Pliny The Younger,
Pagan Writer
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Letters of Pliny The Younger (TR William Melmoth). Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius
Caecilius Cilo (Born: 61 A.D. - Died: ca. 112 A.D.), better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and
magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him and they were both witnesses
to the eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, 79 AD, the day of the elder's death. The largest body of Pliny's work which
survives is his Epistulae (Letters), a series of personal missives directed to his friends and associates. These letters
are a unique testimony of Roman administrative history and everyday life in the 1st century. The style is very
different from that in the Panegyricus and some commentators affirm that Pliny was the initiator of a new particular
genre: the letter written for publication. Especially noteworthy among the letters are two in which he describes the
eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August 79 during which his uncle Pliny the Elder died (Epistulae VI.16, VI.20), and one
in which he asks the Emperor for instructions regarding official policy concerning Christians (Epistulae X.96). Pliny's
attention to detail in the letters about Vesuvius is so keen that modern vulcanologists describe that type of eruption as
Plinian. The Letters of Pliny the Younger by the Younger Pliny "To THE EMPEROR TRAJAN" page 117.
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Roman historian, Tacitus,
Pagan Writer
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Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The Annals was Tacitus'
final work, covering the period from the death of Augustus Caesar in 14 AD. He wrote at least sixteen books, but
books 7–10 and parts of books 5, 6, 11 and 16 are missing. Book 6 ends with the death of Tiberius and books 7–12
presumably covered the reigns of Caligula and Claudius. The remaining books cover the reign of Nero, perhaps until
his death in June 68 or until the end of that year, to connect with the Histories. The second half of book 16 is missing
(ending with the events of 66). We do not know whether Tacitus completed the work or whether he finished the other
works that he had planned to write; he died before he could complete his planned histories of Nerva and Trajan, and
no record survives of the work on Augustus Caesar and the beginnings of the Empire with which he had planned to
finish his work. The Annals is also among the first-known secular-historic records to mention Jesus (see Tacitus on
Christ), which Tacitus does so in connection with Nero's persecution of the Christians. Book 15 of the Annals (written
c. 116) by the Roman historian Tacitus mentions Christus as a person convicted by Pontius Pilate during Tiberius'
reign "The Annals by Tacitus".
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Gaius Suetonius
Tranquillus,
Roman Historian,
Pagan Writer
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Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius (ca. 69/75 – after 130), was an equestrian and a historian
during the Roman Empire. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (c. 69–140) wrote the following in his Lives of the Twelve
Caesars about riots which broke out in the Jewish community in Rome under the emperor Claudius: "As the Jews
were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he (Claudius) expelled them from Rome". The
event was noted in Acts 18:2. The term Chrestus also appears in some later texts applied to Jesus, and Robert
Graves, among others, consider it a variant spelling of Christ, or at least a reasonable spelling error. On the other
hand, Chrestus was itself a common name, particularly for slaves, meaning good or useful. In regards to Jewish
persecution around the time to which this passage refers, the Jewish Encyclopedia states: "... in 49-50, in consequence
of dissensions among them regarding the arrival of the Messiah, they were forbidden to hold religious services. The
leaders in the controversy, and many others of the Jewish citizens, left the city". Another suggestion as to why
Chrestus may not be Christ is based on the fact Suetonius refers to Jews not Christians in this passage, even though
in his Life of Nero he shows some knowledge of the sect's existence. Even discounting all these points, this passage
offers little information about Jesus himself.
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Flavius Josephus,
Pagan Writer
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Josephus (AD 37 – c. 100), also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu (Joseph, son of Matthias) and, after he became a
Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal
ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and was also a Jewish general. His works
give an important insight into first-century Judaism. Flavius Josephus a Jew and Roman citizen who worked under the
patronage of the Flavians, wrote the Antiquities of the Jews in 93 C.E.. In these works, Jesus is mentioned twice. The
one directly concerning Jesus has come to be known as the Testimonium Flavianum.
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Lucian of Samosata,
Assyrian Rhetorician,
Writer
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Lucian of Samosata (Greek: Λουκιανός ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, Latin: Lucianus; c. A.D. 125 – after A.D. 180) was an
Assyrian rhetorician, and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.
Lucian wrote a satire called The Passing of Peregrinus,[10] in which the lead character, Peregrinus Proteus, takes
advantage of the generosity and gullibility of Christians. This is one of the earliest surviving pagan perceptions of
Christianity.
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Aristotle,
Greek Philosopher
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Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and
teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music,
logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. His works contain the earliest known formal study of
logic, which was incorporated in the late nineteenth century into modern formal logic. In metaphysics, Aristotelianism
had a profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the Middle
Ages, and it continues to influence Christian theology, especially Eastern Orthodox theology, and the scholastic
tradition of the Catholic Church. Though a few ancient atomists such as Lucretius challenged the teleological
viewpoint of Aristotelian ideas about life, teleology (and after the rise of Christianity, natural theology) would remain
central to biological thought essentially until the 18th and 19th centuries. Aristotle is referred to as "The Philosopher"
by Scholastic thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas. See Summa Theologica, Part I, Question 3, etc. These thinkers
blended Aristotelian philosophy with Christianity, bringing the thought of Ancient Greece into the Middle Ages.
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Celsus, 2nd century-
Greek Philosopher
Celsus and the Historical
Jesus
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Celsus (Greek: Κέλσος) was a 2nd century Greek philosopher and opponent of Christianity. He is known to us mainly
through the reputation of his literary work, The True Word (Account, Doctrine or Discourse) (Λόγος Ἀληθής), almost
entirely reproduced in excerpts by Origen in his counter-polemic Contra Celsum of 248, 70 or 80 years after Celsus
wrote. Celsus wrote, about 180, a book against the Christians, which is now only known through Origen's refutation of
it. Celsus apparently accused Jesus of being a child and a sorcerer and is quoted as saying that Jesus was a "mere
man".
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Tertullian,
Latin Christian author
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Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian, (ca.160 – ca.220 AD) was a prolific and controversial
early Christian Berber author, and the first to write Christian Latin literature. He also was a notable early Christian
apologist and a polemicist against heresy. Tertullian has been called "the father of Latin Christianity". In soteriology
Tertullian does not dogmatize, he prefers to keep silence at the mystery of the cross (De Patientia, iii). The sufferings
of Christ's life as well as of the crucifixion are efficacious to redemption. In the water of baptism, which (upon a partial
quotation of John 3:5) is made necessary (De baptismate, vi.), we are born again; we do not receive the Holy Spirit in
the water, but are prepared for the Holy Spirit. We little fishes, after the example of the ichthys, fish, Jesus Christ, are
born in water (De baptismate, i). In discussing whether sins committed subsequent to baptism may be forgiven, he
calls baptism and penance "two planks" on which the sinner may be saved from shipwreck — language which he gave
to the Church (De penitentia, xii).
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Biblical Artifacts of Scripture
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Jericho Destroyed,
Archaeology
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Found 3 ft layer of ash around Jericho which was destroyed by fire around 1400 B.C; date corresponds to bible telling
us of the end of Hebrew 40 yr exodus after leaving Egypt (Joshua 6-1 thru 3 and Joshua 10-1 thru 28).
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Clay Tablet/ Monument,
Archaeology
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Omri, a king of Israel (2 Kings 3) is mentioned on the Moabite Stone, which was cut in the ninth century B.C.
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Clay Tablet/ Monument,
Archaeology
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Jehu, another king of Israel (2 Kings 10) is mentioned on the Black Obelisk of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III
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Babylonian Chronicles,
Archaeology
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The Babylonian Chronicle mentions that King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and imprisoned its king,
Jehoichin--exactly the story the bible tells us in 2 Kings 24.
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Clay Tablet/ Monument,
Archaeology
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An official inscription of Assyrian king Sennacherib mentions that he shut up the Judean king Hezekiah "like a bird in
a cage"; exactly the words expressed in the bible in 2 Kings 18.
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Tomb of Caiaphas,
Archaeology
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In 1992, archaeologists found the family tomb of Caiaphas, the high priest who presided at the trial of Jesus. Like
Caiaphas, Herod, Pontius Pilate, Felix, and other figures mentioned in the bibles New Testament were also real men;
not made up characters of Gospel writers.
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Mara bar Sarapion,
pagan philosopher
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Archaeology
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Archaeologists Unearth Oldest Hebrew Text
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Archaeology
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CITY OF DAVID - NEW DISCOVERY
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Dead Sea Scrolls,
Archaeology
Click to View Scrolls
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The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible found in the 1940s at Khirbet Qumran on the northwest
shore of the Dead Sea from which it derives its name. The texts are of great mystical and historical significance, as they include the
oldest known surviving copies and extra-biblical documents and preserve evidence of great diversity in late Second Temple
Judaism. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus.[1] These
manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE and 70 CE.[2] The scrolls are traditionally identified with the ancient Jewish sect
called the Essenes, though some recent interpretations have challenged this association and argue that the scrolls were penned by
priests in Jerusalem, Zadokites, or other unknown Jewish groups. Click to Watch
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