Pilate's Report to Tiberius

When our Savior’s wonderful resurrection and ascension into heaven had become widely known, there was an old custom among the governors of the provinces that they report to the holder of imperial power whatever new thing happened among them, so that nothing that took place would escape him. So Pilate told the emperor Tiberius what was now being spread abroad to everyone throughout Palestine about the resurrection of our Savior Jesus from the dead. [a] He had also learned of his other wonders, and that after his death he had risen from the dead and was now believed by many to be a god. They say that Tiberius referred the matter to the Senate, and that the Senate rejected the proposal. The stated reason was that it had not approved the matter first, since an old law held that no one could be made a god among the Romans except by vote and decree of the Senate. The real reason was that the saving teaching of the divine message needed no verdict or recommendation from men. So although the Roman Senate rejected the proposal reported to it concerning our Savior, Tiberius kept the opinion he had held before and devised no harm against the teaching of Christ. [b]

These things are recorded by Tertullian, a man who had made an exact study of Roman law, famous in other respects as well, and one of the most distinguished men at Rome. In his defense of the Christians, which he wrote in Latin and which has been translated into Greek, he tells it word for word in this way: [c] “So that we may also discuss such laws from their origin: there was an ancient decree that no god could be consecrated by an emperor until the Senate had approved it. Marcus Aemilius did this in the case of a certain idol, Alburnus. And this too works in favor of our argument, that among you divinity is granted by human approval. If a god does not please a man, he does not become a god. So, by this custom at least, man has to be gracious to god. [d] Tiberius, then, in whose time the name of the Christians came into the world, when this teaching was reported to him from Palestine, where it first began, laid it before the Senate and made it clear to them that he was pleased with the teaching. But the Senate rejected it, since it had not approved it itself. Tiberius held to his own judgment and threatened death to the accusers of the Christians.” Heavenly providence had arranged to put this into his mind, so that the word of the good news, unhindered at its beginning, might run through the whole earth. [e]