aa5874

Your statement is mis-leading.

The word "Christian" , as written by Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny the younger, does not inherently mean "follower of Jesus of Nazareth" and could have preceeded the fabrication of Jesus.The word "Christ" may mean "anointed, the Anionted one or anointed with oil".

You cannot show that any reference to "Christ or Christians" MUST be Jesus of Nazareth.

Theophilus to Autolycus 1.12

Ben C Smith

The word Christian means follower or partisan of Christ (just like Herodian means partisan of Herod). The only question is: Who is Christ?

The word Caesar came to mean the imperator of Rome (it is applied to Augustus, to Nero, to all of them). The only question is: Who is Caesar?

Ben.

Ben C Smith

(IMHO it is both this and a mental confusion with something that Hegesippus wrote.)

Ben.

aa5874

Well, answer your questions?

Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny the younger never mentioned Jesus of Nazareth at any time or anywhere in their extants writings. And I consider Jesus of Nazareth to be fiction fabricated, perhaps late in the 1st century, to distort history and to mis-lead people into thinking that a God was on earth during the time of Tiberius and Pilate.

Amaleq13

To what end? What was the motivation and why that particular time?

Ben C Smith

Okay. The Caesar in Fasti 3 is obviously Julius Caesar. The Christ in Tacitus is obviously Jesus Christ.

Ben.

aa5874

That is so obviously illogical, and bizarre, Ben.

There is no information about Christus whatsoever in ALL of Tacitus' extant writings to answer the following:

How old was Christus when he died?
How did Christus die?
In which year during the reign of Tiberius did Christus die?
Did Christus have twelve disciples?
Where in Judaea did Christus die?
Who were the parents of Christus?

It is an act of faith, belief based upon speculation, to maintain that Tacitus" Christus is Jesus of Nazareth.

Doug Shaver

That is what it has always meant to English speakers. English borrowed the word from Latin, which borrowed it from Greek. What did Greek speakers of the first and second centuries mean by it, and how do we know that?

spamandham

How is that obvious?

Ben C Smith

It is the Latin I am referring to, since Tacitus wrote in Latin. In Latin, the suffix -ianus means pertaining to, and was therefore generally used to mean follower or partisan of when the noun being suffixed was a name. Christus (as Tacitus is using it) is indeed a name. So, in Latin, Christianus means one pertaining to Christ, or partisan of Christ.

The examples of this are legion: Simonians, Herodians, Carpocratians, Valentinians, and many others.

The Greek form of this suffix means basically the same thing, since it is taken over from the Latin.

Ben.