Protestantism

» Migisi - Some thoughts...

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From Brian's blog:
http://protestantism.suite101.com/blog.c...
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Suetonius writes in his Life of Clauidius that the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome "as the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus." (Historians agree that this was an alternative spelling or misspelling of "Christus" - the Roman name for Christ).
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Not all historians agree - just Christian ones. 'Chrestus' is the correct LATIN form of an actual Greek name, not a mispelling of 'Christus', meaning Christ. 'Christos' is simply Greek for the Hebrew Messiah, the 'anointed'. And at that time, there were many claiming to be this. The reference may be simply to a Messianic riot among the Jews. What reason would the followers of Christ have for making 'constant disturbances' or rioting?
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Claudius ruled from 41-54 A.D. Jesus was allegedly crucified around 30 A.D. Jesus - by any name - could not have been in Rome personally at that time instigating a riot.
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Suetonius was born about 70-71 A.D. He was NOT an eyewitness during Claudius' reign some 30 years earlier. He was not around for the expulsion of Jews from Rome, and did NOT have first hand knowledge of Claudius' reason. He was private secretary to Emperor Hadrian, not Claudius or Nero. He was simply repeating hearsay.
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Suetonius provides more insight into how and why "Chrestus" would cause such disturbances among the Jews in Rome when he tells of Nero's campaign of persecution against the Christians,...
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In his 'Life of Nero' (54-68), he tells us that certain 'Christiani' were severely punished or tortured; and characterises them as 'a class of people who believed in a new and noxious superstition'. This likely applies to Messianists. The Romans had been dealing with many disturbances like this in Palestine during Tiberius, Claudius and Nero. It seems far more likely that Suetonius reproduced what he'd read in some brief official Roman record, or borrowed from from his contemporary, Tacitus.
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Did you know that Josephus called Agripa I 'Chrestos'?
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Even if Suetonius IS referring to Christians in Rome, this only confirms the existence of Christians. There's no doubt there were Christians in Rome during the first century.
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And even if Suetonius' remarks were genuinely about Jesus, they would no more prove the existence of Jesus than do writings about other gods prove their existence. In other words, by this same argument one could provide many quotes from ancient writers that the numerous pagan gods also existed as 'real people.'

-- posted by Migisi