Acts of Pilate - Dating and Readership

Dating and Readership

The Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (writing c. 325), shows no acquaintance with this work, although he was aware of "Letters of Pilate" referred to by Justin and Tertullian. He was also aware of an anti-Christian text called Acts of Pilate, which was prescribed for reading in schools under the emperor Maximinus during the Diocletianic Persecution. "We are forced to admit that is of later origin, and scholars agree in assigning it to the middle of the fourth century." Epiphanius refers to an Acta Pilati (c. 376), but the extant Greek texts show evidence of later editing.

Though the Acta Pilati purports to be a report by Pontius Pilate containing evidence of Jesus Christ's messiahship and godhead, there is no record in early Christian lore of Pilate's conversion to Christianity. It seems unlikely that the work was ever meant to have been taken seriously by Christians; instead, its purpose was to offer further conjectural details about the life of Christ as a pious entertainment, part of a larger body of Pilate literature.

Justin the Martyr wrote, "And that these things did happen, you can ascertain from the Acts of Pontius Pilate." The Apology letters were written and addressed by name to the Roman Emperor Pius and the Roman Governor Urbicus. All three of these men lived between 138–161 AD.

The Acta Pilati have had a long history inspiring devotional works. A Meditatione sopra la Passione del nostro signore iesu christo, drawing in part on Acta Pilati for its expanded anecdotal elements in the Passion, was printed twenty-eight times in Italy between about 1476 and 1500, and inspired the depiction of Christ before Pilate by Pontormo.