Shinobi

The Romans were pretty tight record keepers. Firstly, we have no records of a Jesus existing and no records of a crucifixion. You would think that the biggest political trial in the Roman empire would have generated a fair bit of documentation. You would also think that some guy raising the dead, curing the blind ect. would also have generated a bit of scholarly interest. Demi-god walking the earth? Biggest event in human history and not a scrap of parchment found that mentions it. You would also think that a news of a real demi god would have spread very far and wide, like to china. No records there. Just another mythology out of a million that no-one outside of the cultures that belived it were interested in.

spin

Antiquity is not kind to the preservation of the past. Much of the past has been "lost" because records have been destroyed. We know what we know of Syria mainly from Greek writers and basically all Roman records just didn't make it. We just have a few incidental remarks in other works which allude to situations in Syria. So, while the Romans were perhaps pretty tight record keepers they couldn't withstand the ravage of time.

The gospel accounts basically show this hemi-semi-demigod as being treated as a common criminal, so perhaps it mightn't have made a splash in the Roman world, for page nine local news about the death of someone who wasn't either a patrician or a threat to Rome didn't raise much interest in the metropolis.


spin

Ehud

Previous poster sums it up pretty good.

Jesus was a minor blip on the radar screen of the Romans.

You find mention of Jesus in the writings of Josephus, Philo, and Taticus.

There are also a couple letters in the British Royal Museum that are supposedly written by Pilot, reporting on this Jesus fellow to Ceasar.

Vorkosigan

There is no mention of "Jesus" in Tacitus (the reference is to Christ), Josephus is probably a forgery, and there is no reference to anything Christian in Philo.

The letters of Pilate are also known to be forgeries.

Vorkosigan

Gooch's dad

To answer the OP--Rome burned at least twice in the latter half of the 1st century, so even if there *were* Roman records from Judea, it isn't surprising that none are left.

Kosh

Do you feel this is sufficient to negate the argument that were no records of the crucifixion having ever happened?

Gooch's dad

Kosh, to claim that there were no records of the crucifixion would be a rather insupportable argument. It's a negative claim that cannot be proven.

I brought it up because I've often seen the claim like that of the OP, that the Romans kept "meticulous records" and therefore we should have a record of Jesus' death (if he existed and was crucified). Even if such records were kept, there is no reason to think they should survive to this day. Thousands upon thousands of others were crucified by the Romans, yet we have no "official Roman record" at all of any of these crucifixions, do we?

godalmighty

ditto ditto ditto

damn I can agree with atheists on something at last

haha
:devil3:

TheBigKahoona

Not to take this thing to off topic and sound completely stupid, but were the letters from Josephus really forged? I thought they were fairly reliable.
:huh: :huh:

Toto

The letters referred to were allegedly from Pilate. The reference to Josephus is to a passage that has been considered a complete or a partial forgery by most observers.