Anatole France, the french novelist who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1921, wrote a story in which Pilate and a friend, long years afterward talking about Palestine and their experiences there. They talked about the strange characters they had met and the dancing girls they had known, to the tumultuous history in which they had played a part. Then Pilate’s friend casually asked him whether he remembered Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified. Pilate knit his brows in vain. “Jesus,” he murmured, “Jesus of Nazareth? I cannot call him to mind.”