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The historian already mentioned agrees with the evangelist in regard to
the fact that Archelaus succeeded to the government after Herod. He
records the manner in which he received the kingdom of the Jews by the
will of his father Herod and by the decree of Caesar Augustus, and
how, after he had reigned ten years, he lost his kingdom, and his
brothers Philip and Herod the younger, with Lysanias, still ruled
their own tetrarchies. The same writer, in the eighteenth book of his
Antiquities, says that about the twelfth year of the reign of
Tiberius, who had succeeded to the empire after Augustus had ruled
fifty-seven years, Pontius Pilate was entrusted with the government
of Judea, and that he remained there ten full years, almost until the
death of Tiberius.
Accordingly the forgery of those who have recently given currency to
acts against our Saviour is clearly proved. For the very date given
in them shows the falsehood of their fabricators.
For the things which they have dared to say concerning the passion of
the Saviour are put into the fourth consulship of Tiberius, which
occurred in the seventh year of his reign; at which time it is plain
that Pilate was not yet ruling in Judea, if the testimony of
Josephus is to be believed, who clearly shows in the above-mentioned
work that Pilate was made procurator of Judea by Tiberius in the
twelfth year of his reign.
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