I Have Left Out The Capital Letters On Purpose.

Had a brainstorm yesterday and decided on the back of my back being up because of the assertion by a certain favourite newspaper of middle england that the BBC were attempting to bring Pilate and Judas in from the cold with their new version of The Passion, that I really should get around to reading that biography of Pilate. Luckily, there it was on the web version of the library catalogue and now here it is in my hot little hands. Now it opens with a joke about a Russian obsessed with Pilate - well a sort of a joke - and goes on to openly admit that there is not actually much you can write about Pilate as little is known for sure outside his time as Governor of Judea apart from the fact that he was born in Newcastle as the result of a union between a Roman official and a local girl - it's all in the book - though it doesn't actually say that it is true. However I do know that long before the BBC started their own attempt at rehabilitation, there have been all sorts of various suggestions about how he behaved. I came out with a long and tortuous analysis but was pipped to the denouement by a colleague breaking a third of the no Politics/Money/Religion-at-work rule with this little gem of succinctness :-

You're at the front of a baying crown of hundreds if not
thousands. The small, beaten, disheveled bloke to your right looks nothing more
than a helpless tramp. The crowd are screaming for you to have him killed
telling you if you don't your bosses will probably do the same to you. But you
say "No ! he's done nothing wrong. Piss off and leave him alone !" Yes Right !
Me too !

And then to finish off, the same colleague pointed out that had Jesus not died, he would probably have returned to Nazareth as just another minor teacher and preacher and there would have been a long wait for the next one. Here we have a strange loop - one's entire religion is based around the death and the image of the death of one man and yet you rile against the various people who brought it about. Can't have it both ways. That Pilate should have let him off - that would-a showed 'em. Judas is of course another matter though Christianity was apparently neutral on suicide for some years until the priests with too much time on their hands found a spot in their busy schedules to break off from all those dancing angels and turn their eye on human misery. As some analysis says, the death of Jesus himself could be seen as self-inflicted anyway.

And finally the same newspaper seems to have a problem with the writers attempt at historical accuracy which shows Jesus crucified in a foetal position rather than the "Cherished" Image of generations. As my friend of moderate religiosity says - the idea is to get across the misery, the pain of the death, not to read something into the standard arms outstreched image - one which sails dangerously close to being a Graven Image anyway.

Got the John Humphreys' book - Confessions Of A Failed Atheist as well. Not quite a rabid as Dawkins - much more homely in style. Now is he right in his assertion that the Urine of teetotal Methodists was worth double that of a drinker when used as a Mordant for dyeing? I seem to remember that the urine of certain drinkers was actually worth more or is that the urine used to make gunpowder? Not sure I really should be seraching on Google for this.