Gday all,
Thanks for replies, sorry for delay - I've been busy moving house :-)
Here's what sparked this off for me :
I've taken part in many debates about the historicity of Jesus (as Kapyong and Iasion.)
Many believers react negatively to the claim that Jesus did not exist, and one of the reactions I have seen quite a few times goes like this :
"Well, you sceptics said Pilate didn't exist - right up until when the Pilate inscription was found, showing you were wrong - so there !"(unspoken: so, being wrong about Pilate's non-existence, you are also wrong about Jesus' non-existence.)
Well, being interested in people who didn't apparently exist, I couldn't seem to remember anyone arguing Pilate was non-historical. So I searched through my sources (I have my library on disk so I can search for key-words) for "Pilate" and found many references.
But strangely enough - NOT ONE single writer, ancient or modern, ever claimed Pilate didn't exist. Nor was there ANY discussion or argument about anyone who ever did so (*)
I think the conclusion is clear :
The finding of the inscription in 1961 sparked off a rumour - trumpeting the new fact that Pilate's existence was finally "proved", some person went over-the-top and claimed this showed sceptical disbelief about Pilate to be wrong. When no-one ever doubted it in the first place.
Kapyong
(*) Actually, I recall a poster told me there was someone, a recent Russian writer IIRC, who did make some comment about Pilate's name's meaning, and this was mis-translated implying Pilate may not have existed. I seem to have lost my notes on that issue, dang it. I'll check that one.
Edited by Kapyong, : Minor fixes