Expert: Maria Date: 4/12/2004 Subject: crucifixion
Question Please could you tell me what historians generally think about Christ's crucifixion recorded in the New Testament. What do the history books say? I have read websites where Christians insist that the crucufixion was a real historical event based on references to it by Tacitus and other early writers. Also I have seen websites where Bible sceptics say that these references are untrustworthy. It's all very confusing.
Yours gratefully, Joe.
Answer Hello Joe,
Actually we have not many literary sources about Christ's crucifixion,barring the Gospels, i.e. the New Testament.
So, here are these historical sources that are certainly reliable, due to the trustworthiness of the authors.
1-TACITUS (ca.55- ca.117 AD), Roman historian, who in his Annals, written ca. 116 AD, says that Nero, the Roman emperor, when in the tenth year of his reign (A.D. 64) Rome was almost destroyed by fire, to banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of his order, accused of incendiarism and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on the Christians whose name derived from "Christus who suffered extreme PENALTY during the reign of Tiberius (14-37 AD) at the hands of the procurator, Pontius Pilatus".[see below]
So, though Tacitus does not mention expressly the word ‘crucifixion' (‘crucifixio', in Latin), but uses the Latin word “supplicium”, meaning literally ‘torment', ‘punishment', ‘penalty', it is clear that Jesus was crucified since in the Roman Empire the crucifixion was the capital punishment generally inflicted on all those who were not Roman citizens, like Jesus for example, while Roman citizens were condemned to be beheaded (St.Paul for example).
2- JOSEPHUS FLAVIUS(ca.38-100 AD), Jewish historian, whose work "The Antiquities of the Jews”, written in Greek, contains some references to Jesus Christ, mentions explicitly the CROSS (in Greek, ‘stauros') as the instrument of Jesus'crucifixion.[See below].
Hope this can be helpful to you.
All the best
Maria
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*FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, “Jewish Antiquities”, book 18, Chapter 3, paragraphs 1-5. Paragraph 3(63):
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the CROSS , those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day , as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named for him, are not extinct at this day.”
*TACITUS, The Annals, book XV, chapter 44
"Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme PENALTY during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus".[in Latin, “Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis poenis adfecit quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat. Auctor nominis eius Christus Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum SUPPLICIO adfectus erat].
