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  • From: "Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000 AT mailhost.chi.ameritech.net>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: The Roman Congregation (was "Neil Elliot...")
  • Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 21:25:43 -0500


Within the context of an exchange with Mark Nanos on the make up and date of
establishment of the Christian congregations in Rome, Jon Peter wrote:

[much snipped]

> So much for how Latin folk mis-hear a strange, uncommon Greek word,
> Christos. A Roman historian such as Tacitus or Suetonius using 'Chrestus' in
> the 2nd century can only be referring to the individual Jesus Christ. Why?
> Because by that time "Christus" was a household name, and the "chrestians"
> were notorious scapegoats and victims of serial persecution.

I find your particular reasons for why any 2nd cent Roman historian using the
name
Chrestus could only be referring to Jesus very intriguing, but only because
of it's
boldness in the face of evidence to the contrary. So far as I know, up to the
time
that Tacitus (who never uses either the name "Chrestus" or the term
"Chrestians" of
any person or group) and Seutonius wrote -- no later that 120? -- there is
absolutely
no indication (1) that the name "Christus", if known at all, was known as
anything
other than a title, let alone a household word, among the Roman elite or to
Roman
historians, or (2) that Christians, let alone "chrestians", were, apart
from the
context of the Neronian persecution (which, ironically, as Tacitus himself
notes,
actually ended up gaining the christianoi **sympathy** from the Roman public),
thought of or treated as scapegoats, notorious or otherwise, or (3) were
serially
persecuted by the Roman state (on this, see further W. Frend, _Martyrdom and
Persecution in the Early Church_ . which you might also consult with profit
on the
Suetonious' Chrestus=Christus=Jesus debate. He does not think much of it).

To my knowledge, the only greco-roman evidence of post Neronian pre 120 CE
official
Roman persecution (organized state action) of Christians we have is in
Pliny's letters
to Trajan (c. 113), and that was ad hoc and very local, and even then not
very well
approved of by the emperor who actually went on to restrict it!
Interestingly, the
Pliny correspondence with Trajan shows clearly that Christus, was *not* known
as a
household name, let alone one indicating Jesus, for Pliny has to do some
fairly
extensive detective work in order to discover just who this Christus
worshiped by
Christians (who he didn't know very much about either) actually was. This
latter fact
seems to me to be damning evidence against the validity of your reasons.

But I am quite open to hearing about anything I have overlooked.

Yours,

Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson
7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000 AT ameritech.net






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