The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #67306   Message #1128479
Posted By: Strick
03-Mar-04 - 12:24 PM
Thread Name: BS: Just saw Mel's film...
Subject: RE: BS: Just saw Mel's film...
"I haven't read of a Roman or Greek account of the death of Jesus but I assume there must be such."

The best example I've heard of was from Tacitus in his Annals written in 115 A.D. I'd point out that Romans as a rule didn't discuss the execution of minor criminals in their histories. (Spartacus was a notable exception. At that there are only 3 mentions of Spartacus in Roman histories and he was Rome's worst nightmare, starting a slave revolt and defeating some of their best legions. Jesus was a lot less flashy.)

"The originator of that name, Christus, had been executed when Tiberius was Emperor, by order of the procurator Pontius Pilatus."

That's it.

Josephus, the Jewish historian turned adopted son of a Roman Emperor, mentioned Jesus twice in books written between 70 and 98 A.D. (amended bits excluded):

"About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, for he was a performer of wonderful deeds, a teacher of such men as are happy to accept the truth. He won over many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. When Pilate, at the suggestion of the leading men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at the first did not forsake him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day."
Antiquities, Book 18, 63-64.

(Speaking of High Priest Ananias in reference to Jesus's brother James the Just)

"Convened the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish religious court / governing body). He had brought before them the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ, who was called James, and some other men, whom he accused of having broken the law, and handed them over to be stoned."
Antiquities, Book 20, 200.