In the days before commercial radio, when some books were banned and others would be only available on the second-hand market at a price akin to 10% of a teacher's monthly salary, I heard this read aloud on Polish Radio 3: ''early in the morning on the fourteenth of the spring month of Nisan, the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, in a white cloak lined with blood-red...''