@Grandad
What are your thoughts on the passage by Tacitus?
Tacitus on Christ
The
Roman historian and
senator Tacitus referred to
Christ,
his execution by
Pontius Pilate, and the existence of
early Christians in Rome in his final work,
Annals (written
ca. AD 116),
book 15, chapter 44.
The context of the passage is the six-day
Great Fire of Rome that burned much of the city in AD 64 during the reign of Roman Emperor
Nero. The passage is one of the earliest non-Christian references to the
origins of Christianity, the execution of
Christ described in the
canonical gospels, and the presence and
persecution of
Christians in 1st-century
Rome.
The scholarly consensus is that Tacitus' reference to the execution of
Jesus by
Pontius Pilate is both authentic, and of historical value as an independent Roman source. Paul Eddy and
Gregory Boyd argue that it is "firmly established" that Tacitus provides a non-Christian confirmation of the
crucifixion of Jesus. Scholars view it as establishing three separate facts about Rome around AD 60:
(i) that there were a sizable number of Christians in Rome at the time,
(ii) that it was possible to distinguish between Christians and Jews in Rome, and
(iii) that at the time pagans made a connection between Christianity in Rome and its origin in
Roman Judea
... Paul Eddy has stated that as Rome's preeminent historian, Tacitus was generally known for checking his sources and was not in the habit of reporting gossip. Tacitus was a member of the
Quindecimviri sacris faciundis, a council of priests whose duty it was to supervise foreign religious cults in Rome, which as Van Voorst points out, makes it reasonable to suppose that he would have acquired knowledge of Christian origins through his work with that body.
... The next known reference to Christianity was written by
Pliny the Younger, who was the Roman governor of
Bithynia and Pontus during the reign of emperor
Trajan. Around 111 AD, Pliny wrote a
letter to emperor Trajan, requesting guidance on how to deal with suspected Christians who appeared before him in trials he was holding at that time. Tacitus' references to Nero's persecution of Christians in the Annals were written around 115 AD, a few years after Pliny's letter but also during the reign of emperor Trajan.
Another notable early author was
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, who wrote the
Lives of the Twelve Caesars around 122 AD, during the reign of emperor
Hadrian. In this work, Suetonius described why
Jewish Christians were
expelled from Rome by emperor Claudius, and also the
persecution of Christians by Nero, who was the heir and successor of Claudius.
etc …
