tioned, feems natural and probable. For if (as has been proved in the last Obfervation) the Chriftians were not able to produce the Acts of Pilate, it is natural to fuppofe the Heathens would reflect with severity upon thofe Chriftians who had before appealed to them, and in confequence upon the cause itfelf, as fupported by the falfehood and infincerity of its followers. For this reafon, I fay, it seems in the nature of things likely fuch a compofure fhould be forged, which might be of use to filence those who should at any time make such an objection against Christianity; and we have innumerable instances of forgeries on lefs plaufible reasons. 4. The first account of any book among the Chriftians, intitled, The Acts of Pilate, is, that the Teffarefcaidecatites made use of it to fupport their peculiar notion about Eafter. This we read in Epiphanius. ̓Απὸ τῶν Ακτων δῆθεν Πιλάτα αὐχεσι τὴν ἀκρίβειαν εύ ρηκέναι, ἐν οἷς ἐμφέρεται, τῇ πρὸ ὀκτὼ καλανδῶν Ἀπριλλία, ων τὸν Σωτῆρα πεπονθέναι· καὶ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ βάλονται ἄγειν τὸ Πάσχα, ὁποίᾳ δ' ἂν ἐμπέσῃ ἡ τεσσαρεσκαιδέκάτη τῆς σελήνης. ten, They boaft, that they have discovered the exact time of this inftitution from the dis of Pilate, in which it is writ– that our Saviour fuffered on the eighth of the calends of April: accordingly on that day they will always keep Eafter, not regarding what day the fourteenth day of the moon happened. 5. The feet of the Teffarefcaidecatites (or Quartadecimans, as they are fometimes called) did not arife till the middle or latter end of the third century. To prove this, I obferve that this fect had its rife from the Quintillians (otherwise called Prifcillianifts, Artotyrites, and Pepuzians); and that these had their rife from the Montanifts or Cataphrygians. This we are expressly told by Epiphanius. Now Montanus lived, a Hæref. 5o. §. 1. Hæref. 49. §. 1. and Hæref. 50. §. 1. VOL. II. Z and and his herefy began, in the latter end of the fecond century, about the year of Chrift CLXXIV, and continued for a long time in its flourishing state. Apollonius, who wrote largely and learnedly against Montanifim, fays he wrote juft forty years after Montanus broached his herefya; and then, as Eufebius b collects from Apollonius, that herefy anpiáceoa v, was in its height, i. e. about the year CCXIV. Soter alfo, Bishop of Rome, about this time wrote against the fame herefy. Tertullian, in his seventh book de Ecftafi, now loft, wrote an Anfwer in vindication of Montanism against Apollonius, if we may credit the author of the tract de Hærefibus, Hæref. 26. published by Sirmondus under the name of Prædeftinatus č. So then if we allow any space of time to have intervened between the height of Montanism and its offspring the Quintillians, or Prifcillianifts, which were formed out of it, and any space between the rife of the Quintillianists and the rife of the Teffarefcaidecatites (which must neceffarily be), it will undeniably follow, that thefe laft (who are the perfons with whom I am now concerned) could not arise till towards the latter end of the third century, or the beginning of the fourth. 6. Hence it follows, that the Acts of Pilate cannot be proved to have been read, or in ufe among the Chriftians till the latter end of the third century; because (as I have proved) they do not appear to have been used by any before the fect of the Teffarefcaidecatites. 7. About the latter end of the third century, the Pagans or enemies of Chriflianity forged and published a book, intitled, The Acts of Pilate. This I gather from three feveral places in Eufebius's Ecclefiaftical History. τῆρος ἡμῶν ὑπομνήματα χθες καὶ πρώην διαδεδωκότων· ἐν οἷς πρῶτον αὐτὸς ὁ τῆς παραση μειώσεως χρόνῳ τῶν πεπλακότων ἀπελέγχει τὸ ψεῦδω. Ἐπὶ τῆς τετάρτης γεν ὑπατείας Τιβερία, ἢ γέγονεν ἔτες ἑβδόμα τῆς βασιλείας αὐτῷ, τὰ περὶ τὸ σωτήριον αὐτοῖς πάθω τολμηθέντα περιέχει. Καθ' ὃν δείκνυται χρόνον, μηδ' ἐπιςάς πω τῇ Ἰεδαίᾳ Πιλάτῷ, εἴγε τῷ Ἰωσήπῳ μάςτυρι χρήσασθαι δέον, σαφῶς ἔτω σημαίνοντι κατὰ τὴν δη λωθεῖσαν αὐτῇ γραφὴν, ὅτι δὴ ὅτι δὴ δωδεκάτῳ ἐνιαυτῷ τῆς Τιβερία βασιλείας ἐπίτροπος τῆς Ἰε δαίας ὑπὸ Τιβερία καθίςαται. refuted), who have lately pub lined certain Alts againft our Saviour. In which, firft, the very time which is affigned to them, difcovers the impofture; for thof things which they have impudently forged to have come to pafs at our Sa viour's crucifixion, are faid there to have been in the fourth confulip of Tiberius, which coincides with the e venth was not yet come to fudea, if After having produced the The fecond is lib. 1. cap. II. two noted teftimonies of Jofephus concerning John the Baptift and Chrift, he concludes; Ταῦτα τὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν Ἑβραίων συγγραφέως ανέκαθεν τῇ ἑαυ] γραφῇ, περί τε τῇ Βαπτιςē Ιωάννα, καὶ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν παραδεδωκότα, τις ἂν ἔτι λείποιτο ἀποφυγῆ, τὸ μὴ αντ αισχύντες απελέγχεσθαι της κατ ̓ αὐτῶν πλασαμένες ὑπομνήματα; αν Z 2 Seeing therefore that this writer (Jofephus), who was himfelf a Jew, has related fuch things in his history concerning John the Baptift and our Saviour; what can they poffibly fay for themselves, to prevent being convicted of the moft impudent forgery, who wrote thofe Acts against John and Chrift ? The 'The third is lib. 9. cap. 5. Πλασάμενοι δῆτα Πιλάτε καὶ At length (the Heathens) having forged certain Ads of Pilate concerning our Savi our, which were full of all forts of blafphemy against Chriβ, they caufed them by the Decree of Maximinus to be difperfed through all the parts of his empire, commanding by their letters that they fhould be publifhed to all perfons in every place, both in cities and country places; and that fchoolmafters fhould put them into the hands of children, and oblige them to ftudy and learn these by heart, instead of their ufual lectures. From these places it is evident, there were certain spurious Acts of Pilate, forged and published by the Heathens in the latter end of the third century. Eufebius fays in the first of these places, χθὲς καὶ πρώην, i. e. very lately, or a little before his time, who flourished in the beginning of the fourth century; and in the last place, that it was in the reign of Maximinus, who reigned in the year of Chrift 303. From which agreement in time it is plain, that Eufebius in both places speaks of the fame Acts, although in the former he does not fo expressly call them the Acts of Pilate, as in the latter. That they were a forgery is certain, not only from the whole design of them, the express teftimony of Eufebius in both places, but also from that argument out of Jofephus, which Eufebius makes ufe of, viz. that, according to thefe Acts, our Saviour's paffion under Pontius Pilate happened in the fourth confulship of Tiberius, which was was the feventh year of his reign; whereas, according to Jofephus, Pilate was not till fome years after that time appointed governor of Judæa; and it is certain our Saviour was not crucified till the nineteenth or twentieth year of Tiberius. 8. These Acts of Pilate were unquestionably very different from thofe which were made use of by the Teffarefcaidecatites above-mentioned. For if, as Eufebius fays, these were a forgery of the Heathens, filled with blafphemies against Christ, and they were publifhed in the reign of Maximinus, by his order, against the Chriftians, to irritate the Pagans more against them, and to further his cruel perfecutions, of which we have fo dreadful an account; it cannot be imagined they would be received by the Teffarefcaidecatites (who, as Epiphanius fays, differed from other Christians only as to the time of observing Easter), nor indeed by any persons whatsoever, who went under the name of Chriftians. 9. From the eight foregoing obfervations it appears very probable, that the, Acts of Pilate, or Gospel of Nicodemus, was a forgery of fome Chriftian in the latter end of the third century. For if fuch pious frauds were common, this was not the work of any Heathen; and this was a very likely forgery according to the nature and circumstances of things: if in the latter end of the third century we first find it in use among Christians, and about the fame find a forgery of the Heathens under the same title, it seems exceeding probable, that partly to confront the spurious one of the Pagans, partly to support those appeals which had been made by former Chriftians to the Acts of Pilate, fome Christian at this time should publish such a piece as this. |