There have been many attempts to reconstruct the char- acter
of Pilate. There was the simple mediaeval view, of which the name of Mount Pilatus stands as a permanent witness. There have been the more subtle modern delineations of Anatole France, cynical and forgetful, and of Mr. Masefield, dignified and tragic. But no one has ever attempted to set him in the surroundings of his procuratorship with so sure an historical sense as has Mr. Crozier in his Letters of Pontius Pilate (Jonathan Cape, 5s.). Mr. Crozier has discovered an excel- lent style for his story, familiar but dignified, bearing marks of taste and knowledge throughout. It will be invaluable to the ordinary reader who wishes to know something of the
background of, Gospels. The book is cast into, the form book
of letters written by Pilate to his friend Seneca in Rome. They begin on the voyage to Judea and they end with the narrative of the trial and crucifixion of Christ. The various pictures of the Jews as they appeared from the Roman stand- point, contemptible, but baffling and dangerous on account of their fanaticism, are very telling, and the different strands of thought and feeling amongst them are well brought out, as in Anatole France's famous Procurateur de la Jude e.- Interest naturally centres in the descriptions of our Lord, as they reach Pilate from his wife, who is made to witness the feeding of the five thousand, and from his Jewish secretary, Alexander, who cannot altogether resist the magic of His utterances, Whether Mr. Crozier is right in supposing that Pilate all the time intended to get Jesus out of the way as one likely to disturb the peace is one of those points on which opinions will differ. But there is great verisimilitude in the account of the trials.
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