Program / Course 16: Historical Defense / Lesson 2.3
What you will learn
- Summarize what each of the three Roman writers says about Christians or Christ.
- Explain the questions that scholars raise about the sources and independence of each report.
- Describe what these texts show about how Romans viewed the early Christians.
- Explain why these passages are more useful for the existence and spread of the movement than for the life of Jesus.
The big idea
Three Roman authors of the early second century mention the Christians: the historian Tacitus, the governor and letter writer Pliny the Younger, and the biographer Suetonius. They are hostile or at best puzzled observers. Tacitus says that Christ was executed under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. Pliny shows Christians worshiping Christ as a god. Suetonius refers to disturbances over a certain Chrestus and to the punishment of Christians. These texts confirm the existence of a movement and a few basic facts. They do not give independent detail about what Jesus did or whether he rose.
Key terms
- Annals
- Tacitus’ history of Rome from the death of Augustus to the death of Nero, written in the early second century.
- Procurator and prefect
- Titles of Roman officials. Pilate’s title in the first century was prefect. Tacitus calls him procurator, the title used in his own day.
- Superstitio
- The Latin word Romans used for foreign or excessive religious practice they disliked, as opposed to religio, proper worship.
- Chrestus
- A common name. Suetonius may have used it for Christ, though the identification is debated.
- Legate (governor)
- A senior Roman official in charge of a province. Pliny governed Bithynia and Pontus.
- Hearsay
- Information passed on at second hand. Ancient writers often repeated what they had heard from others without checking.
Background
By the early second century Christianity had spread widely enough to come to the notice of Roman officials and writers. They did not write to describe the faith. They mentioned it when it caused administrative or political trouble. Their remarks are therefore brief, unsympathetic and unconcerned with doctrine.
This is exactly why they are useful. They are independent of Christian sources in their motive and in their wording, even if their information may sometimes derive from Christians or from official records. They show how the movement looked from outside, and they provide a few facts that hostile writers had no reason to invent.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Tacitus, Annals 15.44
Tacitus, writing around AD 116, describes the great fire of Rome in AD 64 and the rumor that Nero himself had ordered it. To remove the rumor, he says, Nero blamed a group hated for their vices, whom the people called Christians. He explains that the founder of the name, Christus, had been executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate, that the pernicious superstition checked for a moment broke out again, not only in Judea but in Rome, and that a great multitude were convicted, many of them punished with cruelty.
Nearly all scholars accept the passage as genuine, since it is hostile to Christians and is found in a work with no sign of tampering. Doubts have been raised by a few, mostly about the manuscript, and these are generally rejected.
Step 2: What Tacitus can and cannot show
The passage shows that by the early second century educated Romans knew that the Christians took their name from a man executed under Pilate. It also supports the fact of a persecution in Rome under Nero, though its scale is debated. It does not say where Tacitus learned of this. He may have used Roman archives, general knowledge, or what Christians themselves said, and he never says. Some scholars note that he calls Pilate procurator, which was not strictly his title, and treat this as a sign of a source of his own day.
Tacitus does not mention miracles or the resurrection. His one sentence about the superstition breaking out again may be an unconscious reference to the belief in the resurrection, but that is an inference, and he does not say so.
Step 3: Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96
Around AD 112, Pliny, governor of Bithynia and Pontus in northern Asia Minor, wrote to the emperor Trajan to ask how to deal with Christians who had been denounced. He describes how he had questioned them. Those who denied being Christians, and who invoked the gods, offered wine and incense to the emperor’s image and cursed Christ, were released. He adds that real Christians, he was told, could not be made to do these things.
Some who had left the movement years before told him that Christians met on a fixed day before dawn, sang a hymn to Christ as to a god, and bound themselves by an oath not to commit crimes such as theft or adultery, and later shared a harmless meal. Trajan’s reply (10.97) was that Christians were not to be hunted out, but that those who were accused and refused to recant should be punished.
Step 4: Suetonius
In his Life of Claudius (25.4), written around AD 120, Suetonius says that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because they were constantly causing disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus. Many scholars think this refers to disputes among Roman Jews about Christ, and some connect it with the expulsion mentioned in Acts 18:2. Others point out that Chrestus was a common name and may refer to a local person, so the identification is uncertain.
In the Life of Nero (16.2) he lists among Nero’s acts the punishment of Christians, a class of people given to a new and harmful superstition. This agrees with Tacitus on Nero and shows that the Christians were seen as a distinct and suspect group.
Step 5: What the three together show
Together these texts show that within a century of Jesus’ death Christians were found in Rome and in Asia Minor, that they worshiped Christ, that they were regarded as a socially dangerous superstition, and that they could be punished for the Name. For the life of Jesus they add only the fact of his execution under Pilate (Tacitus). None of them reports anything that the Christians did not already say.
That limit is important. Roman evidence is good for the existence and spread of a movement. It is not an independent check on what happened in Galilee and Jerusalem around AD 30. The reliability of the Gospels must be tested by other means.
- What did the author know, and where might he have learned it?
- Is the author hostile, neutral or sympathetic?
- Is the report more likely to come from official records, general rumor or Christians themselves?
- What does the passage show about the movement and what does it show about Jesus?
- How strong is the case that the passage is genuine?
- What would a Roman writer have had reason to mention, and what would he have ignored?
Examples
The title of Pilate
Tacitus calls Pilate procurator, although inscriptional evidence shows that in Pilate’s time the title was prefect. This is a small slip that tells a historian that Tacitus was writing from the practice of his own day, not copying a first century document word for word.
Pliny’s test
Pliny’s test for suspects, offering incense to the emperor’s image and cursing Christ, gave the Christians a clear choice. His observation that true Christians could not be made to curse Christ is a striking report of their loyalty, though by itself it does not show that what they believed was true.
Chrestus
If the Chrestus of Suetonius is Christ, the text suggests that Roman Jews were quarreling about him as early as the 40s. If it is not, then it is a reference to an unrelated person. The text alone cannot decide.
Different perspectives
Mainstream historians
Most classicists and New Testament scholars treat Tacitus as a reliable witness to the execution of Jesus under Pilate and to the Neronian persecution, while noting that he probably did not have independent access to detailed information about Jesus.
Protestant and Catholic apologists
Many cite these passages as evidence that the existence and execution of Jesus are known from non-Christian sources. The better scholars among them add that the sources are limited to basic facts.
Orthodox Christians
Orthodox tradition remembers the martyrs of Nero’s reign, including Peter and Paul, according to church tradition, and sees the Roman texts as confirming that Christians suffered for the faith. The church’s own memory, not Roman writers, is the main source for its history.
Skeptical scholars
Some argue that the Roman authors only repeat what Christians told them, so that these passages add nothing independent about Jesus. They note that all three writers lived long after the events, and that Suetonius is uncertain.
Roman historians of religion
Scholars of the Roman world emphasize that the texts show how Romans thought about religion, as a matter of civic order and ancestral custom, which explains why a movement that rejected the gods and the emperor cult seemed dangerous.
Why it matters
These three authors are the most commonly cited outside witnesses to Christianity. Reading them carefully protects against two errors: using them to prove more than they can, and dismissing them as worthless. They are good evidence for what they actually report, a movement of Christ worshipers, a founder executed under Pilate, and official hostility.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Tacitus proves the resurrection.
Correction: Tacitus reports only the execution and the later spread. He never mentions the resurrection, and his source is unknown.
Misunderstanding: Roman writers wrote detailed reports of Jesus’ life.
Correction: They said very little, and mostly in connection with Christians and imperial policy. Jesus was a minor figure from a Roman viewpoint.
Misunderstanding: Suetonius clearly mentions Jesus.
Correction: The reference to Chrestus may mean Christ, but this is uncertain. Many scholars accept it with caution.
Misunderstanding: These texts are worthless because they are late.
Correction: They are not eyewitness accounts of Jesus, but they are good evidence for the Christian movement and early imperial attitudes, and they are independent of Christian authors.
Knowledge check
What does Tacitus say about Christ, and why is the passage considered credible?
Tacitus says that Christus was executed under Tiberius by Pontius Pilate and that his followers were persecuted by Nero. The passage is considered credible because it is hostile to Christians, because it is part of a work with no sign of tampering, and because it fits other evidence. His source is unknown.
What does Pliny’s letter show about early Christian practice?
It shows that about AD 112 Christians in Asia Minor met on a fixed day before dawn, sang a hymn to Christ as to a god, bound themselves to avoid crimes, and shared an ordinary meal. It also shows that Roman governors punished those who refused to recant.
Why is the reference in Suetonius uncertain?
Suetonius says that Claudius expelled Jews from Rome because of disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus. Chrestus was a common name, and Suetonius does not say it means Christ. Many scholars think it does, but the identification cannot be proved.
What is the main limit of these Roman sources?
They confirm the existence and spread of the movement and the execution of its founder, but they do not give independent information about his life or about the resurrection. They were written by outsiders decades later, mostly because Christians had become an administrative problem.
Think it through
- What does it tell you that Roman officials thought Christians dangerous?
- Why might educated Romans have paid so little attention to Jesus himself?
- What would you expect an outsider to notice first about a new religious movement today?
- How should the fact that these writers were hostile affect your view of what they report?
Independent assignment
A table of Roman testimony
In your own notebook, build a table with three rows: Tacitus, Pliny and Suetonius. For each, record the date, what is said, the probable source of information, the main doubt and what the passage can establish. Add 200 words on what all three together can and cannot show. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Justin Martyr, The First Apology Read how a Christian defended the movement to a Roman audience in the next generation.
- Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity Read the chapters on the persecutions for the Roman setting.
- J. B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers Read Ignatius and Clement to see how Christians described themselves in the same period.
- Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics Read for an early Latin Christian response to Roman hostility.
- Acts 18:2 The expulsion of Jews from Rome under Claudius.
- 1 Peter 4:16 Suffering as a Christian.