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Comment by dpeck | Hacker News Reader

| the defiant antihero of the Easter story

That feels like quite a stretch. Pilate is an important figure in the story, but antihero? He largely is the state actor “just trying to keep the peace” and giving in to the religious leaders to make that happen.

Seems more like a real politik type of character of his day than anything to my memory. Keep the tax revenue flowing, don’t require more legions to be brought in, keep your governorship.

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I've always found it interesting that the Nicene Creed, which is recited by millions of Catholics around the globe every Sunday, mentions only three people: Jesus, Mary, and Pontius Pilate.

Adherents of the Nicene Creed also consider God the Father and the Holy Spirit to be people as well.

I don't think God the Father and the Holy Spirit are considered "people" though they are considered "persons". "People" seems to imply "human beings" to me, and only God the Son is considered to have been a human being by most Christians (as Jesus, of course).

They're not considered humans, no, but they're considered to have distinct identities, personalities, etc. Figuring out whether all that counts as personhood might be splitting hairs.

As far as the Nicene Creed goes, adherents believe five persons (unique agents) are mentioned, and it's not especially long, so I'm not sure there's much to read into the Pilate reference. It could be in there to imply historicity.

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