Apocrypha
Vengeance of the Savior
Vindicta Salvatoris
3 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. Published here from a public-domain translation, edited for continuous reading.
Chapters
Dossier
The medieval legend in which Rome avenges the death of Christ: Titus and Vespasian are healed by a sacred image, converted, and destroy Jerusalem as punishment.
Where this text comes from
Latin, probably 8th century AD. Known as the Vindicta Salvatoris, it belongs to the Pilate cycle and circulated widely in the medieval West.
Why it is not in the Bible
Outside every canon.
What you will find
- It begins as a dated chronicle — in the days of Tiberius Caesar, with Herod as tetrarch — and invents everything that follows.
- Titus is introduced with a cancerous sore taking over his face, and it is his healing that sets the whole story going.
- The destruction of Jerusalem is reinterpreted as divine vengeance: a reading with grave historical consequences, to be read with care today.
- Titus's final cry against Tiberius closes the text in the same accusing tone it was written in.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this text historical?
- No. Titus and Vespasian never converted, and the destruction of Jerusalem had political and military causes. The text is medieval legend, useful for understanding the mentality of the age that produced it.