RE: My blog
March 1, 2015 at 10:41 am
(This post was last modified: March 1, 2015 at 11:31 am by watchamadoodle.)
The quote from Tacitus probably only indicates that Christians (or Chrestians) existed at the time of Nero. Tacitus probably only recorded the belief that Christians were followers of a Jew named Christus who was crucified under Pilate. Tacitus probably had no reason to question the existence of Christus, and he probably didn't care very much if Christus was mythical.
The Josephus quote is more important IMO. Probably if that quote didn't exist then the historians would not be so confident that Jesus probably existed.
(Also, Josephus was a politically well-connected Jew when James was stoned, so it's a very different situation than the Tacitus quote.)
The Josephus quote is more important IMO. Probably if that quote didn't exist then the historians would not be so confident that Jesus probably existed.
(Also, Josephus was a politically well-connected Jew when James was stoned, so it's a very different situation than the Tacitus quote.)
