remember themselves, but also the accounts of those who lived near to the time of Jesus. So, the Gospel narratives are the firsthand and secondhand sources, which, by their very nature, are more accurate and have more credibility compared to any other sources of information.
In later chapter we will examine the exact information provided in the four canonical Gospels with regard to chronology.
In addition to the canonical Gospels, there is also a number of Apocryphal Gospels. They were not included in the Canon either because they contain a pious forgery or because of some heretical content. That is why it would be highly inadvisable to use them for the purposes of recreating biblical chronology.
Non-Christian sources on the life of Jesus Christ
Among the whole corpus of early non-Christian writings which shed light on the life of Jesus Christ, the following are particularly noteworthy.
Pliny the Younger (c. 61 – c. 113 NE), a Roman politician and writer, a lawyer. In a letter to the Emperor Trajan (reigned in 98 – 117 NE) he says:
“I consider it my sacred duty to seek your advice, sire, to find an answer to those questions that arouse my bewilderment. I’ve never witnessed trials against Christians. Therefore, I do not know what they are usually interrogated on and for what and to what extent they are punished. For I was in a great difficulty as to whether I should recognize the differences in their ages, or not at all distinguish minors from mature adults, whether I should grant pardon for repentance (or maybe renunciation of Christianity would not do any good to someone who was once a Christian), whether to execute them for the very name they bear [nomen ipsum] in the absence of any other crimes, or for the crimes [flagitia] having some connection with the name. Meanwhile, I acted in the following manner with those who, as I was informed, were Christians. I interrogated them on whether they were Christians and, when they confessed, I pressed my question the second and third time while threatening them with execution. Those who persisted I ordered to be executed [ducijussi]. I didn’t doubt that, regardless of the nature of wrongs they confessed, their stubbornness and impenitence alone deserved punishment. However, apart from those executed, there were others who were out of their minds as well. But because they were Roman citizens, I ordered that they be set apart to be sent to the capital. However, we had more and more complications as we proceeded. I received an anonymous report containing a list of Christians, but among them there were quite a few of those who denied that they were Christians and claimed they had never belonged to that group. When they, together with me, called upon the gods and worshiped your image which I had ordered to bring along with the statues of the gods, and when they cursed the name of Christ (they say, true Christians cannot be forced to do any of these three acts), I deemed it possible to release them. Others, whose names were on the list, confessed that they had been Christians at one time but left that fellowship, some three year ago, some earlier, and some even twenty years ago. All of them worshiped your image and the statues of the gods, having cursed the name of Christ. According to their own words, their whole crime consisted in that they gathered together early in the morning on certain days and sang hymns to Christ as God, and that in the name of religion [sacramento] they had bound themselves not to do any crimes, but to refrain from stealing, robbery, adultery, to keep promises and pay off debts, and that after their gatherings they got together again to take food, which was, incidentally, regular and innocent. And even this they stopped doing after I banned the hetaeria on your authority. Nevertheless, I judged it necessary to subject to torture the two slaves, who were called deaconesses [ministrae], in order to find out what is right and just there. But I found nothing except utter superstition of a gross kind. Therefore, postponing further proceedings, I appeal to you for advice” (Letter 10,96).
In terms of chronology, the above letter, testifies only to the relatively wide spread of Christianity by the beginning of the second century.
Gaius Suetonius Tranquill (c. 70 – c. 126 NE), Roman writer, historian, encyclopedist, and personal secretary of Emperor Hadrian. In his work “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars” [De vita Caesarum], he records the deeds of the Emperor Claudius (reigned in 41 – 54 NE):
“He [Claudius] expelled from Rome the Jews who were constantly stirred by Chresto” (Ibid., 5,25,4).
Some skeptical scholars, who see here the name of Chrest, are not inclined to associate it with Jesus. On the other hand, there’s nothing here that prevents us from assuming that this is a distorted name of Christus or Χριστός. Moreover, this is exactly what Tertullian points out: “The designation ‘Christian’, as follows from the etymology of the word, derives from the word ‘anointment’. And the name Chrestian, incorrectly pronounced by you [Romans] (because you do not even know exactly what we are called), means ‘pleasantness’ or ‘goodness’” (Apologeticum, 3,5). Lactantius makes a similar remark: “However, it is necessary to explain the meaning of this name [Christ] because some ignorant people, who would call him Chrest, make a mistake by mixing up the two sounds” (Divine Institutes, 4,7,5). Also, the Book of Acts says that when Paul came to Corinth, he found there the exiled Jews, “because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome” (Act 18:2). But what else, other than the spreading of the teaching of Jesus Christ, could cause the Roman Jews to be “constantly stirred”?
The stubbornness of skeptics in this matter is not so arbitrary as it is pointless, because Suetonius speaks more precisely in another place of “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars”, Suetonius, speaking of the deeds of the Emperor Nero (reigned in 54 – 68 NE): « [Nero] punished Christians [Christiani], the adherents of a new and pernicious superstition” (Ibid., 6,16,2). The reasons behind this persecution were explained by Tacitus, as will be mentioned later.
Speaking of chronology, Suetonius testifies to the wide spread of Christianity in the middle of the first century.
Cornelius Tacitus (c. 55 – c. 120 NE), the Roman writer, historian, forensic orator, senator. In his “Annales” he writes:
“And Nero, wishing to overcome the rumors [about his orders to set Rome on fire], found the scapegoats and gave over to the most excruciating tortures those who through their abominations had incurred general hatred of the populace and whom the crowd called Christians. This Christ, from whom this name is derived, was executed by the procurator Pontius Pilate under Tiberius. For a time this malicious superstition was suppressed but then broke out again, and not only in Judea where this blight originated, but also in Rome, where every abomination and every shameful thing in the world is gathered and where it finds ready adepts. So, at first, those who openly recognized themselves as belonging to this sect were seized, and then, using the information they provided, a great number of others were denounced, not so much as villainous arsonists but as haters of the human race in general. Their executions were accompanied by humiliations and insults, for they were clothed in the skins of wild animals so as to be torn apart by dogs; they were crucified on crosses, and, being sentenced to death by burning, set on fire at nightfall for illumination. Nero provided his gardens for this show. He also organized a performance in the circus where he sat among the crowds, clothed as a charioteer, or rode in a chariot as a participant in a contest. And although those Christians were guilty and deserved the severest of punishments, all these cruelties aroused compassion for them, for it seemed that they were being exterminated not for the sake of the common good, but simply because of Nero’s bloodthirstiness” (Ibid., 15,44).
Tacitus specifically mentions the execution of Jesus Christ as taking place at the time of the emperor Tiberius in Rome and Pontius Pilate in Judea. But this does not give us any more information apart from what we already know from the Gospels.
Josephus
