(December 18, 2018 at 9:53 am)Jehanne Wrote: Drich,1Who gives a shite why the government rounded up and killed Christians. The point is they were killed because of their faith/what they believed. You can not argue this. We have a letter from a regional governor to the emperor of rome who wrote back sanctifying the governor's decision to kill admitted Christians. Your whole argument ends at this letter. Christian's died because of what they believed even if the motivation of the state was political.
No one in classical/Roman studies thinks like you do, or your Evangelical apologists.
Yes, the Empire did persecute some early Christians, but for political and not religious reasons; the Empire also persecute other groups for other reasons. And, yes, thousands (not millions) of early Christians did die, but just many thousands also recanted and lived.
Quote:As for the literalness of the Gospels, few modern scholars take those accounts of Pilate seriously.There is more written about pilate in the bible than anywhere else. in fact he is a literal foot note meaning there is only one instance where pilate was identified as governor of judea in that time period. so if your precious "scholars" believe anything about pilate at all about his governor status and the time frame that belief whether you like it our not came from scripture in one form or fashion.
That said we have second century (late) early third century manuscripts that identify Christ as king of the jews or rather being assigned that title. So despite your scholarly objection and where Jesus was or was not by some rule or law itis record that Jesus died mockingly with this title.
