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Mar. 10, 2010 Here, translated from the original Latin, is a passage from the so-calledAnnals, an untitled history written by Publius Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56-117), concerning the reigns of Emperors Tiberius and Nero: Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Annals appeared around 117 AD, some 85 or 90 years after the supposed time of the crucifixion. Tacitus did not state the source of his information. One might only speculate. Some people suppose that Tacitus used official sources, now lost. Others suppose that Tacitus’ informant may have been a Christian or someone knowledgeable on Christian beliefs. In any case, it is by no means an eyewitness account or even a contemporary account, and cannot possibly be taken as evidence for the historicity of Jesus. But the case for the utility of Tacitus in corroborating the existence of Jesus gets much worse when we realize that the oldest surviving copy of Annals dates from the eleventh century. This paragraph may be viewed in the original Latin at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MII.png How many generations of copies preceded this copy? Who knows? The condition of the page in no way suggests that we can rely on it to be an exact duplicate of the paragraph that appeared in the original text 900 years earlier. Errors or willful editing may have been introduced. The paragraph may even be an entirely fraudulent addition. Who can guess? Not a single mention of this paragraph was made throughout the Middle Ages, even by Christian writers who discussed Nero’s persecution of the Christians. Sulpicius Severus (c. AD 363-425) does use two phrases that suggest that he may have read Tacitus’ paragraph, but he does not name Tacitus as his source. Even so, a date of around 400 AD is hardly contemporary with Jesus. Believe it or not, Christian apologists still cite this passage as evidence for an historical Jesus. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! 
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