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A biography is a book about an historical person that tries to tell the story of his or her life in as truthful a way as possible. An historical novel attempts to tell the story of a person or a time or an event in history in an entertaining way, sticking to the main known facts but inventing unknown dialogue, adding fictional characters that help to move along the plot, and sometimes rearranging some real events in time and space so as to more effectively tell the main story. Biographies and historical novels can be both informative and entertaining and are both useful.
The author of Pontius Pilate, Paul Maier, was a professor of ancient history with a specialty in Biblical times. He only passed away in 2025. Maier wrote many useful books elucidating the historical background of the gospels and the formation of the early church for young people and adults, as well as writing several well-received novels. He called Pontius Pilate a “biographical novel,” since he intended it to be somewhere in-between the two above definitions. He tells the story of Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, from about 26 AD to nearly the end of his life. There is much known about Pilate outside the Bible, which Maier draws on to more fully portray this man. The Bible is a historical text, describing real things done and said by real people, which were done at certain times and in certain places in the history of the world. Maier believed this and used his expert knowledge to present the best-rounded picture that he could of this man who most of us only know from a few paragraphs in the Gospels. In writing this high-school-level book, Maier tried to invent as little as possible and to not rearrange any events at all. I think he succeeded in making a fascinating biographical novel about an important person in the Bible and in history.
Note: If any reader knows Jeff Shaara’s wonderful books about wars in American history, I think they also might be classified as biographical novels.