Subject
Jesus versus Pilate in Roman Documents
From
Date
Body
More from the M & M site (an encyclopedia entry):
A. Tacitus
We possess at least the testimony of Tacitus (A.D. 54-119) for the
statements that the Founder of the Christian religion, a deadly
superstition in the eyes of the Romans, had been put to death
by the procurator Pontius Pilate under the reign of Tiberius; that
His religion, though suppressed for a time, broke forth again not only
throughout Judea where it had originated, but even in Rome, the conflux
of all the streams of wickness and shamelessness; furthermore, that
Nero had diverted from himself the suspicion of the burning of Rome by
charging the Christians with the crime; that these latter were not
guilty of arson, though they deserved their fate on account of their
universal misanthropy. Tacitus, moreover, describes some of the
horrible torments to which Nero subjected the Christians (Ann., XV,
xliv). The Roman writer confounds the Christians with the Jews,
considering them as a especially abject Jewish sect.
(Hist., V, iii, iv).
B. Suetonius
Another Roman writer who shows his acquaintance with Christ and the
Christians is Suetonius (A.D. 75-160). It has been noted that Suetonius
considered Christ (Chrestus) as a Roman insurgent who stirred up
seditions under the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41 54): "Judaeos, impulsore
Chresto, assidue tumultuantes (Claudius) Roma expulit" (Clau., xxv). In
his life of Nero he regards that emperor as a public benefactor on
account of his severe treatment of the Christians: "Multa
sub eo et animadversa severe, et coercita, nec minus instituta . . . .
afflicti Christiani, genus hominum superstitious novae et maleficae"
(Nero, xvi).
A. Tacitus
We possess at least the testimony of Tacitus (A.D. 54-119) for the
statements that the Founder of the Christian religion, a deadly
superstition in the eyes of the Romans, had been put to death
by the procurator Pontius Pilate under the reign of Tiberius; that
His religion, though suppressed for a time, broke forth again not only
throughout Judea where it had originated, but even in Rome, the conflux
of all the streams of wickness and shamelessness; furthermore, that
Nero had diverted from himself the suspicion of the burning of Rome by
charging the Christians with the crime; that these latter were not
guilty of arson, though they deserved their fate on account of their
universal misanthropy. Tacitus, moreover, describes some of the
horrible torments to which Nero subjected the Christians (Ann., XV,
xliv). The Roman writer confounds the Christians with the Jews,
considering them as a especially abject Jewish sect.
(Hist., V, iii, iv).
B. Suetonius
Another Roman writer who shows his acquaintance with Christ and the
Christians is Suetonius (A.D. 75-160). It has been noted that Suetonius
considered Christ (Chrestus) as a Roman insurgent who stirred up
seditions under the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41 54): "Judaeos, impulsore
Chresto, assidue tumultuantes (Claudius) Roma expulit" (Clau., xxv). In
his life of Nero he regards that emperor as a public benefactor on
account of his severe treatment of the Christians: "Multa
sub eo et animadversa severe, et coercita, nec minus instituta . . . .
afflicti Christiani, genus hominum superstitious novae et maleficae"
(Nero, xvi).