Tacitus...never mentioned anyone named "jesus." Assuming that the whole passage is not a much later forgery...which seems more likely... we know that the word in the only available manuscript was "Chrestianos" (Followers of Chrestus) rather than Christianos ( Followers of Christus) and that it was changed by some well-meaning monk.
The Josephus tale is a flat out 4th century forgery, doubtless by that noted liar, Eusebius. I hate to be the one to break this to you.
Tacitus' contemporaries, Pliny the Younger and Suetonius, heard of Christians....or Chrestians....it gets murky but neither of them ever heard of any "jesus."
In fact, as late as the 160's AD, Lucian of Samosata was poking fun at christians without mentioning any jesus. Curious, eh?
By the 180's Celsus had heard of him.
The Josephus tale is a flat out 4th century forgery, doubtless by that noted liar, Eusebius. I hate to be the one to break this to you.
Tacitus' contemporaries, Pliny the Younger and Suetonius, heard of Christians....or Chrestians....it gets murky but neither of them ever heard of any "jesus."
In fact, as late as the 160's AD, Lucian of Samosata was poking fun at christians without mentioning any jesus. Curious, eh?
By the 180's Celsus had heard of him.
