Letter of Pilate to Tiberius A supposed report from Pilate to the emperor Tiberius excusing his own involvement and blaming the trial and death of Jesus on the will of the Jews. This text is extant only in a Renaissance Latin text that cannot be traced earlier than the sixteenth century (Elliott, Apocryphal, 206; James, Apocryphal, 153). This work was never widely authoritative in the early church period, nor could it have been based on its late date.

Some form of a report of Pilate to Tiberius was likely developed very early (likely the Letter of Pilate to Claudius), and is probably the basis for this version of the noncanonical tradition. Eusebius—and earlier Tertullian (Apology 21)—may acknowledge a report of Pilate to the emperor, affirming that Tiberius blamed the Jews and not Pilate for the death of Jesus (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 2.2; see Lipsius, “Gospels Apocryphal,” 708). Thus, the Letter of Pilate to Tiberius was likely written as a correction to the Letter of Pilate to Claudius, which was misdirected “to Claudius” (Klauck, Apocryphal, 97). The Letter of Pilate to Tiberius Caesar is often classified within the Pilate Cycle, a subset of the apocryphal passion gospels. The Pilate Cycle also includes a supposed response to Pilate from the emperor in a Letter of Tiberius to Pilate.