalem, tho' he never had that Em∣ploy. 'Tis directed to the Senate and People of Rome; whereas after the Com∣mon-wealth was chang'd into a Monarchy, the Governors usually wrote to the Emperors. That which is contain'd in that Letter is ridiculous: Therein is a mean and contemptible Description of the Person of Jesus Christ; therein it is said that our Saviour had light coloured Hair, long and loose after the Mode of the Nazarenes. The style wherein it is written does not suit with the purity and politeness of Augustus's time: In a word, not one of the Ancients hath made mention of that Letter.
The Letter of Pilate to Tiberius upon the subject of the Miracles of Jesus Christ, seems to be more authentick. For Tertullian in his Apologetick relates, that Tiberius having understood what Miracles Jesus Christ had wrought in Pale∣stine, which were as so many Evidences of his Divinity, made the report there∣of to the Senate, and propos'd the ranking him among the Gods: but that the Senate rejected this Proposal, and yet Tiberius continu'd in the same mind, and prohibited the persecuting of the Christians. A little after the same Author adds, that Pilate, a Christian in his Heart, sent Tiberius word of the Resur∣rection of Jesus Christ. Eusebius in the second Book of his Ecclesiastical Hi∣story, Chap. 2. cites this passage of Tertullian, and explaining more at large how Tiberius came to hear of Jesus Christ, says that Pilate (according to the Custom of the Governors of Provinces, who were oblig'd to send the Emperors an Ac∣count of what happen'd most remarkable in their Province) sent Tiberius an Ac∣count of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, assuring him that he had heard of a great many Miracles which he had wrought, and that there were a great ma∣ny People who look'd upon him as a God, since his being rais'd from the Dead.
We have in the Orthodoxographa next to the Epistle of Lentulus, a Letter attributed to Pilate as written to Tiberius, which contains the same things: but 'tis difficult to determine whether this Letter was extant in Eusebius's time, or whether it was not forg'd since from his Narration. Let this be how it will, there are several Learned Men who question the Genuine∣ness of this History; which has but very little probability at the bottom of it. For how is it likely that Pilate should write such things to Tiberius of a Man; whom he himself had condemn'd to Death? And tho' he might have done this, yet is it probable that Tiberius should have propos'd to the Senate the placing such a Man in the number of the Gods upon the bare relation of a Governor? And if he had propos'd any such thing, who can imagine but that the Senate would have submitted to it? Wherefore, tho' we cannot absolutely charge this Narration with Falshood, yet it may at least pass for a doubtful piece.