| Photo from Fallen Empires | DESCRIPTION |
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|---|---|---|
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| Language: | Latin | |
| Medium: | limestone | |
| Size: | 82 centimeters high 65 centimeters wide |
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| Length: | 4 lines of writing | |
| Genre: | Building Dedication | |
| Dedicator: | Pontius Pilate (praefect of Judea) |
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| Approximate Date: | 26–37 CE | |
| Place of Discovery: | Caesarea, Israel | |
| Date of Discovery: | 1961 |
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| Chief Excavator: | Antonio Frova |
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| Current Location: | Israel Museum (Jerusalem) |
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| Inventory number: | AE 1963 no. 104 |
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| TEXT |
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|---|---|
| LATIN (with suggested reconstruction) |
TRANSLATION by K. C. Hanson & Douglas E. Oakman |
| [DIS AUGUSTI]S TIBERIEUM [. . . . PO]NTIUS PILATUS [. . .PRAEF]ECTUS IUDA[EA]E [. .FECIT D]E[DICAVIT] |
To the honorable gods (this) Tiberium Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, had dedicated |
| DISCUSSION QUESTIONS |
1. What would motivate a prefect like Pilate to dedicate a temple in honor of Tiberius? 2. What terms do the gospels and Acts use for Pilate's office? Tacitus (see Annals 15.44)? Josephus (see War 2.117, 169)? Philo (see Ad Gaium 299)? 3. What were the responsibilities of a Roman prefect in an imperial province? 4. What do we know about the role of the "imperial cult" in the eastern part of the Roman Empire? How does it compare with other parts of the empire, and what accounts for the differences? 5. What was the relationship between Caesarea and Jerusalem during the first century? 6. What is the relevance of an inscription such as this one regarding the dating and identification of persons mentioned in the Bible? |
| SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY |
| Bond, Helen K. Pontius Pilate in History
and Interpretation. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series
100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Hanson, K. C., and Douglas E. Oakman. Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Conflicts. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998. Jones, A. H. M. “Procurators and Prefects in the Early Principate.” In Studies in Roman Government and Law, 115-25. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960. Lémonon, Jean-Pierre. Pilate et le gouvernement de le Judée: Textes et monuments. Paris: Gabalda, 1981. Maier, Paul M. Pontius Pilate. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968. Rousseau, John J., and Rami Arav. Jesus and His World. An Archaeological and Cultural Dictionary, 225-27. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995. Samuelsson, Gunnar. Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion. WUNT 2/310. Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2011. Schwartz, Daniel R. “Pontius Pilate.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 5:395-401. New York: Doubleday, 1992. Vardaman, Jerry. “A New Inscription Which Mentions Pilate as ‘Prefect.’” Journal of Biblical Literature 81 (1962) 70-71. |
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