Written by: Stefan J. Bos
Article source: www.worthynews.com
Ancient manuscripts detailing events during the Roman Empire contain ” firsthand ” evidence about Jesus Christ’s life and death, investigators said recently.
The Annals were written by the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus just 91 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. The manuscripts begin with Emperor Augustus’s death in 14ADand end with Nero’s suicide 54 years later.
In Book 15, the historian discusses the Great Fire of Rome in 54AD, shortly before Nero’s death, which the emperor blamed on a class “called Christians.”
The second sentence reads: “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.”
The Latin version of ‘Christus’ means ‘the Anointed One’ or ‘the Messiah,’ which comes from the Hebrew word Mashiach (Messiah).
The Bible’s New Testament states that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion.
Tacitus discusses the persecution of Christ’s followers, who were spreading into Rome from Judaea, writing how “an arrest was made of all who pleaded guilty to being Christian.”
“Covered with the skins of wild 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,” the passage reads.
Yet despite these sufferings, they kept their faith in Christ till death.
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Date published: 13/04/2025
Feature image: The front side of folios 13 and 14 of a Greek papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Luke containing verses 11:50–12:12 and 13:6-24, P. Chester Beatty I (Gregory-Aland no. P45).
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