Suetonius
Suetonius
Suetonius was a secretary and historian to Hadrian, Emperor of Rome from 117 to 138 AD. Regarding Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) and the Riot of Rome in 49 AD, Suetonius wrote:
- As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christ], he [Claudius] expelled them from Rome.
1
Later, Suetonius wrote about the great fire of Rome in 64 AD:
- Punishment by Nero was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.
2
- What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from their executing their wise king? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: The Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Plato. Pythagoras did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise king die for good; he lived on in the teaching which he had given.
3
Lucian of Samosata was a 2nd century Greek philosopher. This preserved text is obviously satirical, but it's a powerful "extra-biblical source":
- The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day -- the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account... You see, these misguided creatures started with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property.4
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Footnotes:
1 Suetonius, Life of Claudius, 25.4. See also, McDowell, New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, 121-122.
2 Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, 26.2. See also, Ibid.
3 British Museum Syriac Manuscript, Addition 14, 658. See also, Eastman & Smith, The Search for Messiah, 251-252.
4 Lucien of Samosata, "Death of Pelegrine," The Works of Lucian of Samosata, 4 vols. Trans. By H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler, Clarendon Press, 1949, 11-13.
