The Dream

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!