A.D. 33. PILATE'S LETTER TO CLSSAB. 137 Now concerning this Passion of onr Lord, Pontius Pilate wrote to Tiberius Caesar in the following manner : "Pontius Pilate to his master Claudius, greeting. The thing has lately happened, which I myself am also pleased at, namely, that the Jews out of envy have ruined themselves and their posterity with a cruel damnation. For as their fathers had a promise that God would send them his Holy One from heaven, who should be deservedly called their king, and had promised that he would send him upon earth by means of a virgin ; and when, during my government, the God of the Hebrews had come, and they had seen him give sight to the blind, cleanse the lepers, cure the paralytic, drive devils out of men, raise the dead, command the winds, walk over the sea with dry feet, and do many other marvellous things, and when all the people of the Jews called him the Son of God, then the chief priests became full of envy towards him, and delivered him to me, and, telling all sorts of different falsehoods, said that he was a sorcerer, and that he was acting contrary to their law. And I believed that the fact was so, and having scourged him, I gave him up to their will. And they crucified him, and put guards over him after he was buried. But he, though my soldiers were guarding him, rose again the third day. But their envy was inflamed to such a height that they gave the soldiers money, saying to them, * Say ye that his disciples have stolen his body V But the soldiers, after they had received the money, could not keep silence about what had Rally happened. For they testified that he had risen again, and that they had received money from the Jews, and therefore I have suggested this, that no one may speak falsely by giving any other account of it, or may think it necessary to believe the lies of the Jews." Then Caesar, with an expression of great satisfaction, laid the letter before the senate, requiring that Christ should be considered a God. But the senate refused to consecrate Christ, being moved with indignation because the letter had not been laid before them first, according to custom. Then the senate passed an edict that the Christians should be exterminated out of the city. But Cassar, being indignant at this, threatened their accusers with the death which they wished to inflict upon the Christians. And from that day forth, the formerly muchpraised modesty of Caesar began to be changed, as a punish