A Girardian take on the dream of Pilate’s wife in Matthew 27:19.
As noted in an earlier post, 27:17-21 is a chiasm, with the dream at the center. Verse 18 corresponds with verse 20, since both are about the chief priests and elders. But there is also a deeper link: verse 18 says that Pilate discerns that the leaders are motivated by envy, and verse 20 says that they persuade the crowd to demand Jesus’ blood. Classic Girard: The envy of the leaders proliferates through the crowd, and the mimetic envy provokes the demand for a scapegoat to save the people.
What is the dream for?
The dream is the Girardian revelation, namely, the revelation of the innocence of the scapegoat. ”That righteous man” is how Pilate’s wife describes Jesus. She recognizes that there is some kind of dangerous charge attacked to Him. She doesn’t urge her husband to exonerate Jesus, but to stay away: Any decision is dangerous because Jesus simply is dangerous.
There is no way Pilate or the Jewish leaders or the crowd can gain this insight into Jesus’ innocence. They are at that moment caught up in the Girardian frenzy, which demands unanimity about the scapegoat’s guilt. Even Jesus should agree. He doesn’t, and from heaven, from outside the system, Pilate’s wife receives the great good news that this scapegoat is innocent, and so her dream begins to undo the whole mechanism.
No wonder later centuries decided that Pilate’s wife was a saint!
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
