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JEAN-PIERRE LÉMONON, Ponce Pilate (Ivry-sur-Seine: L'Atelier, 2007). Pp. 301. Paper euro23.
This attractively produced study originally appeared in 1981 under the title Pilate et le gouvernement de la Judée: Textes et monuments (Paris: Gabalda) and was generally well received (e.g., see the review by David Rhoads in CBQ 45 [1983] 694-95). The author, now emeritus professor at the Catholic University of Lyon, is virtually synonymous with the study of the "historical" Pilate. This edition, besides containing many stylistic changes that make it more user-friendly to a broader audience (e.g., endnotes instead of footnotes, simple charts, the absence of untranslated Greek texts, improved maps and illustrations, an improved font), has allowed Lémonon to update his material and interact with publications that have appeared since 1981. In addition to the expanded bibliography, L. has added a convenient appendix of four charts listing the Roman emperors, governors of Judea, high priests, and Herodian rulers pertinent to the NT period.
So what has changed in the text? As the author admits in his foreword, only the first and last chapters of the book have been substantively changed to reflect both the recent interest in the so-called Pilate inscription from Caesarea and the number of significant historical studies...