RE: The Historical Reliability of the New Testament
May 17, 2015 at 12:51 pm
(This post was last modified: May 17, 2015 at 12:54 pm by Randy Carson.)
(May 17, 2015 at 12:40 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Pliny the Younger - c 110 AD or 3 years after this alleged Ignatius bullshit - describes a band of xtians he interrogated.
Quote:They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food--but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.
No church. No jesus. No trinity. No communion. No apostles. No paul. No Pilate. No crucifixion. No second coming. No nothing. In fact, Pliny probably wrote Chestians and was given some help by a later scribe who thought he was correcting Pliny's spelling as happened with Tacitus centuries later.
It would have been a truly remarkable thing if this Roman official had included that much theology in his report.
But we do see:
a. the church (that's the body of believers
b. gathering to worship Christ as God
c. regrouping to partake of "ordinary and innocent" food (as opposed to non-ordinary food? the Eucharist, perhaps?)
d. the torturing of believers for the faith
From all of this, we can conclude one thing with certainty: Jesus is not a Legend.
And that seals off another of the skeptics' favorite rabbit trails.
Ya know, Min, I'm starting to wonder if you are secretly a Christian who has gone undercover in this forum to occasionally bring up points like this. 'Cause sometimes you are pure gold.
