Volume 47, Number 14 · September 21, 2000
The Invented Man
By Jasper Griffin
Pontius Pilate
by Ann Wroe
Random House, 412 pp., $26.95
Nature, we know, abhors a vacuum. That is a general truth about the nonhuman world. But human nature abhors it at least as much; and, like inanimate nature, it has its own ways of filling it up. It is a sad fact, for instance, that our historical sources are niggardly with information about many interesting people, involved in important events, about whom we want to know much, much more. Ann Wroe has an excellent subject in Pontius Pilatus, the Prefect of Judaea, under whom Jesus Christ was sentenced to the death of a criminal: Pontius Pilate, a name to live in infamy, but a man about whom we are sorely short of reliable biographical information.
Review, 3667 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |