Interesting discussion.
What we know is this; Tacitus mentions that a man called by his followers as 'Christos' was executed by Pilate. Which is fine by me; it’s not particularly troubling. It is possible that that a man called Jesus is likely to have existed and Tacitus confirms he was killed (note nothing is said of the supposed 'resurrection') However to suggest that;
is nonsense. If anyone is familiar with Tacitus, he generally attacks the beliefs of other, non Roman faiths (the druids in Yns Mon for example) but doesn’t necessarily take the time to refute the basis of their claims. He simply repeats what he hears. For example he repeats verbatim that the druids were able to perform ‘magic’ as they ‘brandished their torches; while a circle of Druids, lifting their hands to heaven and showering imprecations, struck the troops with such an awe at the extraordinary spectacle that, as though their limbs were paralysed, they exposed their bodies to wounds without an attempt at movement.’
They were then overcome by the Roman opposition and he launches into his usual diatribe against the faith. Again, Tacitus wasn’t there. But he reports that according to the source, the druids imprecations
actually worked and paralysed the enemy. In fact, he is less dismissive in his tone to the druids than he is to the Christians.
Tacitus in his talk of the Christians is disinterested with checking or verifying claims. A simple check of Roman records (which we know he had access to) would have confirmed that Pilate was a prefect not a procurator. Nor would he have refered to the man as Christos, which is a religious term conferred upon him by his supporters. Roman records would have named ‘Christos’ by his real name. Therefore Tacitus’ quip about Christians is clearly from a Christian source and is subject to bias.
If we ponder for a moment and imagine that Jesus wasn’t a real person (and note that I’m not making that assumption), but he was ‘real’ to his followers in Rome decades later, then his followers could simply be repeating that lie to Tacitus.
Poll
