Pontius Pilate

[Ursus]

I'm not quite the expert on early Christianity, but my understanding is that Christianity was an essentially Jewish phenomenon until the Flavian destruction of the Temple; with the destruction of the temple the earliest sect of Christianity largely died out, and therefore Hellenized Jews were forced to look to Gentiles for coverts, making it a new religion in the process. It was therefore very unlikely that Pilate would have been a Christian, as Christianity in his time was nothing more than a heretical sect of Judaism rather than a new religion in its own right to which Gentiles would have converted.

[spittle]

I have vague memories of a documentary series called Bamber Gasgoin's 'The Christians' were he discussed how the first real disagreement amongst the early Christians was whether it would be just for Jews or for Gentiles to adopt also.

 

I seem to recall that this disagreement was amongst converts with actual memories of the Apostles, so extremely early in the history of organised Christianity.

[Klingan]

I have vague memories of a documentary series called Bamber Gasgoin's 'The Christians' were he discussed how the first real disagreement amongst the early Christians was whether it would be just for Jews or for Gentiles to adopt also.

 

I seem to recall that this disagreement was amongst converts with actual memories of the Apostles, so extremely early in the history of organised Christianity.

 

I believe it was more a question about how non Jewish Christians should or should not adopt all the very strict rules of the Jews, even if it from the beginning was an exclusively Jewish sect no doubt.

[Marcus Caelius]

I always wondered if that legend was true about Pilate's christianity, but we will never know.

 

We might never know for sure, but I think we can say with a great deal of certitude that it never happened. In the popular Roman mind, Christians were a sect of what we, today, would call demon worshippers that practised all sorts of vile rituals. It would be as if the judge who sentenced Charles Manson later on became a member of Manson's "family" and participated in the assassination attempt on Gerald Ford (this assumes I'm not the only one here old enough to remember).

[M. Demetrius]

I always wondered if that legend was true about Pilate's christianity, but we will never know.

 

We might never know for sure, but I think we can say with a great deal of certitude that it never happened. In the popular Roman mind, Christians were a sect of what we, today, would call demon worshippers that practised all sorts of vile rituals. It would be as if the judge who sentenced Charles Manson later on became a member of Manson's "family" and participated in the assassination attempt on Gerald Ford (this assumes I'm not the only one here old enough to remember).

 

Truly, as there hasn't been a document to say one way or another, we can only guess, or decide for ourselves by whatever means or best guesses seem reasonable. It's recorded that there was at least one Roman centurion who became a Christian, sometime around 33-35AD or so. What that might have implied for the other soldiers in his command is probably a moot point. Within a few years, when Saul of Tarsus arrived in Rome, there were more conversions, but not necessarily among the soldiers.

 

It largely depends upon whether one believes in the God of Christianity or not. If one does, one might be more inclined to believe there were many conversions; if one does not, one will likely be predisposed not to believe there were.