Pilate’s Wife

Brian Zahnd begins the eighth chapter of his book about the cross of Christ, “The Wood Between the Worlds” by writing –

“The Nicene Creed mentions three historical figures – Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and Pontius Pilate. The appearance of Jesus and Mary is obvious, but that of Pontius Pilate is startling. Unexpected as he may be, there he is, for in the creed we confess that Jesus was ‘crucified under Pontius Pilate.’ What this line does is to establish the life and death of Jesus in a particular historical context. Christianity doesn’t float above history as a timeless abstract. It was born in Judea in the fourth decade of the first century during Roman occupation. Pontius Pilate was the fifth Roman procurator of Judea, holding office from AD 26-36 during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. History has given us scant information on Pilate… Through what we know about Pilate is limited to the Gospels and a few lines from Roman historians, the governor who presided over the trail of Jesus of Nazareth has captivated the literary imagination of many a writer.”

And so has Pontius Pilates’ wife, in fact, in parts of the Eastern Church Pontius Pilate’s wife is officially a Saint! She is given a name, “Claudia Procula,” and a history beyond the bare reference to her dream and the warning she gave to her husband as a result of it as he was about to preside over the trial of Jesus – “While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much over him today in a dream” (Matthew 27:19).

A reference to a “Claudia” in 2 Timothy 4:21 has been taken by some in the Eastern Church as a reference to Pontius Pilate’s wife and is offered as evidence of her inclusion in the earliest community of faith. It was Origen (185 – 253), the Alexandrian theologian of such great importance and controversy, who first wrote about how Pontius Pilate’s wife converted to Christianity.

“A more detailed account of the trial before Pilate, his wife’s dream, and her later life can be found in the apocryphal work, “The Letters of Claudia Procula to Fulvia”. It was written allegedly in the name of Claudia, Pontius Pilate’s wife, who shares the story of her life in Jerusalem with her friend, devoting special attention to events related to the Gospel story.” (orthochristian.com/102542.html)

But the most fascinating allusion to Pontius Pilate’s wife in litetature can be found in John Masefield’s 1925 play, “The Trial of Jesus” –

“Pilate’s wife stands with the centurion near the cross, watching Jesus slowly die. She asks the centurion at the end, ‘Do you think he is dead?’ ‘No, lady, I don’t,’ the soldier answers her. ‘Then where is he?’ ‘Let loose in the world, lady,’ the centurion declares, ‘where no one can stop His truth.’”

This is the perfect message for the day after Easter.

It’s not over.

It’s just begun.

Wayne Watson sang a story song back in the day about a carnival barker who “shut down the show” after “something happened” in his life.

“Old friends are mostly puzzled,

They don’t know what to say,

‘Cause ever since that afternoon

He’s just been that way.

It’s like the old man died,

And someone came to take his place.”

The song describes how that man took up a position on a downtown street corner after his change where all day, every day, with a great big smile on his face, he cried out to all who passed by –

“New lives for old.

Warm hearts for cold.

Have I got a deal for you today,

Come on, step right this way,

And get your new lives for old.”

Easter is about an event that happened in a borrowed tomb just outside Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, and an experience that still happens in people’s lives, relationships, and worlds right now. This is the reason why the church has always baptized people on Easter Sunday. Romans 6 connects the Easter event with the Easter experience in its discussion of baptism –

“…All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. …Our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. …So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Excerpts of Romans 6:3-11)

The tradition that Pontius Pilate’s wife became a Christian, and then actually died for her faith is affirmed in parts of the Eastern Church where she is venerated as a Saint, and in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church both Pontius Pilate and his wife, Claudia Procula, are regarded as Saints and Martyrs. They detect the seed of saving faith in what Pontius Pilate had written on the placard that was nailed to the cross above Christ as He was crucified –

“Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.’” (John 19:19-22)

Is this tradition of the conversion of Pontius Pilate and his wife historically true? I don’t know, I suppose it depends in large measure on how much credit you are prepared to give to traditions that come from the early church. What I do know for sure is that this tradition bears witness to a truth that is intrinsic to the Gospel and integral to the meaning of Easter. “We are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3). “If anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I don’t know if Pontius Pilate and his wife actually became Christians, but the fact that the Gospel says they could have, and that the tradition of the early church is that they did, is enough for the words of the Creed that I recite each week in church – “…and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried” – to flash with promise, power, and hope.

One more thing about Pontius Pilate’s wife.

There’s just one reference to her in the Bible, Matthew 27:19 – “While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night, I suffered much on account of him.” It’s that reference to a “dream’ that captures my imagination.

Dreams as a vehicle that the Lord uses to make His will known is a prominent feature in the story of Jesus that the Gospel of Matthew tells. It was in a dream that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph as he pondered what to do about Mary, his betrothed, who was with child (Matthew 1:20). It was in a dream that the Wise Men were told to go home from Bethlehem by a different route in order to avoid additional contact with King Herod who was raging (Matthew 2:12). It was in a dream that Jospeh was told to take Mary and baby Jesus to Egypt where they lived as refugees outside the murderous reach of King Herod (Matthew 2:13), and then when King Herod died, it was in a dream that Joseph was told to pack up his family and go home again (Matthew 2:19), with an adjustment in the plan made in response to another dream (Matthew 2:22).

All of this is said against the biblical backdrop of the importance of dreams as a way that the Divine communicated with the Patriarchs in the book of Genesis, and under the promise of the new dispensation of the Spirit when “your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, and God’s Spirit will be poured out on His menservants and maidservants” (Acts 2:17-18).

In my own life I can think of 2, maybe 3 dreams, or dream-like states by which I think God unmistakably spoke to me about decisions I was making and issues I was facing that gave me some real insight into where God was and what God was doing in my life at those moments, in those circumstances. And I can’t help but wonder how many other times God was trying to use my dreams as a way of leading me “in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3), but I didn’t have an expectation of this being something that God did, or the resources to make proper sense of what it was that God was doing and saying?

Well, I’m now one of those “old men” that Peter/Joel was talking about who in the new dispensation of the Spirit will “dream dreams,” and I just want to say that I’m open to whatever it might be that God needs me to know at this point in my life.