What do we learn about Pilate before Yeshua appears? Conversation between Yeshua and Pontius Pilate

"The Master and Margarita Chapter 02. Pontius Pilate"

In a white cloak with a bloody lining and a shuffling cavalry gait, early in the morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, came out into the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great.

More than anything else, the procurator hated the smell of rose oil, and everything now foreshadowed a bad day, since this smell began to haunt the procurator from dawn. It seemed to the procurator that the cypresses and palm trees in the garden emitted a pink smell, that a cursed pink stream was mixed with the smell of leather and the convoy. From the wings in the rear of the palace, where the first cohort of the twelfth lightning legion, which had arrived with the procurator in Yershalaim, was stationed, smoke drifted into the colonnade through the upper platform of the garden, and the same greasy smoke was mixed with the bitter smoke, which indicated that the cooks in the centuries had begun to prepare dinner. pink spirit. Oh gods, gods, why are you punishing me?

“Yes, there is no doubt! It’s her, she again, the invincible, terrible disease of hemicrania, in which half of the head hurts. There is no remedy for it, there is no salvation. I’ll try not to move my head.”

A chair had already been prepared on the mosaic floor by the fountain, and the procurator, without looking at anyone, sat down in it and extended his hand to the side.

The secretary respectfully placed a piece of parchment into this hand. Unable to resist a painful grimace, the procurator glanced sideways at what was written, returned the parchment to the secretary and said with difficulty:

A suspect from Galilee? Did they send the matter to the tetrarch?

Yes, procurator,” the secretary answered.

What is he?

He refused to give an opinion on the case and sent the death sentence to the Sanhedrin for your approval,” the secretary explained.

The procurator twitched his cheek and said quietly:

Bring the accused.

And immediately, from the garden platform under the columns to the balcony, two legionnaires brought in a man of about twenty-seven and placed him in front of the procurator’s chair. This man was dressed in an old and torn blue chiton. His head was covered with a white bandage with a strap around his forehead, and his hands were tied behind his back. The man had a large bruise under his left eye and an abrasion with dried blood in the corner of his mouth. The man brought in looked at the procurator with anxious curiosity.

He paused, then quietly asked in Aramaic:

So it was you who persuaded the people to destroy the Yershalaim Temple?

At the same time, the procurator sat as if made of stone, and only his lips moved slightly when pronouncing the words. The procurator was like a stone, because he was afraid to shake his head, blazing with hellish pain.

Man with hands tied He leaned forward a little and began to speak:

A kind person! Trust me...

But the procurator, still not moving and not raising his voice at all, immediately interrupted him:

Are you calling me a good person? You're wrong. In Yershalaim, everyone whispers about me that I am a ferocious monster, and this is absolutely true,” and he added just as monotonously: “Centurion Rat-Slayer to me.”

It seemed to everyone that it had darkened on the balcony when the centurion, commander of the special centurion, Mark, nicknamed the Rat Slayer, appeared before the procurator.

Rat Slayer was a head taller than the tallest soldier in the legion and so broad in the shoulders that he completely blocked out the still low sun.

The procurator addressed the centurion in Latin:

The criminal calls me "a good man." Take him out of here for a minute, explain to him how to talk to me. But don't maim.

And everyone, except the motionless procurator, followed Mark the Ratboy, who waved his hand to the arrested man, indicating that he should follow him.

In general, everyone followed the rat-slayer with their eyes, wherever he appeared, because of his height, and those who saw him for the first time, because of the fact that the centurion’s face was disfigured: his nose had once been broken by a blow from a German club.

Mark's heavy boots tapped on the mosaic, the bound man followed him silently, complete silence fell in the colonnade, and one could hear pigeons cooing in the garden area near the balcony, and the water sang an intricate, pleasant song in the fountain.

The procurator wanted to get up, put his temple under the stream and freeze like that. But he knew that this would not help him either.

Taking the arrested man out from under the columns into the garden. The Ratcatcher took a whip from the hands of the legionnaire standing at the foot of the bronze statue and, swinging slightly, hit the arrested man on the shoulders. The centurion's movement was careless and easy, but the bound one instantly fell to the ground, as if his legs had been cut off, choked on air, the color ran away from his face and his eyes became meaningless. Mark, with one left hand, easily, like an empty sack, lifted the fallen man into the air, put him on his feet and spoke nasally, poorly pronouncing Aramaic words:

To call a Roman procurator hegemon. No other words to say. Stand still. Do you understand me or should I hit you?

The arrested man staggered, but controlled himself, the color returned, he took a breath and answered hoarsely:

I understood you. Do not hit me.

A minute later he again stood in front of the procurator.

My? - the arrested person hastily responded, expressing with all his being his readiness to answer sensibly and not cause further anger.

The procurator said quietly:

Mine - I know. Don't pretend to be more stupid than you are. Your.

Yeshua,” the prisoner hastily answered.

Do you have a nickname?

Ga-Nozri.

Where you're from?

From the city of Gamala,” the prisoner answered, indicating with his head that there, somewhere far away, to the right of him, in the north, there was the city of Gamala.

Who are you by blood?

“I don’t know for sure,” the arrested man answered briskly, “I don’t remember my parents.” They told me that my father was Syrian...

Where do you live permanently?

“I don’t have a permanent home,” the prisoner answered shyly, “I travel from city to city.”

This can be expressed briefly, in one word - a tramp,” said the procurator and asked: “Do you have any relatives?”

There is no one. I'm alone in the world.

Do you know how to read and write?

Do you know any language other than Aramaic?

I know. Greek.

The swollen eyelid lifted, the eye, covered with a haze of suffering, stared at the arrested man. The other eye remained closed.

Pilate spoke in Greek:

So you were going to destroy the temple building and called the people to do it?

Here the prisoner perked up again, his eyes stopped expressing fear, and he spoke in Greek:

I, dear... - here horror flashed in the eyes of the prisoner because he almost misspoke, - I, the hegemon, never in my life intended to destroy the temple building and did not persuade anyone to do this senseless action.

Surprise was expressed on the face of the secretary, hunched over the low table and recording the testimony. He raised his head, but immediately bowed it again to the parchment.

Many different people flock to this city for the holiday. There are magicians, astrologers, soothsayers and murderers among them,” the procurator said monotonously, “and there are also liars.” For example, you are a liar. It is clearly written down: he persuaded to destroy the temple. This is what people testify.

These good people,” the prisoner spoke and hastily added: “hegemon,” continued: “they didn’t learn anything and they all confused what I said.” I'm actually starting to fear that this confusion will continue for a very long time. for a long time. And all because he writes me down incorrectly.

There was silence. Now both sick eyes looked heavily at the prisoner.

“I repeat to you, but for the last time: stop pretending to be crazy, robber,” Pilate said softly and monotonously, “there is not much recorded against you, but what is written down is enough to hang you.”

“No, no, the hegemon,” the arrested man spoke, straining himself in the desire to convince, “he walks and walks alone with a goat’s parchment and writes continuously. But one day I looked into this parchment and was horrified. I said absolutely nothing of what was written there. I begged him: burn your parchment for God’s sake! But he snatched it from my hands and ran away.

Who it? - Pilate asked disgustedly and touched his temple with his hand.

Levi Matthew,” the prisoner readily explained, “he was a tax collector, and I met him for the first time on the road in Bethphage, where the fig garden overlooks the corner, and I got into conversation with him. Initially, he treated me with hostility and even insulted me, that is, he thought that he was insulting me by calling me a dog,” here the prisoner grinned, “I personally don’t see anything bad in this beast to be offended by this word...

The secretary stopped taking notes and secretly cast a surprised glance, not at the arrested person, but at the procurator.

However, after listening to me, he began to soften, - Yeshua continued, - finally threw money on the road and said that he would travel with me...

Pilate grinned with one cheek, baring his yellow teeth, and said, turning his whole body to the secretary:

Oh, the city of Yershalaim! There's just so much you can't hear in it. The tax collector, you hear, threw money on the road!

Not knowing how to respond to this, the secretary considered it necessary to repeat Pilate’s smile.

Still grinning, the procurator looked at the arrested man, then at the sun, steadily rising above the equestrian statues of the hippodrome, which lay far below to the right, and suddenly, in some kind of sickening torment, he thought that the easiest thing would be to expel this strange robber from the balcony, saying only two words: “Hang him.” Expel the convoy too, leave the colonnade inside the palace, order the room to be darkened, collapse on the bed, demand cold water, in a plaintive voice, call the dog Bang, complain to her about hemicrania. And the thought of poison suddenly flashed seductively in the procurator’s sick head.

He looked with dull eyes at the prisoner and was silent for some time, painfully remembering why in the morning merciless Yershalaim sun a prisoner with a face disfigured by beatings was standing in front of him, and what unnecessary questions he would have to ask.

Yes, Levi Matvey,” a high, tormenting voice came to him.

But what did you say about the temple to the crowd at the market?

I, the hegemon, said that the temple of the old faith would collapse and a new temple of truth would be created. I said it this way to make it clearer.

Why did you, tramp, confuse people at the market by talking about the truth, about which you have no idea? What is truth?

And then the procurator thought: “Oh, my gods! I’m asking him about something unnecessary at the trial... My mind no longer serves me...” And again he imagined a bowl with a dark liquid. "I'll poison you, I'll poison you!"

The truth, first of all, is that you have a headache, and it hurts so much that you are cowardly thinking about death. Not only are you unable to speak to me, but it is difficult for you to even look at me. And now I am unwittingly your executioner, which saddens me. You can’t even think about anything and dream only that your dog, apparently the only creature to which you are attached, will come. But your torment will now end, your headache will go away.

The secretary stared at the prisoner and did not finish the words.

Pilate raised his martyred eyes to the prisoner and saw that the sun was already standing quite high above the hippodrome, that the ray had made its way into the colonnade and was creeping towards Yeshua’s worn sandals, that he was avoiding the sun.

Here the procurator rose from his chair, clasped his head in his hands, and horror was expressed on his yellowish, shaved face. But he immediately suppressed it with his will and sank back into the chair.

Meanwhile, the prisoner continued his speech, but the secretary did not write down anything else, but only, stretching his neck like a goose, tried not to utter a single word.

Well, it’s all over,” said the arrested man, looking benevolently at Pilate, “and I’m extremely happy about it.” I would advise you, hegemon, to leave the palace for a while and take a walk somewhere in the surrounding area, or at least in the gardens on the Mount of Olives. The thunderstorm will begin,” the prisoner turned and squinted into the sun, “later, in the evening.” A walk would be of great benefit to you, and I would be happy to accompany you. Some new thoughts have occurred to me that might, I think, seem interesting to you, and I would be happy to share them with you, especially since you seem very smart person.

The secretary turned deathly pale and dropped the scroll to the floor.

The trouble is,” continued the bound man, unstoppable by anyone, “that you are too closed and have completely lost faith in people. You can’t, you see, put all your affection into a dog. Your life is meager, hegemon,” and here the speaker allowed himself to smile.

The secretary was now thinking about only one thing: whether to believe his ears or not. I had to believe. Then he tried to imagine exactly what bizarre form the anger of the hot-tempered procurator would take at this unheard-of insolence of the arrested person. And the secretary could not imagine this, although he knew the procurator well.

Untie his hands.

One of the escort legionnaires struck his spear, handed it to another, walked up and removed the ropes from the prisoner. The secretary picked up the scroll and decided not to write anything down and not be surprised by anything for now.

“Confess,” Pilate asked quietly in Greek, “are you a great doctor?”

No, procurator, I’m not a doctor,” answered the prisoner, rubbing his crumpled and swollen purple hand with pleasure.

Cool, from under his brows Pilate gazed at the prisoner, and in these eyes there was no longer any dullness, familiar sparks appeared in them.

“I didn’t ask you,” said Pilate, “perhaps you know Latin?”

Yes, I know,” answered the prisoner.

Color appeared on Pilate's yellowish cheeks, and he asked in Latin:

How did you know that I wanted to call the dog?

“It’s very simple,” the prisoner answered in Latin, “you moved your hand through the air,” the prisoner repeated Pilate’s gesture, “as if you wanted to stroke it, and your lips...

Yes, said Pilate.

There was silence, then Pilate asked a question in Greek:

So, are you a doctor?

No, no,” the prisoner answered briskly, “believe me, I’m not a doctor.”

OK then. If you want to keep it a secret, keep it. This is not directly related to the matter. So you're saying that you didn't call for the temple to be destroyed... or set on fire, or in any other way destroyed?

I, the hegemon, did not call anyone to such actions, I repeat. Do I look like a retard?

“Oh yes, you don’t look like a weak-minded person,” the procurator answered quietly and smiled with some kind of terrible smile, “so swear that this didn’t happen.”

What do you want me to swear to? - asked, very animated, untied.

Well, at least with your life,” answered the procurator, “it’s time to swear by it, since it hangs by a thread, know this!”

Don't you think you've hung her up, hegemon? - asked the prisoner, - if this is so, you are very mistaken.

Pilate shuddered and answered through clenched teeth:

I can cut this hair.

And in this you are mistaken,” the prisoner objected, smiling brightly and shielding himself from the sun with his hand, “Do you agree that only the one who hung it can probably cut the hair?”

“So, so,” Pilate said, smiling, “now I have no doubt that the idle onlookers in Yershalaim followed on your heels.” I don’t know who hung your tongue, but it’s hung well. By the way, tell me: is it true that you appeared in Yershalaim through the Susa Gate riding on a donkey, accompanied by a crowd of rabble who shouted greetings to you as if to some prophet? - here the procurator pointed to a scroll of parchment.

The prisoner looked at the procurator in bewilderment.

“I don’t even have a donkey, hegemon,” he said. “I came to Yershalaim exactly through the Susa Gate, but on foot, accompanied by Levi Matvey alone, and no one shouted anything to me, since no one knew me in Yershalaim then.

“Don’t you know such people,” Pilate continued, without taking his eyes off the prisoner, “a certain Dismas, another Gestas and a third Bar-Rabban?”

“I don’t know these good people,” the prisoner answered.

Now tell me, why do you always use the words “good people”? Is that what you call everyone?

“Everyone,” answered the prisoner, “ evil people not in the world.

This is the first time I’ve heard about this,” Pilate said, grinning, “but maybe I don’t know life much!” You don’t have to write down any further,” he turned to the secretary, although he didn’t write anything down anyway, and continued to say to the prisoner: “Did you read about this in any of the Greek books?”

No, I came to this with my own mind.

And you preach this?

But, for example, the centurion Mark, they called him the Rat Slayer - is he kind?

Yes,” answered the prisoner, “he is, indeed, an unhappy man.” Since good people mutilated him, he has become cruel and callous. It would be interesting to know who crippled him.

“I can readily report this,” Pilate responded, “for I witnessed this.” Good people rushed at him like dogs at a bear. The Germans grabbed his neck, arms, and legs. The infantry maniple fell into the bag, and if the cavalry tour had not cut in from the flank, and I commanded it, you, philosopher, would not have had to talk to the Rat-Slayer. This was in the battle of Idistavizo, in the Valley of the Maidens.

If I could talk to him,” the prisoner suddenly said dreamily, “I’m sure he would change dramatically.”

“I believe,” Pilate responded, “that you would bring little joy to the legate of the legion if you decided to talk to any of his officers or soldiers.” However, this will not happen, fortunately for everyone, and I will be the first to take care of this.

At this time, a swallow quickly flew into the colonnade, made a circle under the golden ceiling, descended, almost touched the face of the copper statue in the niche with its sharp wing and disappeared behind the capital of the column. Perhaps the idea came to her to build a nest there.

During her flight, a formula developed in the now bright and light head of the procurator. It was like this: the hegemon looked into the case of the wandering philosopher Yeshua, nicknamed Ga-Notsri, and did not find any corpus delicti in it. In particular, I did not find the slightest connection between the actions of Yeshua and the unrest that occurred in Yershalaim recently. The wandering philosopher turned out to be mentally ill. As a result, the procurator does not approve the death sentence of Ha-Nozri, passed by the Small Sanhedrin. But due to the fact that the crazy, utopian speeches of Ha-Notsri could be the cause of unrest in Yershalaim, the procurator removes Yeshua from Yershalaim and subjects him to imprisonment in Caesarea Stratonova on the Mediterranean Sea, that is, exactly where the procurator’s residence is.

All that remained was to dictate this to the secretary.

The swallow's wings snorted just above the hegemon's head, the bird darted towards the bowl of the fountain and flew out into freedom. The procurator looked up at the prisoner and saw that a column of dust had caught fire near him.

Everything about him? - Pilate asked the secretary.

No, unfortunately,” the secretary unexpectedly answered and handed Pilate another piece of parchment.

What else is there? - Pilate asked and frowned.

Having read what was submitted, his face changed even more. Whether the dark blood rushed to his neck and face or something else happened, but his skin lost its yellowness, turned brown, and his eyes seemed to have sunk.

Again, the culprit was probably the blood rushing to his temples and pounding through them, only something happened to the procurator’s vision. So, it seemed to him that the prisoner’s head floated away somewhere, and another one appeared in its place. On this bald head sat a thin-toothed golden crown; there was a round ulcer on the forehead, corroding the skin and covered with ointment; a sunken, toothless mouth with a drooping, capricious lower lip. It seemed to Pilate that the pink columns of the balcony and the roofs of Yershalaim in the distance, below the garden, disappeared, and everything around was drowned in the dense greenery of the Caprean gardens. And something strange happened to the hearing, as if in the distance trumpets were playing quietly and menacingly and a nasal voice was very clearly heard, arrogantly drawing the words: “The law on lese majeste...”

Thoughts rushed through, short, incoherent and extraordinary: “Dead!”, then: “Dead!..” And some completely ridiculous one among them about someone who must certainly be - and with whom?! - immortality, and for some reason immortality caused unbearable melancholy.

Pilate tensed, expelled the vision, returned his gaze to the balcony, and again the eyes of the prisoner appeared before him.

Listen, Ha-Nozri,” the procurator spoke, looking at Yeshua somehow strangely: the procurator’s face was menacing, but his eyes were anxious, “have you ever said anything about the great Caesar?” Answer! Did you say?.. Or... didn’t... say? - Pilate drew out the word “not” a little longer than is appropriate in court, and sent Yeshua in his gaze some thought that he seemed to want to instill in the prisoner.

It’s easy and pleasant to tell the truth,” the prisoner noted.

“I don’t need to know,” Pilate responded in a stifled, angry voice, “whether it’s pleasant or unpleasant for you to tell the truth.” But you'll have to say it. But when speaking, weigh every word if you do not want not only inevitable, but also painful death.

No one knows what happened to the procurator of Judea, but he allowed himself to raise his hand, as if shielding himself from a ray of sunlight, and behind this hand, as if behind a shield, he sent the prisoner some kind of suggestive glance.

So,” he said, “answer, do you know a certain Judas from Kiriath, and what exactly did you tell him, if anything, about Caesar?

It was like this,” the prisoner eagerly began to tell, “the day before yesterday in the evening I met a young man near the temple who called himself Judas from the city of Kiriath. He invited me to his house in the Lower City and treated me...

A kind person? - asked Pilate, and the devilish fire sparkled in his eyes.

“A very kind and inquisitive person,” the prisoner confirmed, “he expressed the greatest interest in my thoughts and received me very cordially...

He lit the lamps... - Pilate said through his teeth in the same tone as the prisoner, and his eyes flickered as he did so.

Yes,” Yeshua continued, a little surprised at the procurator’s knowledge, “he asked me to express my view of state power. He was extremely interested in this question.

And what did you say? - asked Pilate, - or will you answer that you forgot what you said? - but there was already hopelessness in Pilate’s tone.

Among other things, I said,” the prisoner said, “that all power is violence against people and that the time will come when there will be no power of either the Caesars or any other power. Man will move into the kingdom of truth and justice, where no power will be needed at all.

The secretary, trying not to utter a word, quickly scribbled words on the parchment.

There has not been, is not and will never be a greater and more beautiful power for people than the power of Emperor Tiberius! - Pilate’s torn and sick voice grew.

For some reason the procurator looked at the secretary and the convoy with hatred.

The convoy raised their spears and, rhythmically knocking their shod swords, walked out from the balcony into the garden, and the secretary followed the convoy.

The silence on the balcony was broken for some time only by the song of the water in the fountain. Pilate saw how the water plate swelled above the tube, how its edges broke off, how it fell in streams.

The prisoner spoke first:

I see that some kind of disaster is happening because I spoke with this young man from Kiriath. I, the hegemon, have a presentiment that misfortune will happen to him, and I feel very sorry for him.

“I think,” the procurator answered with a strange smile, “that there is someone else in the world whom you should feel sorry for more than Judas of Kiriath, and who will have to do much worse than Judas!” So, Mark the Ratboy, a cold and convinced executioner, people who, as I see,” the procurator pointed to the disfigured face of Yeshua, “beat you for your sermons, the robbers Dismas and Gestas, who killed four soldiers with their associates, and, finally, the dirty the traitor Judas - are they all good people?

Yes,” answered the prisoner.

And will the kingdom of truth come?

It will come, hegemon,” Yeshua answered with conviction.

It will never come! - Pilate suddenly shouted in such a terrible voice that Yeshua recoiled. So many years ago, in the Valley of the Virgins, Pilate shouted to his horsemen the words: “Cut them down! Cut them down! The Giant Rat Killer has been caught!” He even raised his voice, strained by commands, calling out the words so that they could be heard in the garden: “Criminal!” Criminal! Criminal!

Yeshua Ha-Nozri, do you believe in any gods?

There is only one God, answered Yeshua, and I believe in him.

So pray to him! Pray harder! However,” here Pilate’s voice sank, “this will not help.” No wife? - For some reason, Pilate asked sadly, not understanding what was happening to him.

No, I am alone.

“Hateful city,” the procurator suddenly muttered for some reason and shrugged his shoulders, as if he were cold, and rubbed his hands, as if washing them, “if you had been stabbed to death before your meeting with Judas of Kiriath, really, it would have been better.

“Would you let me go, hegemon,” the prisoner suddenly asked, and his voice became alarmed, “I see that they want to kill me.”

Pilate’s face was distorted with a spasm, he turned to Yeshua the inflamed, red-veined whites of his eyes and said:

Do you believe, unfortunate one, that the Roman procurator will release a man who said what you said? Oh gods, gods! Or do you think I'm ready to take your place? I don’t share your thoughts! And listen to me: if from now on you utter even one word, speak to anyone, beware of me! I repeat to you: beware.

Hegemon...

Be silent! - Pilate cried and with a wild gaze followed the swallow, which again fluttered onto the balcony. - To me! - Pilate shouted.

And when the secretary and the convoy returned to their places, Pilate announced that he approved the death sentence pronounced in the meeting of the Small Sanhedrin to the criminal Yeshua Ha-Nozri, and the secretary wrote down what Pilate said.

A minute later, Mark the Ratboy stood in front of the procurator. The procurator ordered him to hand over the criminal to the head of the secret service and at the same time convey to him the procurator’s order that Yeshua Ha-Nozri be separated from other convicts, and also that the secret service team be prohibited from doing anything under pain of grave punishment talk to Yeshua or answer any of his questions.

At a sign from Mark, a convoy closed around Yeshua and led him out of the balcony.

Then a slender, light-bearded handsome man with lion muzzles sparkling on his chest, with eagle feathers on the crest of his helmet, with gold plaques on the sword belt, in shoes laced to the knees with a triple sole, and in a scarlet cloak thrown over his left shoulder, appeared before the procurator. This was the legate commander of the legion. His procurator asked where the Sebastian cohort was now. The legate reported that the Sebastians were holding a cordon in the square in front of the hippodrome, where the verdict on the criminals would be announced to the people.

Then the procurator ordered the legate to select two centuries from the Roman cohort. One of them, under the command of Ratboy, will have to escort criminals, carts with execution equipment and executioners when departing for Bald Mountain, and upon arrival at it, enter the upper cordon. The other should be immediately sent to Bald Mountain and begin the cordon immediately. For the same purpose, that is, to protect the Mountain, the procurator asked the legate to send an auxiliary cavalry regiment - the Syrian alu.

When the legate left the balcony, the procurator ordered the secretary to invite the president of the Sanhedrin, two of his members and the head of the temple guard of Yershalaim to the palace, but added that he asked to arrange it so that before the meeting with all these people he could speak with the president earlier and in private.

The orders of the procurator were carried out quickly and accurately, and the sun, which was burning Yershalaim with some extraordinary fury these days, had not yet had time to approach its highest point when on the upper terrace of the garden, near two marble white lions guarding the stairs, the procurator and the acting duties of the President of the Sanhedrin High Priest Jewish Joseph Caiaphas.

It was quiet in the garden. But, emerging from under the colonnade onto the sun-filled upper square of the garden with palm trees on monstrous elephant legs, the square from which the whole of Yershalaim, which he hated, unfolded before the procurator with hanging bridges, fortresses and - most importantly - a block of marble with gold that defies any description dragon scales instead of a roof - the temple of Yershalaim - the procurator caught with his keen hearing far and below, where stone wall separated the lower terraces of the palace garden from the city square, a low grumbling, above which from time to time weak, thin moans or screams soared.

The procurator realized that a countless crowd of Yershalaim residents, agitated by the latest riots, had already gathered in the square, that this crowd was impatiently awaiting the verdict, and that restless water sellers were shouting in it.

The procurator began by inviting the high priest to the balcony in order to hide from the merciless heat, but Caiaphas politely apologized and explained that he could not do this. Pilate pulled his hood over his slightly balding head and began a conversation. This conversation was conducted in Greek.

Pilate said that he had examined the case of Yeshua Ha-Nozri and confirmed the death sentence.

Thus, three robbers are sentenced to death, which must be carried out today: Dismas, Gestas, Bar-Rabban and, in addition, this Yeshua Ha-Nozri. The first two, who decided to incite the people to revolt against Caesar, were taken in battle by the Roman authorities, are listed as the procurator, and, therefore, will not be discussed here. The latter, Var-Rabban and Ha-Notsri, were captured by the local authorities and condemned by the Sanhedrin. According to the law, according to custom, one of these two criminals will have to be released in honor of the great Easter holiday coming today.

So, the procurator wants to know which of the two criminals the Sanhedrin intends to release: Bar-Rabban or Ga-Nozri? Caiaphas bowed his head as a sign that the question was clear to him and answered:

The Sanhedrin asks to release Bar-Rabban.

The procurator knew well that this was exactly how the high priest would answer him, but his task was to show that such an answer caused him amazement.

Pilate did this with great skill. The eyebrows on his arrogant face rose, the procurator looked straight into the eyes of the high priest with amazement.

I admit, this answer surprised me,” the procurator spoke softly, “I’m afraid there’s a misunderstanding here.”

Pilate explained. The Roman government in no way encroaches on the rights of the spiritual local authorities, the high priest knows this well, but in in this case there is a clear mistake. And the Roman authorities are, of course, interested in correcting this mistake.

In fact: the crimes of Bar-Rabban and Ha-Nozri are completely incomparable in severity. If the second, clearly a crazy person, is guilty of uttering absurd speeches that confused the people in Yershalaim and some other places, then the first is burdened much more significantly. Not only did he allow himself to directly call for rebellion, but he also killed the guard while trying to take him. Var-Rabban is much more dangerous than Ha-Nozri.

In view of all of the above, the procurator asks the high priest to reconsider the decision and leave at liberty the one of the two convicts who is less harmful, and this, without a doubt, is Ha-Nozri. So?

Caiaphas looked Pilate straight in the eye and said in a quiet but firm voice that the Sanhedrin had carefully examined the case and was reporting for the second time that it intended to release Bar-Rabban.

How? Even after my petition? The petitions of the one in whose person the Roman power speaks? High Priest, repeat a third time.

And for the third time we announce that we are freeing Bar-Rabban,” Kaifa said quietly.

It was all over, and there was nothing more to talk about. Ha-Notsri was leaving forever, and there was no one to cure the terrible, evil pains of the procurator; there is no remedy for them except death. But this was not the thought that struck Pilate now. The same incomprehensible melancholy that had already come on the balcony permeated his entire being. He immediately tried to explain it, and the explanation was strange: it seemed vague to the procurator that he had not finished speaking to the convict about something, or perhaps he had not heard something out.

Pilate drove away this thought, and it flew away in an instant, just as it had arrived. She flew away, and the melancholy remained unexplained, for it could not be explained by some other short thought that flashed like lightning and immediately went out: “Immortality... immortality has come...” Whose immortality has come? The procurator did not understand this, but the thought of this mysterious immortality made him feel cold in the sun.

“Okay,” said Pilate, “so be it.”

Then he looked around, looked around the world visible to him and was surprised at the change that had taken place. The bush, burdened with roses, disappeared, the cypress trees bordering the upper terrace, and the pomegranate tree, and the white statue in the greenery, and the greenery itself, disappeared. Instead, just some kind of crimson thicket floated, algae swayed in it and moved somewhere, and Pilate himself moved with them. Now he was carried away, suffocating and burning, by the most terrible anger, the anger of powerlessness.

I’m cramped,” said Pilate, “I’m cramped!”

With a cold, wet hand, he tore the buckle from the collar of his cloak, and it fell onto the sand.

“It’s stuffy today, there’s a thunderstorm somewhere,” Kaifa responded, not taking his eyes off the procurator’s reddened face and foreseeing all the torment that was still to come. "Oh, what a terrible month of Nisan this year!"

The high priest's dark eyes flashed, and, no worse than the procurator had earlier, he expressed surprise on his face.

What do I hear, procurator? - Caiaphas answered proudly and calmly, “are you threatening me after the verdict was passed, approved by you yourself?” Could it be? We are accustomed to the fact that the Roman procurator chooses his words before saying anything. Wouldn't anyone hear us, hegemon?

Pilate looked at the high priest with dead eyes and, baring his teeth, feigned a smile.

What are you, high priest! Who can hear us here now? Do I look like the young wandering holy fool who is being executed today? Am I a boy, Caiaphas? I know what I'm saying and where I'm saying it. The garden is cordoned off, the palace is cordoned off, so that not even a mouse can get through any crevice! Yes, not only a mouse, not even this one, what’s his name... from the city of Kiriath, will not penetrate. By the way, do you know someone like that, high priest? Yes... if someone like that got in here, he would bitterly feel sorry for himself, of course you will believe me on that? So know that from now on, high priest, you will have no peace! Neither you nor your people,” and Pilate pointed into the distance to the right, to where the temple was burning in the heights, “I’m telling you this - Pilate of Pontus, horseman of the Golden Spear!”

I know I know! - Black-bearded Caiaphas answered fearlessly, and his eyes sparkled. He raised his hand to heaven and continued: “The Jewish people know that you hate them with fierce hatred and you will cause them a lot of torment, but you will not destroy them at all!” God will protect him! He will hear us, the almighty Caesar will hear us, he will protect us from the destroyer Pilate!

Oh no! - Pilate exclaimed, and with every word it became easier and easier for him: there was no need to pretend anymore. There was no need to choose words. “You have complained too much to Caesar about me, and now my time has come, Caiaphas!” Now the news will fly from me, and not to the governor in Antioch and not to Rome, but directly to Caprea, the emperor himself, the news about how you are hiding notorious rebels in Yershalaim from death. And then I will not water Yershalaim with water from Solomon’s Pond, as I wanted for your benefit! No, not water! Remember how, because of you, I had to remove shields with the emperor’s monograms from the walls, move troops, I had, you see, to come myself and see what’s going on here! Remember my word, high priest. You will see more than one cohort in Yershalaim, no! The entire Fulminata legion will come under the walls of the city, the Arab cavalry will approach, then you will hear bitter weeping and lamentations. You will remember then the saved Bar-Rabban and you will regret that you sent the philosopher to his death with his peaceful preaching!

The high priest's face was covered with spots, his eyes were burning. He, like a procurator, smiled, grinning, and answered:

Do you, procurator, believe what you are saying now? No, you don't! The seducer of the people brought us no peace, no peace, to Yershalaim, and you, horseman, understand this very well. You wanted to release him so that he would confuse the people, outrage the faith and bring the people under the Roman swords! But I, the High Priest of the Jews, while I am alive, will not allow my faith to be mocked and will protect the people! Do you hear, Pilate? - And then Kaifa raised his hand menacingly: - Listen, procurator!

Caiaphas fell silent, and the procurator again heard, as it were, the sound of the sea rolling up to the very walls of the garden of Herod the Great. This noise rose from below to the feet and into the face of the procurator. And behind him, there, behind the wings of the palace, alarming trumpet signals, the heavy crunch of hundreds of legs, iron clanking were heard - then the procurator realized that the Roman infantry was already leaving, according to his order, rushing to the death parade, terrible for rioters and robbers.

Are you listening, procurator? “- the high priest repeated quietly, “are you really going to tell me that all this,” here the high priest raised both hands, and the dark hood fell from Kaifa’s head, “was caused by the pathetic robber Bar-Rabban?”

The procurator wiped his wet, cold forehead with the back of his hand, looked at the ground, then, squinting at the sky, saw that the hot ball was almost above his head, and the shadow of Caiaphas had completely shrunk near the lion’s tail, and said quietly and indifferently:

It's getting close to noon. We got carried away by the conversation, but meanwhile we must continue.

Having apologized to the high priest in elegant terms, he asked him to sit down on a bench in the shade of a magnolia tree and wait while he called the remaining persons needed for the last brief meeting and gave another order related to the execution.

Caiaphas bowed politely, putting his hand to his heart, and remained in the garden, while Pilate returned to the balcony. There, he ordered the secretary who was waiting for him to invite into the garden the legate of the legion, the tribune of the cohort, as well as two members of the Sanhedrin and the head of the temple guard, who were waiting to be called on the next lower terrace of the garden in a round gazebo with a fountain. To this Pilate added that he would immediately go out himself, and withdrew into the palace.

While the secretary was convening the meeting, the procurator, in a room shaded from the sun by dark curtains, had a meeting with some man, whose face was half covered by a hood, although the rays of the sun in the room could not disturb him. This meeting was extremely short. The procurator quietly said a few words to the man, after which he left, and Pilate walked through the colonnade into the garden.

There, in the presence of everyone he wanted to see, the procurator solemnly and dryly confirmed that he approved the death sentence of Yeshua Ha-Nozri, and officially inquired from the members of the Sanhedrin about which of the criminals he wanted to leave alive. Having received the answer that it was Bar-Rabban, the procurator said:

“Very good,” and ordered the secretary to immediately enter this into the protocol, squeezed the buckle picked up from the sand by the secretary in his hand and solemnly said: “It’s time!”

Here all those present set off down a wide marble staircase between the walls of roses, exuding an intoxicating aroma, descending lower and lower to the palace wall, to the gate opening onto a large, smoothly paved square, at the end of which the columns and statues of the Yershalaim lists could be seen.

As soon as the group, having left the garden to the square, climbed onto the vast stone platform that reigned over the square, Pilate, looking around through narrowed eyelids, figured out the situation. The space that he had just passed, that is, the space from the palace wall to the platform, was empty, but in front of him Pilate no longer saw the square - it was eaten up by the crowd. It would have flooded both the platform itself and the cleared space if the triple row of Sebastian soldiers had left hand Pilate and the soldier of the Ituraean auxiliary cohort on the right did not hold her.

So, Pilate climbed onto the platform, mechanically clutching the unnecessary buckle in his fist and squinting. The procurator squinted not because the sun was burning his eyes, no! For some reason he did not want to see a group of convicts who, as he knew very well, were now being led onto the platform after him.

As soon as a white cloak with crimson lining appeared high on a stone cliff above the edge of the human sea, a sound wave hit the blind Pilate’s ears: “Gah-ah...” It began quietly, originating somewhere in the distance near the hippodrome, then became thunderous and, after holding on for a few seconds, began to subside. “They saw me,” thought the procurator. The wave did not reach its lowest point and suddenly began to grow again and, swaying, rose higher than the first, and on the second wave, like foam boiling on a sea wall, a whistle and individual female moans, audible through the thunder, boiled up. “It was them who were brought onto the platform...” thought Pilate, “and the groans were because they crushed several women when the crowd moved forward.”

He waited for some time, knowing that no force could silence the crowd until it exhaled everything that had accumulated inside it and fell silent itself.

And when this moment came, the procurator threw his right hand up, and the last noise was blown away from the crowd.

Then Pilate drew as much hot air as he could into his chest and shouted, and his broken voice carried over thousands of heads:

In the name of Caesar the Emperor!

Then an iron, chopped scream hit his ears several times - in the cohorts, throwing up their spears and badges, the soldiers shouted terribly:

Long live Caesar!

Pilate raised his head and buried it directly in the sun. A green fire flashed under his eyelids, it set his brain on fire, and hoarse Aramaic words flew over the crowd:

Four criminals arrested in Yershalaim for murder, incitement to rebellion and insulting the laws and faith, were sentenced to a shameful execution - hanging from poles! And this execution will now take place on Bald Mountain! The names of the criminals are Dismas, Gestas, Var-Rabban and Ha-Nozri. Here they are in front of you!

Pilate pointed to the right with his hand, not seeing any criminals, but knowing that they were there, in the place where they needed to be.

The crowd responded with a long roar of surprise or relief. When it went out, Pilate continued:

But only three of them will be executed, for, according to law and custom, in honor of the Easter holiday, one of the condemned, at the choice of the Small Sanhedrin and according to the approval of the Roman authorities, the magnanimous Caesar Emperor returns his despicable life!

Pilate shouted out words and at the same time listened as the roar was replaced by great silence. Now neither a sigh nor a rustle reached his ears, and there even came a moment when it seemed to Pilate that everything around him had completely disappeared. The city he hated has died, and only he stands, burned by sheer rays, with his face to the sky. Pilate remained silent for a while longer, and then began shouting:

The name of the one who will now be released in front of you...

He made another pause, holding the name, checking that he had said everything, because he knew that the dead city would rise again after pronouncing the name of the lucky one and no further words could be heard.

“That’s it?” Pilate silently whispered to himself, “that’s it. Name!”

And, rolling the letter “r” over the silent city, he shouted:

Var-rabvan!

Then it seemed to him that the sun, ringing, burst above him and filled his ears with fire. In this fire roars, squeals, groans, laughter and whistles raged.

Pilate turned and walked along the bridge back to the steps, looking at nothing but the multi-colored checkers of the flooring under his feet, so as not to stumble. He knew that now behind him bronze coins and dates were flying like a hail onto the platform, that in the howling crowd people, crushing each other, were climbing on each other’s shoulders to see with their own eyes a miracle - how a man who had already been in the hands of death escaped from these hands! How the legionnaires remove the ropes from him, involuntarily causing him searing pain in his arms, dislocated during interrogation, how he, wincing and groaning, still smiles a meaningless, crazy smile.

He knew that at the same time a convoy was leading three men with their hands tied to the side steps to take them out onto the road leading west, outside the city, to Bald Mountain. Only when he found himself behind the platform, in the rear, did Pilate open his eyes, knowing that he was now safe - he could no longer see the condemned.

The groaning of the crowd, which was beginning to subside, was now mingled with the piercing cries of the heralds, who repeated, some in Aramaic, others in Greek, everything that the procurator had shouted from the platform. In addition, the sound of a horse's trumpet and a trumpet, which briefly and cheerfully shouted something, reached the ear. These sounds were answered by the drilling whistle of boys from the roofs of the houses of the street leading from the market to the hippodrome square, and the shouts of “Beware!”

The soldier, standing alone in the cleared space of the square with a badge in his hand, waved it anxiously, and then the procurator, the legate of the legion, the secretary and the convoy stopped.

The cavalry ala, picking up an ever wider trot, flew out into the square to cross it to the side, bypassing the crowd of people, and along the alley under the stone wall along which the grapes lay, galloping along the shortest road to Bald Mountain.

Flying at a trot, small as a boy, dark as a mulatto, the commander of the alya - a Syrian, equaled Pilate, shouted something subtly and grabbed a sword from its sheath. The angry black, wet horse shied away and reared up. Throwing his sword into its sheath, the commander hit the horse on the neck with his whip, straightened it out and galloped into the alley, breaking into a gallop. Behind him, horsemen flew three in a row in a cloud of dust, the tips of light bamboo lances jumped, faces that seemed especially dark under white turbans with cheerfully bared, sparkling teeth rushed past the procurator.

Raising dust to the sky, the ala burst into the alley, and the last to gallop past Pilate was a soldier with a pipe blazing in the sun behind his back.

Shielding himself from the dust with his hand and wrinkling his face with displeasure, Pilate moved on, rushing to the gates of the palace garden, followed by the legate, secretary and convoy.

It was about ten o'clock in the morning.

Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita Chapter 02. Pontius Pilate, read the text

See also Bulgakov Mikhail - Prose (stories, poems, novels...):

The Master and Margarita Chapter 03. Seventh proof
- Yes, it was about ten o’clock in the morning, venerable Ivan Nikolaevich, - say...

The Master and Margarita Chapter 04. The Chase
The hysterical women's screams subsided, the police whistles were drilled, two sanitary...

“Wearing a white cloak with a bloody lining and a shuffling cavalry gait, early in the morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, came out into the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great.” . M. A. Bulgakov recreated the image of a living person, with an individual character, torn apart by conflicting feelings and passions. In Pontius Pilate we see a formidable ruler, before whom everything trembles. He is gloomy, lonely, the burden of life weighs him down. The Roman procurator personifies authoritarian power. The type of power embodied in the image of Pontius Pilate turns out to be more humane than Bulgakov’s contemporary reality, which assumed the complete subordination of the individual, demanded fusion with it, faith in all its dogmas and myths.

In Pilate, Bulgakov retains the features of the traditional image. But his Pilate is only superficially similar to this image. “We all the time feel how Pilate is overwhelmed, drowning in his passions.” “More than anything else in the world, the procurator hated the smell of rose oil... It seemed to the procurator that the cypresses and palm trees in the garden emitted a pink smell, that a pink stream was mixed with the smell of leather and the convoy.” With special attention and interest, Bulgakov explores the causes of the tragedy that manifest themselves in his thought. Bulgakov deliberately presents Pilate's condition as a debilitating illness. But the procurator’s painful state takes him beyond an attack of hemicrania to a feeling of accumulated fatigue from life and doing something that bores him. “Pilate’s immersion in the meaninglessness of existence, the boundless loneliness is interpreted as a natural consequence of submission to a transpersonal idea that turns a person into a function of power and the state.”

Bulgakov tests him with an act that requires free expression of will. The most important problem seems to Bulgakov to be the problem of freedom and unfreedom of the human person. V.V. Khimich notes that “Bulgakov’s decision is artistically represented by the picture unfolding in the work of Pilate’s psychological experience of internal movement from unfreedom to freedom. “Pilate of the morning (definition by A. Zerkenov) controls personal truth, his lack of freedom, which he is not clearly aware of, seems to be marked with a tragic sign and on appearance him and the type of forced introduction into a world that rejects him.” The writer notes the “bloody lining” of Pilate’s cloak and his “shuffling gait.” Bulgakov collects from individual strokes psychological picture a man destroyed by unfreedom.

The writer showed that the contradictions of Pontius Pilate manifest themselves differently in each situation. Every time he reveals himself from an unexpected side. One artistic idea that is constantly felt when revealing the image of Pontius Pilate is “the idea of ​​determinism, the complete dependence of the actions of the heroes, including Pontius Pilate, on the circumstances of life.”

In 1968, the American literary critic L. Rzhevsky published the article “Pilate’s sin: about secret writing in M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.” Seeking to decipher the historical concept of the “most ancient chapters.” Rzhevsky came to the conclusion that their structural core is the theme of Pilate’s guilt, “Pilate’s sin.” The “existential cowardice” of the procurator is placed at the center of the secret writing of the entire novel, permeating all its components.

The Roman procurator is the first, albeit involuntary, opponent of Christian teaching. “Here he is similar,” as B.V. Sokolov notes, “to his functional double Satan, i.e. the Antichrist, Woland, with whom he is related and has a common German origin for both.” And although the text of the novel says this, it turns out to be significant in the development of the image of Pilate. The procurator of Judea had already betrayed his people once. “And the memory of this betrayal, the first cowardice, which Pilate’s subsequent courage in the ranks of the Roman troops could not cover, comes to life again when Pilate has to betray Yeshua, becoming cowardly for the second time in his life, subconsciously intensifying the pangs of conscience, the mental torment of the procurator” Pilate and Woland understand the justice of Yeshua's teachings and begin to act in his interests (Pilate organizes the murder of Judas, and before that he tries to save Ga-Notsri; Woland, on Yeshua's instructions, gives the Master a well-deserved reward).

In connection with the question of parallels to the image of Pontius Pilate in the novel, the opinion of V.V. Novikov is interesting, claiming that he does not have “doubles and heroes with a similar psychology and mode of behavior.” However, the convincingness of the above reasoning by V. V. Sokolov does not allow us to agree with the position of V. V. Novikov.

So, Pilate, the bearer and personification of “the strangest vice” - cowardice, as it became clear to the first critics, is the central character of the novel, present not only in the “Yershalaim” chapters, but invisibly both in the narrative of Soviet reality and in history The Master and Margarita.

In the collection of reviews of the USSR Academy of Sciences IKION, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of M. Bulgakov, the point of view of one of the authors is expressed, according to which “The Master and Margarita” is a novel about the life of Pilate and, in compositional terms, represents two cruciformly intersecting axes. One axis - vertical, at one pole of which is Christ, at the other - the devil, and a man rushes between them - is typical of the European novel. However, in Bulgakov it is crossed by another, horizontal one, and at one end there is a person endowed with the gift of creativity - the Master. On his right hand is Christ, that is, the beginning of good, allowing him to create. On the left hand of the Master is the devil, for “only the devilish principle gives man - the creator Master the opportunity to penetrate into the heaviest, most terrible, darkest secrets of the human soul.” At the opposite pole of this axis, according to the critic, is “human rubbish.” In the center of this compositional cross is the main character of the novel, Pontius Pilate, “hopelessly, hopelessly” reaching out to all four poles. Pilate fell in love, but did not save Christ, fearing for his well-being and succumbing to the devil’s obsession. He is between fear and love, duty and meanness. On the other hand, he is a major official, intelligent and strong-willed - not a nonentity, but also not a talented person, not a creator. He twice accomplishes a good deed - a feat not with a capital F, but not in quotation marks, not of Christ and not of the devils - a feat worthy of the position of administrator - soldier, which he occupies: “In both cases, he gives the order to kill” by sending a person trace of Judas and commanded to hasten the death of Yeshua. For “pilatism” - “that is, the inability to accomplish a real, full-fledged feat, in which there would be no talk about oneself, about one’s destiny” (p. 168), “pilatism”, dissolved in the air of the writer’s contemporary era, crucifies the fifth Procurator of Judea in the very center of the compositional cross M. Bulgakov.

Among his contemporary writers, Bulgakov stands as a profound researcher who focused his attention on the phenomenon of “breakdown” in human destiny and psyche. Biographical, historical, eternal time is taken by the writer under the sign of strange displacements and destructive processes. M. Bulgakov concentrated the action of the novel around two characters - Yeshua and Pilate.

Pontius Pilate's official duties brought him together with the accused from Galilee, Yeshua Ha-Nozri. The procurator of Judea is sick with a debilitating disease, and the tramp is beaten by the people to whom he preached. Everyone's physical suffering is proportional to their social conditions. Almighty Pilate suffers from such headaches for no reason that he is even ready to take poison: “The thought of poison suddenly flashed seductively in the procurator’s sick head.” And the beggar Yeshua, although beaten by people of whose goodness he is convinced and to whom he carries his teaching about goodness, nevertheless does not suffer at all from this, for physical teachings only test and strengthen his faith. At first, Yeshua is completely in the power of Pilate, but then, during the interrogation, as V.I. Nemtsev notes, “she naturally revealed the spiritual and intellectual superiority of the prisoner and the initiative for the conversation easily passed to him”: “Some new ideas came to my mind.” thoughts that could, of course, seem liberal to you, and I would gladly share them with you, especially since you give the impression of a very smart person.” The procurator’s first interest in the tramp was revealed when it turned out that he knew Greek, which only educated people of that time spoke: “The swollen eyelid (of the procurator - T.L.) lifted, the eye shrouded in a haze of suffering stared at the arrested man.”

Throughout the “historical” part of the novel “The Master and Margarita,” Pontius Pilate is shown as the bearer of practical reason. Morality in him is suppressed by an evil principle; there was apparently little good in the life of the procurator (only Judas can fall lower than Pilate, but the conversation about him in the novel is brief and contemptuous, as, indeed, about Baron Meigel). Yeshua Ha-Nozri personifies the triumph of the moral law. It was he who awakened a good beginning in Pilate. And this goodness prompts Pilate to take a spiritual part in the fate of the wandering philosopher.

Yeshua demonstrates an extraordinary ability for foresight and understanding - thanks to his high intellectual abilities and ability to make logical conclusions, as well as boundless faith in the high mission of his teaching: “The truth, first of all, is that you have a headache, and it hurts so much that you you cowardly think about death. Not only are you unable to speak to me, but it is difficult for you to even look at me.<...>You can’t even think about anything and dream only that your dog will come, apparently the only creature to which you are attached.”

V.I. Nemtsev draws our attention to a very important point: “... Almighty Pilate recognized Yeshua as his equal (emphasized by the author). And I became interested in his teaching.” What follows is not an interrogation, not a trial, but a misfortune of equals, during which Pilate pursues an almost sensible in this situation intention to save the philosopher who has become sympathetic to him: “... A formula has developed in the now bright and light head of the procurator. It was like this: The hegemon looked into the case of the wandering philosopher Yeshua, nicknamed Ha-Nozri, and did not find any corpus delicti in it.<...>The wandering philosopher turned out to be mentally ill. As a result, the prosecutor does not approve the death sentence for Ga-Notsri.”

But he is unable to overcome his fear of Kaifa's debt. At the same time, the procurator is seized by a vague premonition that the conviction and execution of the wandering preacher Yeshua Ha-Nozri will bring him great misfortune in the future: “Thoughts rushed through, short, incoherent and extraordinary: “Dead!”, then: “Dead!” then it is completely unclear among them about something that must certainly be - and with whom?! - immortality, and immortality for some reason caused unbearable melancholy.”

However, the philosopher constantly aggravates the situation. Apparently, oaths for him, who always speaks only the truth, have no meaning. It is precisely because when Pilate invites him to swear, no more and no less than for the interrogation record, Yeshua becomes very animated”: he foresees an argument - his element, where he can speak out more fully.

Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri are discussing human nature. Yeshua believes in the presence of good in the world, in predestination historical development leading to a single truth. Pilate is convinced of the inviolability of evil, its ineradicability in man. Both are wrong. At the end of the novel, they continue their two-thousand-year dispute, which brought them closer together forever; This is how evil and good merged together in human life. This unity of theirs is personified by Woland - “the embodiment of the tragic contradictions of life.”

Pilate shows himself to be the antagonist of Yeshua. Firstly, he displays something even worse, “according to the “author” of the novel... than laziness, and even multiplied either by the fear that is natural for every living being, or by a false desire to justify oneself in a moral mistake, mainly to oneself , crime” Besides, secondly, Pilate lies simply out of habit, also manipulating the word “truth”: “I don’t need to know whether it’s pleasant or unpleasant for you to tell the truth. But you will have to tell it, although he knows that Yeshua has already told the truth, and he also feels that Yeshua will tell the rest of the truth, disastrous for himself, in a minute. And Yeshua himself pronounces a sentence on himself, revealing to Pilate his daring utopia: the end of imperial rule, of Caesar’s power, will come. The conscience of the evil one and cruel person woke up. Yeshua’s dream of talking to the Rat-Slayer in order to disturb his good heart surpassed itself: an even more formidable and evil person succumbed to the influence of good.

In the novel, the image of Pontius, the dictator, is decomposed and transformed into a suffering personality. The authorities in his person lose the stern and faithful enforcer of the law, the image acquires a humanistic connotation. However, it is quickly replaced by Woland's judgments about divine power. Pilate is led not by divine providence, but by chance (headache). Pilate's dual life is the inevitable behavior of a man squeezed in the grip of power and his post. During the trial of Yeshua, Pilate, with greater force than before, feels a lack of harmony and strange loneliness within himself. From the very collision of Pontius Pilate with Yeshua, in a dramatically multidimensional way, Bulgakov’s idea clearly follows that tragic circumstances are stronger than people’s intentions. Even such rulers as the Roman procurator do not have the power to act of their own free will.

“The all-powerful Roman procurator Pontius Pilate,” believes V.V. Novikov, “is forced to submit to circumstances, agree with the decision of the Jewish high priest, and send Yeshua to execution.” The opposite point of view is shared by T.M. Vakhitova: “Pontius is only concerned with the fact that after the execution Yeshua there is no person who could so easily relieve an attack of headache and with whom one could talk with such freedom and mutual understanding about philosophical and abstract issues.”

There is some truth in each of these points of view. On the one hand, one should not overly idealize the image of Pilate, justify it, and on the other hand, one should not unduly belittle it. This is indicated by the text of the novel: “The same incomprehensible melancholy... permeated his being. He immediately tried to explain it, and the explanation was strange: it seemed vague to the procurator that he had not finished talking to the convict about something, or maybe he hadn’t heard something out.”

The feeling of guilt, responsibility for some critical moments of his own life constantly tormented Bulgakov, and served as the most important impulse in his work from early stories and “The White Guard” to “Theatrical Novel”. This autobiographical motif leads to Pilate in many threads - here there is fear, and “the anger of powerlessness,” and the motive of the defeated, and the Jewish theme, and the rushing cavalry, and, finally, tormenting dreams and hope for final forgiveness, for a desired and joyful dream, in in which the tormenting past will be crossed out, everything is forgiven and forgotten.

The moral position of the individual is constantly in the center of attention of Bulgakov. Cowardice combined with lies as a source of betrayal, envy, anger and other vices that a moral person is able to keep under control is a breeding ground for despotism and unreasonable power. “This means that the flaws of the great society, obviously, Bulgakov also believed, depend on the degree of fear possessing the citizens.” “It (fear) is capable of turning an intelligent, courageous and beneficent person into a pathetic rag, weakening and disgracing him. The only thing that can save him is inner fortitude, trust in his own reason and the voice of his conscience.” Bulgakov uncompromisingly promotes the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe irreparability of what was radiated: Pilate, who already probably knows about the incorrectness of his trial, he carries him along the wrong path to the end, forcing him to take a step that is completely delaying him into the abyss: contrary to his wishes, despite the already ripening knowledge that he would destroy himself, “the procurator solemnly and dryly confirmed that he approves the death sentence of Yeshua Ha-Nozri.” Bulgakov forces Pilate, already aware of the injustice of his trial, to read the death sentence himself. This episode is executed in truly tragic tones. The platform on which the procurator ascends is similar to the place of execution on which the “blind Pilate” executes himself, most of all afraid to look at the condemned. Poetic contrasts: heights and bottoms, screams and the dead silence of the human sea, the confrontation between the invisible city and the lonely Pilate. “...There came a moment when it seemed to Pilate that everything around him had completely disappeared. The city he hated has died, and only he stands, burned by vertical rays, resting his face on the sky.” And further: “Then it seemed to him that the sun, ringing, burst above him and filled his ears with fire. Roars, squeals, groans, laughter and whistles raged in this fire.” All this creates extreme psychological tension, scenes in which Pilate is rapidly moving towards the terrible moment, carefully trying to delay its approach. The scene, interpreted by the author as a collapse, a catastrophe, an apocalypse, is accompanied by an emotional decline, a kind of regularity in the narrative associated with the exhaustion of the conflict.

“A fateful act that resolves a situation of choice introduces the hero into the zone of experiencing tragic guilt, into the circle of the most terrible contradiction with the human in himself.” It is the “existential aspect of guilt” that is important in Bulgakov’s psychological analysis.

Bulgakov includes psychological analysis in the process of “testing ideas.” The picture of the mental torment of Pontius Pilate unfolded in “The Master and Margarita”, which was the result of the moral crime of the procurator, who crossed the limit of humanity, is, in essence, a test and confirmation of the truth of the thoughts expressed by the wandering philosopher, for which the hegemon sent him to execution: “... The procurator He kept trying to understand the reason for his mental torment. And he quickly realized this, but tried to deceive himself. It was clear to him that this afternoon he had irretrievably missed something, and now he wanted to correct what he had missed with some small and insignificant, and most importantly, belated actions. The deception of himself lies in the fact that the procurator sought to convince himself that these actions... are no less important than the morning verdict. But the procurator did this very poorly.”

So far from Everyday life The procurator's statement of Yeshua that “it is easy and pleasant to speak the truth” unexpectedly turns into truth, without the achievement of which the existence of the enlightened Pilate becomes unthinkable. In Yeshua there is no contradiction between the temporal and the eternal - this is what makes the image absolute. Pilate’s complex consists of a gap between the temporary (the power of Emperor Tiberius and commitment to him) and the eternal (immortality). “Cowardice” is the name of this complex in everyday terms, but it is also interpreted by the author in ontological terms. “The sacrifice of the eternal to the temporary, the universal to the momentary, is the most general meaning of “Pilate”

By killing Judas, Pilate not only cannot atone for his sin, but he is also unable to even tear out the roots of Caiaphas’ conspiracy, and in the end the wives of the Sanhedrin, as is known, seek a change in the procurator. Pilate and Afranius are parodically likened to the first followers of the new religion. The plot or murder of a traitor is so far the first and only consequence of the sermon and the tragic fate Yeshua, as if demonstrating the failure of his calls for good. The death of Judas does not remove the burden from the conscience of the procurator. Yeshua was right. It is not a new murder, but deep, sincere repentance for what he has done that ultimately brings Pilate forgiveness. Making a decision and thus disowning endless internal questions, Pilate plunges into the abyss of atrocities. Bulgakov is merciless towards his hero: he cruelly forces him to follow his criminal path to the end. Pilate seeks to mitigate his guilt in front of himself or transfer it externally. Pilate will make pointless attempts to nullify the strange meaning of his decision, but each time he will be thrown back.

Pilate revealed to the Master the “secret” of the “diabolical nature of reality” and a piece of his own inner life associated with it: can he resist this reality, relying on inner feeling truth, and if so, how? How good should act, because action as a means in the accessible physical world is of a diabolical nature and in the process of its implementation certainly destroys the goal towards which one is striving. And then it turns out that it is impossible to protect good, it has not developed its own method of action, and Bulgakov feels this as “washing his hands,” “bad pilatchina” (cowardice), betrayal. The feeling of personal guilt for some specific actions, having dissolved in creativity, was replaced by a more general feeling of guilt of the artist who made a deal with Satan; this shift in human consciousness is clearly revealed in the novel in the fact that it is the Master who releases Pilate, declaring him free, and he himself remains in the “eternal refuge.” B. M. Gasparov writes: “A man who silently allowed a murder to take place before his eyes is supplanted by an artist who silently looks at everything happening around him from a “beautiful distance” (another Gogolian version of the Faustian theme, very significant for Bulgakov) - Pilate gives way to the Master. The guilt of the latter is less tangible and concrete, it does not torment, does not constantly come up with obsessive dreams, but this guilt is more general and irreversible - eternal.”

Through repentance and suffering, Pilate atones for his guilt and receives forgiveness. The hint is made that Pontius Pilate is himself a victim. Such an observation was made in this regard by B. M. Gasparov: the appearance before Pilate’s eyes of a vision - the head of Emperor Tiberius, covered with ulcers, perhaps is a reference to the apocryphal story, according to which the sick Tiberius learns about the wonderful doctor - Jesus, demands him to come to him and , hearing that Jesus was executed by Pilate, becomes enraged and orders Pilate himself to be executed. This version contains a very important motive for Bulgakov - betrayal as the immediate cause of death, turning the traitor into a victim and allowing the synthesis of these roles.

V.V. Potelin notes “two plans in the development of the action, which reflects the struggle of two principles living in Pilate. And that which can be defined as spiritual automatism acquires fatal power over him for some time, subordinating all his actions, thoughts and feelings. He loses power over himself." We see the fall of man, but then we also see the revival in his soul of the genes of humanity, compassion, in a word, a good beginning. Pontius Pilate carries out a merciless judgment on himself. His soul is filled with good and evil, waging an inevitable struggle among themselves. He is a sinner. But it is not the sin itself that attracts Bulgakov’s attention, but what follows it - suffering, repentance, sincere pain.

Pilate experiences a state of tragic catharsis, bringing together immense suffering and enlightenment from the acquisition of the desired truth: “... he immediately set off along the bright road and walked along it straight up to the moon. He even laughed in his sleep with happiness, everything turned out so beautifully and uniquely on the ghostly blue road. He walked accompanied by Banga, and next to him walked a wandering philosopher.<...>And, of course, it would be absolutely terrible to even think that such a person could be executed. There was no execution!<...>

“We will always be together now,” the ragged philosopher-tramp said to him in a dream, who, unknown how, stood on the road of a horseman with a golden spear. Once there is one, then there is another! They will remember me, and now they will remember you too! Me, a foundling, the son of unknown parents, and you, the son of a king, an astrologer, and the daughter of a miller, the beautiful Saw. “Yes, don’t forget, remember me, the son of an astrologer,” Pilate asked in a dream. And, having secured a nod from the beggar from En-Sarid walking next to him, the cruel procurator of Judea cried with joy and laughed in his sleep.”

Bulgakov forgives Pilate, assigning him the same role in his philosophical concept as the Master. Pilate, as a Master, deserves peace for his suffering. Let this peace be expressed in different ways, but its essence is in one thing: everyone receives what they strive for. Pilate, Yeshua and other characters think and act like people of antiquity, and at the same time they turn out to be no less close and understandable to us than our contemporaries. At the end of the novel, when Yeshua and Pilate continue their thousand-year dispute on the lunar road, good and evil in human life seem to merge together. This unity of theirs is personified by Woland in Bulgakov. Evil and good are not generated from above, but by people themselves, therefore man is free in his choice. He is free from both fate and surrounding circumstances. And if he is free to choose, then he is fully responsible for his actions. This is, according to Bulgakov, a moral choice. And it is precisely the theme of moral choice, the theme of personality in “eternity” that determines the philosophical orientation and depth of the novel.

V. V. Khimich calls the long-awaited walk along the “lunar road” the apotheosis of a man’s courageous victory over himself. The Master “released the hero he had created. This hero went into the abyss, gone irrevocably, the son of the astrologer king, forgiven on Sunday night, the cruel fifth procurator of Judea, the horseman Pontius Pilate.”

It is impossible not to note the similarity of the events occurring in the “internal” and “external” novel, the stories of the main characters of both of these sections - Yeshua and the Master. This, in particular, is the situation of a city that did not accept and destroyed the new prophet. However, against the backdrop of this parallelism there is an important difference. Yeshua in the novel is opposed by one, and, moreover, a major personality - Pilate. In the “Moscow” version, this function appears to be dispersed, fragmented into many “small” Pilates, insignificant characters - from Berlioz and the critics Lavrovich and Latunsky to Styopa Likhodeev and that character without a name or face at all (we see only his “blunt-toed boots” "and a "weighty butt" in the basement window), which instantly disappears upon news of the arrest of Aloysius Mogarych"

The line Pilate - Berlioz passes through malevolent heroes in whom, as V.I. Nemtsev puts it, practical reason suppresses moral potential. True, Archibald Archibaldovich, Poplavsky, and partly Rimsky still had intuition, but others have outlived it in themselves. And the Judas-Maigel line is very short. The enemies of Yeshua and the Master form a triad: Judas from Kariath, who works in a shop with relatives, - Baron Meigel, who serves in an entertainment company “in the position of introducing foreigners to the sights of the capital.” - Aloisy Magarych, journalist. All three are traitors. Judas betrays Yeshua, Mogarych - the Master, Maigel - Woland and his entourage, including the Master and Margarita (albeit unsuccessfully): “Yes, by the way, Baron,” Woland said, suddenly lowering his voice intimately, “rumors have spread about your extreme curiosity.<...>Moreover, evil tongues have already dropped the word - earpiece and spy.”

Another of these “pilatiks” - Nikanor Ivanovich Bogost - is also a “cross-cutting” hero who completes the gallery of Bulgakov’s house managers: “Baramkov’s chairman” from “Memoirs”, Yegor Innushkin and Christ from “House of the Elpies”, Shvonder from “ Heart of a Dog", Alleluia-Burtle from "Zoyka's Apartment". Apparently, Bulgakov suffered a lot from the building managers and chairmen of the housing association: each of Bosogo’s predecessors, and Nikanor Ivanovich himself, are sharply negative, satirical characters.

The story of handing over the currency is not accidental or invented. Such “golden nights” actually took place in the early 30s. It was lawless, but an inevitable test, after which innocent people suffered. If the master is an incomplete likeness of Yeshua, then nameless editors, writers awarded with “no leading surnames (according to Florensky), official figures like Styopa Likhodeev and Bosogo are all little procurators, the only content of whose lives have become cowardice and lies. There was nothing human left in Styopa Likhodeev. “His living space was therefore entirely occupied by shadow, negative, “unclean” doubles. His "bottom".

The swindler - the bartender, Andrei Dokich Sokov, is thinking day and night how to justify himself before the auditor who will catch him selling rotten meat under the guise of “second freshness”. And he always has an excuse ready. He thinks, but does not speak out loud. This is where Woland utters his famous aphorism: “The second freshness is nonsense! There is only one freshness - the first, and it is also the last.”

All these people are trying to establish an orderly, hierarchically structured world, which rests on authorities, on regulations; they are trying to set behavioral stereotypes for the masses. “But their strength is the force of conformity, which does not penetrate into the depths of the human soul.” However, they understand the illusory nature of their reasons; they lie to others and themselves “out of position,” knowing at the same time that their “values” are conditional. Each of them has his own headache, exhausted in the conflict with the victorious, indomitable hostile; and each of them ultimately submits to him. Pilate turns into a “pilatishka” - a word invented by Levrovich during the campaign of persecution of the Master and supposedly characterizes (as Lavrovich thinks) the Master (just as Yeshua in Yershalaim receives the “official” name “robber and rebel”). In reality, Lavrovich (like Berlioz before), without knowing it, utters a prophetic word about himself and his world.

Chomaeva Margarita Koshkenovna
Job title: teacher of Russian language and literature
Educational institution: MKOU "Secondary school p. Pravokubansky"
Locality: KCR p. Pravokubansky, Karachaevsky district
Name of material: Methodological development
Subject:“Three worlds in M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”
Publication date: 04.02.2016
Chapter: complete education

“Three worlds in the novel by M. Bulgakov

"Master and Margarita"".
This is the final lesson in the system of lessons based on M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. The main objective of the lesson was to create conditions for the manifestation of cognitive activity of students and the development of individual characteristics. The lesson contributed to the development of the emotional and value world of the graduate’s personality through empathy and sympathy for the characters while watching the episode of Yeshua’s interrogation and its subsequent analysis. During preparation for the lesson, students needed to turn to additional literature (the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Dante's Divine Comedy, Goethe's Faust, as well as literary publications) to compare how similar problems were posed in it moral choice between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, Truth and Falsehood. This involuntarily forced us to turn to personal experience and think about how the students themselves would act in this situation of choice.
Students were asked to choose from a variety of questions the three most important in terms of the students' subjective experience. The form of discussion of issues was group and frontal, which contributed to the inclusion of the emotional sphere of the students’ personality. Students should be divided into 2 groups based on the principle: “What question would I like to answer?” Group work: “brainstorming”: everyone takes turns expressing their thoughts.

collection of the best answers.
construction of the answer.
listening to the answer and correcting it.
choosing a student to be in charge of the entire group. Other groups do not just listen to the answer, but complement them or argue if they do not agree. Working in a group requires students to be able to listen to each other, take the desired point of view, and construct statements so that everything is clear to the listeners. The test at the end of the lesson shows how students know the text of the novel. Individual creative work is proposed as homework, which will allow everyone to express their attitude to the problems raised in the novel. .

Technologies:

creating a presentation in Microsoft Power Point, using the Gimp program.
Lesson objectives:
1. Show the features of the genre and compositional structure of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. 2. Pay attention to the symbolism of the number “three” in M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. 3. Understand the writer’s intention, notice and comprehend the echoes of the novel’s lines. 4. Understand the moral lessons of M. Bulgakov, the main values ​​that the writer talks about. 5. Contribute to the development of interest in the personality and creativity of the writer.

Equipment
lesson: multimedia installation, CD with a recording of an electronic lesson, GIMP program. Lesson Plan
Teacher
: Hello, dear guys, hello, dear guests! Class 11 “A” presents the author’s program for the lesson “Three Worlds in M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.” Today we will continue our journey through
- Fantasy world. Messages from trained students (philosophy of P. Florensky about the trinity of being, appendix 1.) Group work.
Ancient Yershalaim world

Questions:

- How does his portrait reveal Pilate’s character?

- How does Pilate behave at the beginning of his meeting with Yeshua and at the end?

-What is Yeshua’s main belief?
Student answers.
Equipment
: If the “Moscow chapters” leave a feeling of frivolity and unreality, then the very first words of the novel about Yeshua are weighty, precise, and rhythmic. Scene from the film (1 episode from 17 to 18 20 min., the film is attached to the lesson script.)
There is no game in the “gospel” chapters. Everything here breathes authenticity. We are nowhere present in his thoughts, are we not included in his inner world- not given. But we only see and hear how it acts, how the familiar reality and the connection of concepts crack and spread. From afar, Yeshua Christ sets a great example for all people. The idea of ​​the work: all power is violence over people; the time will come when there will be no power either of Caesar or any other power. Scene from the film (1 episode 32 – 39 min.)
Who is the personification of power?

How does Bulgakov portray Pilate?

Students
: Pilate is cruel, he is called a ferocious monster. He only boasts of this nickname, because the world is ruled by the law of force. Behind Pilate is a great life as a warrior, full of struggle, hardship, and mortal danger. Only the strong, who do not know fear and doubt, pity and compassion, win in it. Pilate knows that the winner is always alone, he cannot have friends, only enemies and envious people. He despises the mob. He indifferently sends some to execution and pardons others. He has no equal, there is no person with whom he would just want to talk. Pilate is sure: the world is based on violence and power.
Creating a cluster.
Equipment
: Let's watch the interrogation scene. The performance was prepared by students of grade 6b. Dramatization - interrogation (conversation about the truth, Appendix 2).
Pilate asks a question that should not be asked during interrogation. What kind of question is this?

- what is truth?

Equipment
: Pilate's life has long been at a dead end. Power and greatness did not make him happy. He is dead in soul. And then a man came who illuminated life with new meaning. The hero is faced with a choice: to save an innocent wandering philosopher and lose his power, and possibly his life, or to maintain his position by executing an innocent man and acting against his conscience. In essence, it is a choice between physical and spiritual death. Unable to make a choice, he pushes Yeshua to compromise. But compromise is impossible for Yeshua. The truth turns out to be for him more valuable than life. Pilate decides to save Yeshua from execution. But Kaifa is adamant: the Sanhedrin does not change its decision.
Why does Pilate approve the death sentence?

Why was Pilate punished?

Students
: “Cowardice is the most serious vice,” Woland repeats (chapter 32, night flight scene). Pilate says that “more than anything else in the world he hates his immortality and unheard-of glory.” And then the Master enters: “Free! Free! He is waiting for you!" Pilate is forgiven.
Modern Moscow world
Never talk to strangers. Staging is the stage of the patriarchs. The performance was prepared by students of grade 6b. (Appendix 3).
Equipment
: The author addresses readers with a warning. The chairman of the board of MASSOLIT, editor of the thick magazine Berlioz, is an intelligent and educated person. What does the Master say about Berlioz? Why?
Students
: The master speaks of him as a well-read and very cunning person. Berlioz has been given a lot, and he deliberately adjusts himself to the level of the worker poets he despises. For him there is no God, no devil, nothing at all. Apart from everyday reality. Where he knows everything in advance and has, if not unlimited, but very real power. None of the subordinates is engaged in literature: they are only interested in the division of material wealth and privileges.
Equipment
: Why was Berlioz punished so terribly? Because he is an atheist? Because he is adapting to the new government? For seducing Ivanushka Bezdomny with unbelief?
Woland gets annoyed: “What do you have, no matter what you’re missing, there’s nothing!” Berlioz gets “nothing”, non-existence. He receives according to his faith. Each will be given according to his faith (chapter 23) By insisting that Jesus Christ did not exist, Berlioz thereby denies his preaching of goodness and mercy, truth and justice, the idea of ​​good will. Chairman of MASSOLIT, editor of thick magazines, living in the grip of dogmas based on rationality, expediency, devoid of moral foundations who deny belief in the existence of metaphysical principles, he implants these dogmas in human minds, which is especially dangerous for a young, fragile consciousness, therefore the “murder” of Berlioz by a Komsomol member takes on a deeply symbolic meaning. Not believing in other existence, he goes into oblivion.
Student
: Critics Latunsky and Lavrovich are also people invested with power, but deprived of morality. They are indifferent to everything except their career. They are endowed with intelligence, knowledge, and erudition. And all this is deliberately placed at the service of the vicious power. History sends such people into oblivion.
Teacher-
The townspeople have changed a lot on the outside... a much more important question is: have these townspeople changed on the inside? Answering this question, the evil spirit comes into play, conducts one experiment after another, organizes mass hypnosis, a purely scientific experiment. And people show their true colors. The revelation session was a success. Scene from the film (Episode 3 from 42 to 49 min. Episode 4 from 6 to 7 min.)
The miracles demonstrated by Woland's retinue are the satisfaction of people's hidden desires. Decency disappears from people and eternal human vices appear: greed, cruelty, greed, deceit, hypocrisy... Woland sums up: “Well, they are people like people... They love money, but this has always been the case... Ordinary people, in general, remind the previous ones, the housing issue only spoiled them...” What is the evil spirit making fun of and mocking? By what means does the author depict ordinary people?
Students
: Moscow philistinism is depicted using cartoons and grotesques. Fiction is a means of satire.
Master and Margarita
Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in the world?
Equipment
May the liar's vile tongue be cut out!

: Margarita is an earthly, sinful woman. She can swear, flirt, she is a woman without prejudices. How did Margarita deserve the special favor of the higher powers that control the Universe? Margarita, probably one of those one hundred and twenty-two Margaritas that Koroviev spoke about, knows what love is. Scene from the film (4 episode 32-35 min.)
Student -
Love is the second path to super-reality, just as creativity is what can resist the eternally existing evil. The concepts of goodness, forgiveness, responsibility, truth, and harmony are also associated with love and creativity.
Student-
: Margarita is an earthly, sinful woman. She can swear, flirt, she is a woman without prejudices. How did Margarita deserve the special favor of the higher powers that control the Universe? Margarita, probably one of those one hundred and twenty-two Margaritas that Koroviev spoke about, knows what love is. Scene from the film (4 episode 32-35 min.)
In the name of love, Margarita accomplishes a feat, overcoming fear and weakness, defeating circumstances, without demanding anything for herself. Margarita is the bearer of enormous poetic and inspired love. She is capable not only of boundless fullness of feelings, but also of devotion (like Matthew Levi) and the feat of fidelity. Margarita is able to fight for her Master.
: Margarita is an earthly, sinful woman. She can swear, flirt, she is a woman without prejudices. How did Margarita deserve the special favor of the higher powers that control the Universe? Margarita, probably one of those one hundred and twenty-two Margaritas that Koroviev spoke about, knows what love is. Scene from the film (4 episode 32-35 min.)
Margarita values ​​the novel more than the Master. With the power of his love he saves the Master, he finds peace. The theme of creativity and the theme of Margarita are associated with the true values ​​​​affirmed by the author of the novel: personal freedom, mercy, honesty, truth, faith, love.
So, what is the central issue raised in the actual narrative plan?

Students
: The relationship between the creator-artist and society.
Equipment
: How is the Master similar to Yeshua?

Students
: They are united by truthfulness, incorruptibility, devotion to their faith, independence, and the ability to empathize with the grief of others. But the master did not show the necessary fortitude and did not defend his dignity. He did not fulfill his duty and found himself broken. That's why he burns his novel.
Otherworld

Equipment
: Who did Woland come to earth with?
Students
: Woland did not come to earth alone. He was accompanied by creatures who, by and large, play the role of jesters in the novel, putting on all sorts of shows, disgusting and hateful to the indignant Moscow population. They simply turned human vices and weaknesses inside out.
Equipment
: For what purpose did Woland and his retinue end up in Moscow?
Students
: Their task was to do all the dirty work for Woland, serve him, prepare Margarita for the Great Ball and for her and the Master’s journey to a world of peace.
Equipment
: Who made up Woland’s retinue?
Students
: Woland’s retinue consisted of three “main jesters: Behemoth the Cat, Koroviev-Fagot, Azazello and also the vampire girl Gella.
Equipment
: What problem does the author raise in the other world?
Students
: The problem of the meaning of life. Woland's gang, committing murders, outrages, and deceptions in Moscow, is ugly and monstrous. Woland does not betray, does not lie, does not sow evil. He discovers, manifests, reveals the abomination in life in order to punish it all. On
chest mark of the scarab. He has powerful magical powers, learning, and the gift of prophecy.
Equipment
: What is reality like in Moscow?
Students
: Real, catastrophically developing reality. It turns out that the world is surrounded by grabbers, bribe-takers, sycophants, swindlers, opportunists, and self-interested people. And so Bulgakov’s satire matures, grows and falls on their heads, the conductors of which are aliens from the world of Darkness. Punishment takes different forms, but it is always fair, done in the name of good and deeply instructive.
Equipment
: How are Yershalaim and Moscow similar?
Students
: Yershalaim and Moscow are similar in landscape, hierarchy of life, and morals. Tyranny, unfair trials, denunciations, executions, and hostility are common.
Lesson summary, conclusions.

Conclusions:
- all plans of the book are united by the problem of good and evil; - themes: search for truth, theme of creativity; - all these layers and space-time spheres merge at the end of the book

Scene from the film (10 episode 25

Basic

conclusion:
The truth, the bearer of which was Yeshua, turned out to be historically unrealized, while remaining at the same time absolutely beautiful. This is the tragedy of human existence. Woland makes a disappointing conclusion about the immutability of human nature, but these same words contain the idea of ​​​​the indestructibility of mercy in human hearts.
Homework:
create a test or crossword puzzle “Three worlds in M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” using modern computer technologies.

Pontius Pilate in Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” is the character of the Master, that is, the hero of a novel within a novel, which at the end of the work converge with one common denouement. The story of the Procurator, who sent the wandering philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri, preaching love, to death, was written by the Master and paid for his courage in choosing a theme for the work.

Loneliness is the price of a high position in society

In the novel "The Master and Margarita" the image of Pontius Pilate is one of the most controversial and tragic characters. The fifth procurator of Judea arrived in Yershalaim for service from Rome. His job was to judge the criminals of the city, which he hated.

Meeting a loved one

The Master's novel describes one trial in which Yeshua, nicknamed Ha-Nozri, appeared, accused of inciting people to destroy the temple of the existing government. In the dialogue between the accused and the procurator of Judea, tension reigns at first. This strange thinker calls the hegemon a good man, and also claims that there are no evil people, but only unhappy ones. This fact angers Pilate. He was not used to being perceived without fear as the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, distinguished by his pride and emphasized self-esteem. He regarded such treatment as disrespect for his person.

However, over time, Pilate and Yeshua begin to sympathize with each other. But having heard unacceptable speeches, with which he agreed in the depths of his soul, the procurator became furious and announced a decision on the death sentence. Career and status outweighed sympathy for the kind and fearless guy on the scales of Pilate's judicial justice. Maybe this was a manifestation of cowardice, and not great power?

Pilate's vanity was dealt a blow. After all, some rogue is spiritually richer and happier than him. He was simply afraid to recognize the simple philosophy of goodness and love that the young prophet carried. In making his decision, Pontius Pilate was guided not by his heart or even common sense, but only by unverified facts and anger due to wounded pride. He sentenced Yeshua to death based on a report from a certain Judas from Kiriath. When imposing the sentence, the procurator believed that he would be able to save the Messiah. After all, on the eve of the Passover holiday, the Jewish high priest has the right to acquit one of the defendants.

Remorse and futile attempts to correct the mistake

The three remaining criminals were tried for grave sins, so Pontius Pilate was confident that the high priest Caiaphas would acquit Yeshua. However, when the decision of the first clergyman of Yershalaim turned out to be different, because he decided to justify the murderer Barrabas, Pilate realized the terrible consequences of his mistake, but could not do anything.

His torment intensified from the information that Judas denounced Yeshua only in order to receive money from the high priest, and also when the head of the procurator’s secret guard spoke in detail about Ha-Nozri’s behavior at the execution. “The only thing he said was that among human vices, he considers cowardice to be one of the most important,” Afranius said.

Pontius Pilate could not find a place for himself, because he put to death the only soul close to him. He understood that he no longer wanted to be in this position and in the city where he approved so many capital punishments, feeling innocent blood on his hands. Pilate with all his soul wanted to do at least something to clear his conscience, although he understood that he could not return Yeshua. At his indirect request, Judas was killed, and he decided to take the only follower of the wandering philosopher Levi Matthew to himself.

The problem of conscience in the novel

Through the characterization of Pontius Pilate in the novel “The Master and Margarita”, a solution to the problems of cowardice and conscience is realized. Each of us is only a person who can make a mistake. And even though Pontius Pilate’s mistake was irreparable, he realized what he had done and repented of it. It was not higher powers, but his conscience that kept him awake on every full moon, and when he managed to fall asleep, he saw Yeshua and dreamed of walking with him along the lunar path. He now thought completely differently from what he had acted: “Cowardice is undoubtedly one of the most terrible vices. This is what Yeshua Ha-Nozri said. No, philosopher, I object to you: this is the most terrible vice.”

His creator, the author of the novel about Pilate, the Master, was able to save the Roman procurator from the prison of his own conscience and fulfill his desire to be close to the Messiah. Having ascended to heaven, Woland showed the Master his hero, who had been tormented for centuries by loneliness and remorse, and allowed him to complete his work, the finale of which was the phrase: “Free.”

Work test

In Chapter 1 of the novel there is practically no exposition or introduction. From the very beginning, Woland's dispute with Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny about the existence of Jesus unfolds. To prove Woland’s correctness, Chapter 2 of “Pontius Pilate” is immediately placed, which tells about the interrogation of Yeshua by the procurator of Judea. As the reader will later understand, this is one of the fragments of the master’s book, which Massolit curses, but Woland, who retold this episode, knows well. Berlioz would later say that this story “does not coincide with the gospel stories,” and he would be right. In the Gospels there is only a slight hint of Pilate’s torment and hesitation when approving the death sentence of Jesus, and in the master’s book, the interrogation of Yeshua is a complex psychological duel not only of moral goodness and power, but also of two people, two individuals.

Several leitmotif details skillfully used by the author in the episode help reveal the meaning of the fight. At the very beginning, Pilate has a premonition of a bad day due to the smell of rose oil, which he hated. Hence the headache that torments the procurator, because of which he does not move his head and looks like stone. Then - the news that the death sentence for the defendant must be approved by him. This is another torment for Pilate.

And yet, at the beginning of the episode, Pilate is calm, confident, and speaks quietly, although the author calls his voice “dull, sick.”

The next leitmotif is the secretary recording the interrogation. Pilate is burned by Yeshua’s words that writing down words distorts their meaning. Later, when Yeshua removes Pilate headache and he will feel a disposition towards the deliverer from pain against his will, the procurator will either speak in a language unknown to the secretary, or even kick out the secretary and the convoy in order to be left alone with Yeshua, without witnesses.

Another symbolic image is the sun, which Ratboy obscured with his rough and gloomy figure. The sun is an irritating symbol of heat and light, and the tormented Pilate is constantly trying to hide from this heat and light.

Pilate's eyes are cloudy at first, but after Yeshua's revelations they shine more and more with the same sparks. At some point, it begins to seem that, on the contrary, Yeshua is judging Pilate. He relieves the procurator of his headache, advises him to take a break from business and take a walk (like a doctor), chides him for the loss of faith in people and the meagerness of his life, then claims that only God gives and takes away life, and not the rulers, convinces Pilate that “ There are no evil people in the world."

The role of the swallow flying into and out of the colonnade is interesting. The swallow is a symbol of life, independent of the power of Caesar, not asking the procurator where to build and where not to build a nest. The swallow, like the sun, is an ally of Yeshua. She has a softening effect on Pilate. From this moment on, Yeshua is calm and confident, and Pilate is anxious, irritated from the painful split. He is constantly looking for a reason to leave Yeshua, whom he likes, alive: he either thinks to imprison him in a fortress, or put him in a madhouse, although he himself says that he is not crazy, then with glances, gestures, hints, and reticence, he prompts the prisoner with the words necessary for salvation; “For some reason he looked at the secretary and the convoy with hatred.” Finally, after a fit of rage, when Pilate realized that Yeshua is absolutely uncompromising, he powerlessly asks the prisoner: “No wife?” - as if hoping that she could help straighten the brains of this naive and pure person.

“The Hated City” is Pilate’s summary, evidence of his despair that, faithfully serving the power of Caesar and believing in it, it is he who is forced to approve the death sentence of a man who is innocent. Yeshua's inflexibility infuriates Pilate. At this moment, just before the execution was approved, the procurator “with a furious gaze followed the swallow, which again fluttered onto the balcony.”

Pilate made a decision, although he realized that no one else could cure his headache. But he continues to suffer even after the high priest Caiaphas informed him that it was not Yeshua who had been pardoned, but the robber Bar-ravan. He is overcome by an inexplicable melancholy; it seems to him that “he did not finish speaking to the convict about something, or maybe he did not listen to the end of something.” He is tormented by the “anger of powerlessness.”

At the moment the execution begins, Pilate squints, “but not because the sun was burning his eyes... For some reason he did not want to see a group of convicts...” When Pilate said that Varavan had been pardoned, “it seemed to him that the sun, ringing, burst over it filled his ears with fire.”

M. Bulgakov uses all possible means to show the moral victory of Yeshua over Pontius Pilate and the cruelty of power that opposes morality, freedom, goodness, even against one’s will.

Yeshua is a hero because he overcame his fear and remained true to himself. Pilate is not a hero, he did not overcome his fear, for him submission to authority and career turned out to be more important than human instinct, conscience, sympathy, sympathy.