RE: Where did the Jesus myth come from?
September 3, 2012 at 4:28 pm
(This post was last modified: September 3, 2012 at 4:36 pm by Tea Earl Grey Hot.)
(September 3, 2012 at 4:16 pm)Atom Wrote: ...
Another very strong bit of evidence is that there were a lot of people willing to die for the Christ.
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Which is not an uncommon or unexpected thing for cults of today or cults back then.
(September 3, 2012 at 4:16 pm)Atom Wrote:(September 3, 2012 at 11:45 am)Minimalist Wrote: No. Suetonius and Pliny mention "christians" ( or chrestians. in Suetonius' case). None of them ever heard of fucking jesus."As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome." Life of Claudius by Suetonius
This confirms the accuracy of Luke's account in Acts 18:2 "There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome."
"Punishment by Nero was inflicted on the CHRISTians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition." Life of Clausius by Suetonius. (emphasis mine).
Suetonius wrote about CHRISTians in the Roman Capital 20 years after the crucifixion. He certainly knew that CHRISTians were being punished for their beliefs. If he knew what a CHRISTian was he certainly knew about CHRIST Jesus.
Suetonius was writing about the Life of Claudius, not Jewish or Christian history, so these references are extremely fortuitous and significant, They can't rationally be shrugged of without reason.
In Epistles X.96 Pliny the Younge, Roman governor in Bithynia AD112 wrote to Emperor Trajan to seek advice as to how to treat the christians. He was concerned that they chose death rather than bow to a statue of the emperor or "curse CHRIST, which a genuine CHRISTian cannot be induced to do." Text at: http://www.ancient-literature.com/rome_p...e_X96.html
Another very strong bit of evidence is that there were a lot of people willing to die for the Christ.
Obviously, both Suetonius and Pliny knew about Jesus Christ. There's the data.
Note also that if these people referred to "Jesus", there were too many around to differentiate, hence they write of Christ and Christians.
None of the above information proves that Jesus existed. All you can tell from it is that a Christian movement existed. And we don't know the writer knew that Jesus existed independently of what Christians told about him.
My ignore list
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).