The Gospel of Nicodemus

is a mediaeval Latin text which is presented as having been written by a member of the Order of Nicodemus, who was himself a member of the Sanhedrin at the time of Jesus.

According to members of the order, he was a secret disciple of Jesus, who met with him clandestinely in order to avoid the wrath of his colleagues; eventually he called on the Sanhedrin to give Jesus a hearing, though they declined the invitation until his arrest.

With Joseph of Arimathea he prepared Jesus' body for burial and placed him in the tomb.

An appendix to the Nicodemus Gospel contains "The Acts of Pilate" or "The Gospel of Pilate", compiled over many years and probably completed towards the middle of the 4th century. The source text for this is found in the Greek "Acts" of Peter and Paul. It includes a fictional "Report of Pilate to the Emperor Claudius", probably written in the late 2nd century, but not pseudepigraphical despite the title; which is to say that its author does not claim to be Pilate, though he does claim to have sourced his report in the official archives in the Praetorium at Yeru-Shala'im, and that he was merely translating, or paraphrasing, a "Hebrew" original set down by Nicodemus for the attention of the Emperor Tiberius - I have placed "Hebrew" in quotation marks, because I can't imagine that Nicodemus would have written to Tiberius other than in Greek or Latin.

The main text of the "Acta Pilati" is in two sections, with an appendix, "Descensus ad Infernos" - "the Harrowing of Hell" - that does not exist in the Greek texts, but is a later addition to the Latin versions.

Chapters 1-9 recount the trial of Jesus, more or less as told in Luke 23.

Chapters 12-16 focus on the Resurrection, with Leucius and Charinus, the two souls raised from the dead after the Crucifixion, informing the Sanhedrin of the circumstances of Christ's descent into the Underworld (the two will be merged as one from about the 9th century, and feature many a legend of their own from that time on - click here and here).

♰

A second appendix recounts "The Cure of Tiberius", the oldest known form of the Veronica legend: moved by the sight of Jesus carrying his Cross, Veronica gave him her veil to wipe his face and, when it was returned, an image of his face was visible on it; much like that other famous hoax "The Turin Shroud", the veil was now imbued with magical properties, and "The Acts of Pilate" inform us that this veil was later used to cure the Emperor Tiberius of an unnamed malady.

♰

The Nicodemus Gospel had a considerable impact amongst the hoi poloi of medieval Christendom, mostly because its account of the Crucifixion laid all blame fairly and squarely on the conscience of the Jews, and in an overtly anti-Semitic manner, and therefore provided an alibi, if one was even needed, for yet another round of anti-Jewish persecutions, pogroms and expulsions.

Almost certainly "The Nicodemus Gospel" was written very late; Eusebius of Caesarea in the mid-4th century fails to mention it, though he does mention some "Letters of Pilate" that he has himself read about in Justin and Tertullian, and what he calls "an anti-Christian text" named "The Acts of Pilate", which was required reading in schools under the emperor Maximinus when Christianity in Rome was going the way of the Moslem Brotherhood in late Mubarak Egypt.

Epiphanius, the great cataloguer of heresies, refers to the "Acta Pilati" but not to "The Nicodemus Gospel", again infering that it was not yet written, or at least not yet widely known.

A complete text of "The Nicodemus Gospel", in English translation, can be found here, or here. The second link regards the "Acta Pilati" as simply an alternate name for "The Nicodemus Gospel", and the two texts therefore as one and the same.

Copyright © 2020 David Prashker

All rights reserved

The Argaman Press