Commentary. being pierced, that blood soaked into the hill of Calvary/Golgotha, and onto Adam's skull

being pierced, that blood soaked into the hill of Calvary/Golgotha, and onto Adam's skull. This in turn freed Adam from his sin of having signed a pact with the devil to stay and work the earth after being expelled from Paradise. Bulgakov's care in using periphrastic designations for Golgotha/Bald Mountain as well as his reliance on the Gospel ofNicodemus elsewhere makes such an association plausible.

CHAPTER 24

Manuscripts don't burn—a phrase that went into Russian literary history. Woland is talking about the immortality of a created work, possibly in the sense that sooner or later it will turn up, perhaps even to be given to one writer or another as inspiration from another world. However, despite this phrase, Bulgakov himself knew very well that manuscripts do burn, since he burned a number of his own in 1930—including the first draft of a novel about the devil—when he lost faith in his future.

No documents, no person—although this phrase had special resonance for a contemporary Russian reader in that documents were all-important to stay out of trouble, the concept can be found in many anti-bureaucratic works of the previous century, especially by such writers as Saltykov-Shchedrin and Sukhovo-Kobylin. The phrase was also used in a work probably known to Bulgakov, Tynyanov's " Lieutenant Kizhe."

Then he rushed... back up the stairs—there is a contradiction here: Mogarych was earlier described as having flown right out Woland's window. There are a number of minor textual discrepancies, especially where material added just before Bulgakov's death is concerned. The entire story of Mogarych was a late addition.

CHAPTER 25

Is it a Falernum—Falernian wines are mentioned in classical Latin literature. They were amber-colored, but were not red. Since they are often referred to as dark, Bulgakov clearly thought this wine was red at first. Later, having learned otherwise, he mentions Cecubum (which is red), but did not make the change everywhere in the novel—see notes to Chapter 30.

To us, to you, Caesar...—this toast, while being historically accurate, would sound very contemporary to a Russian reader of the Stalin era. In general, much that was typical of Russia in the 1930s is displaced into the Pilate chapters: interrogation and beating, political double-dealing, spying, and provocation. In turn, as mentioned above, the Moscow strand of the novel contains much that is a parody of New Testament elements.

Bar is now... harmless—an error. The name Bar-rabban cannot be shortened this way, since Bar means " son of."

Were they given a drink—Jewish custom was to give the condemned a drink of wine with sedative herbs mixed into it to ease their suffering. According to Pilate this drink was to be given before the men were hung to the posts, a time about which the narrative provides no information. We have seen in Chapter 16 that Yeshua was given a sponge with water on it, but we have no knowledge of anything else, although the point is made that Matvei was present throughout the execution, at a distance, but able to see. Afranius, a deeply mysterious figure, who, like Woland, has a violent band at his command, may or may not be telling the truth in this chapter. While he does what Pilate tells him to, the descriptions of his expressions during this interview indicate that all is not as. it seems. For example, before replying to the question about whether Yeshua was given a drink before being hanged, Afranius closes his eyes at a

Commentary 355

crucial point, and tortures Pilate by leaving out Yeshua's name. Airan ¡ us also leaves out the fact that the last word spoken by Yeshua was Hegemon. Bulgakov brings a great deal of the dramatist to these conversations, and the stage directions are as eloquent as the words themselves.

cowardice —seen in the context of all of the author's works, this is a truly Bulga-kovian theme, which is found in his earliest stories and most of his plays, as well as in his last novel. The Russian here is malodushie, which literally means faint-heartedness or pusillanimity. Later, Pilate will use the specific word trustâ t \ which means cowardice.

he will be murdered tonight—like many other tyrant figures in Bulgakov's works (see the plays Last Days and Moliè re, for examples), Pilate gives orders indirectly. Pilate is here beginning the myth of Yeshua for his own reasons. On the one hand he wishes to somehow make up for the unjust execution of Yeshua, on the other, he is making sure that Kaifa will have problems resulting from this death.