"Flavius Josephus, the well-known historian of the Jewish people, was born in A. D. 37, only two years after the death of Jesus; but though his work is of inestimable value as our chief authority for the circ.u.mstances of the times in which Jesus and his Apostles came forward, yet he does not seem to have ever mentioned Jesus himself. At any rate, the pa.s.sage in his "_Jewish Antiquities_" that refers to him is certainly spurious, and was inserted by a later and a _Christian hand_.
The _Talmud_ compresses the history of Jesus into a single sentence, and later Jewish writers concoct mere slanderous anecdotes. The ecclesiastical fathers mention a few sayings or events, the knowledge of which they drew from oral tradition or from writings that have since been lost. The Latin and Greek historians just mention his name. This meager harvest is all we reap from sources outside the Gospels."[565:2]
Canon Farrar, who finds himself _compelled_ to admit that this pa.s.sage in Josephus is an interpolation, consoles himself by saying:
"The single pa.s.sage in which he (Josephus) alludes to Him (Christ) is interpolated, if not wholly spurious, and no one can doubt that his silence on the subject of Christianity was as deliberate as it was dishonest."[565:3]
The Rev. Dr. Giles, after commenting on this subject, concludes by saying:
"_Eusebius_ is the first who quotes the pa.s.sage, and our reliance on the judgment, _or even the honesty_, of this writer _is not so great as to allow of our considering everything found in his works as undoubtedly genuine_."[565:4]
Eusebius, then, is the first person who refers to these pa.s.sages.[565:5]
Eusebius, "_whose honesty is not so great as to allow of our considering everything found in his works as undoubtedly genuine_." Eusebius, who says that _it is lawful to lie and cheat for the cause of Christ_.[565:6] This Eusebius is the sheet-anchor of reliance for most we know of the first three centuries of the Christian history. What then must we think of the _history_ of the first three centuries of the Christian era?
The celebrated pa.s.sage in Tacitus which Christian divines--and even some liberal writers--attempt to support, is to be found in his _Annals_. In this work he is made to speak of _Christians_, who "had their denomination from _Christus_, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was put to death as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate."
In answer to this we have the following:
1. This pa.s.sage, which would have served the purpose of Christian quotation better than any other in all the writings of Tacitus, or of any Pagan writer whatever, _is not quoted by any of the Christian Fathers_.
2. It is not quoted by Tertullian, though he had read and largely quotes the works of Tacitus.
3. And though his argument immediately called for the use of this quotation with so loud a voice (Apol. ch. v.), that his omission of it, if it had really existed, amounts to a _violent improbability_.
4. This Father has spoken of Tacitus in a way that it is absolutely impossible that he should have spoken of him, had his writings contained such a pa.s.sage.
5. It is not quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus, _who set himself entirely to the work of adducing and bringing together all the admissions and recognitions which Pagan authors had made of the existence of Christ Jesus or Christians before his time_.
6. It has been nowhere stumbled upon by the laborious and all-seeking Eusebius, who could by no possibility have overlooked it, and whom it would have saved from the labor of forging the pa.s.sage in Josephus; of adducing the correspondence of Christ Jesus and Abgarus, and the Sibylline verses; of forging a divine revelation from the G.o.d Apollo, in attestation of Christ Jesus" ascension into heaven; and innumerable other of his pious and holy cheats.
7. Tacitus has in no other part of his writings made the least allusion to "_Christ_" or "_Christians_."
8. The use of this pa.s.sage as part of the evidences of the Christian religion, is absolutely modern.
9. There is no vestige nor trace of its existence anywhere in the world before the 15th century.[566:1]
10. No reference whatever is made to this pa.s.sage by any writer or historian, monkish or otherwise, before that time,[567:1] which, to say the least, is very singular, considering that after that time it is quoted, or referred to, in an endless list of works, which by itself is all but conclusive that it was not in existence till the fifteenth century, which was an age of imposture and of credulity so immoderate that people were easily imposed upon, believing, as they did, without sufficient evidence, whatever was foisted upon them.
11. The interpolator of the pa.s.sage makes Tacitus speak of "_Christ_,"
not of Jesus _the_ Christ, showing that--like the pa.s.sage in Josephus--it is, comparatively, a modern interpolation, for
12. The word "_Christ_" is _not a name_, but a t.i.tLE;[567:2] it being simply the Greek for the Hebrew word "_Messiah_." Therefore,
13. When Tacitus is made to speak of Jesus as "Christ," it is equivalent to my speaking of Tacitus as "Historian," of George Washington as "General," or of any individual as "Mister," without adding a _name_ by which either could be distinguished. And therefore,
14. It has no sense or meaning as he is said to have used it.
15. Tacitus is also made to say that the _Christians_ had their denomination from _Christ_, which would apply to any other of the so-called _Christs_ who were put to death in Judea, as well as to Christ Jesus. And
16. "The disciples were _called_ Christians first at Antioch" (Acts xi.
26), not because they were followers of a certain Jesus who claimed to be the Christ, but because "Christian" or "Chrestian," was a name applied, at that time, to any good man.[567:3] And,
17. The worshipers of the Sun-G.o.d, _Serapis_, were also called "Christians," and his disciples "Bishops of Christ."[568:1]
So much, then, for the celebrated pa.s.sage in Tacitus.
NOTE.--Tacitus says--according to the pa.s.sage attributed to him--that "those who confessed [to be Christians] were first seized, and then on their evidence _a huge mult.i.tude_ (_Ingens Mult.i.tudo_) were convicted, not so much on the charge of incendiarism as for _their hatred to mankind_." Although M. Renan may say (_Hibbert Lectures_, p. 70) that the authenticity of this pa.s.sage "cannot be disputed," yet the absurdity of "a huge mult.i.tude" of Christians being in Rome, in the days of Nero, A. D. 64--about thirty years" after the time a.s.signed for the crucifixion of Jesus--has not escaped the eye of thoughtful scholars.
Gibbon--who saw how ridiculous the statement is--attempts to reconcile it with common sense by supposing that Tacitus knew so little about the Christians that he confounded them with the Jews, and that the hatred universally felt for the latter fell upon the former. In this way he believes Tacitus gets his "huge mult.i.tude," as the Jews established themselves in Rome as early as 60 years B. C., where they multiplied rapidly, living together in the Trastevere--the most abject portion of the city, where all kinds of rubbish was put to rot--where they became "old clothes" men, the porters and hucksters, bartering tapers for broken gla.s.s, hated by the ma.s.s and pitied by the few. Other scholars, among whom may be mentioned Schwegler (_Nachap Zeit._, ii. 229); Kostlin (_Johann-Lehrbegr._, 472); and Baur (_First Three Centuries_, i. 133); also being struck with the absurdity of the statement made by some of the early Christian writers concerning the wholesale prosecution of Christians, said to have happened at that time, suppose it must have taken place during the persecution of Trajan, A. D. 101. It is strange we hear of no Jewish martyrdoms or Jewish persecutions till we come to the times of the Jewish war, and then chiefly in Palestine! But fables must be made realities, so we have the ridiculous story of a "huge mult.i.tude" of Christians being put to death in Rome, in A. D. 64, evidently for the purpose of bringing Peter there, making him the first Pope, and having him crucified head downwards. This absurd story is made more evident when we find that it was not until about A. D. 50--only 14 years before the alleged persecution--that the first Christians--a mere handful--entered the capitol of the Empire. (See Renan"s _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 55.) They were a poor dirty set, without manners, clad in filthy gaberdines, and smelling strong of garlic. From these, then, with others who came from Syria, we get our "huge mult.i.tude" in the s.p.a.ce of 14 years. The statement attributed to Tacitus is, however, outdone by Orosius, who a.s.serts that the persecution extended "through all the provinces." (Orosius, ii. 11.) That it was a very easy matter for some Christian writer to interpolate or alter a pa.s.sage in the _Annals_ of Tacitus may be seen from the fact that the MS. was not known to the world before the 15th century, and from information which is to be derived from reading Daille _On the Right Use of the Fathers_, who shows that they were accustomed to doing such business, and that these writings are, to a large extent, unreliable.
FOOTNOTES:
[564:1] The Rev. Dr. Giles says: "Great is our disappointment at finding nothing in the works of Philo about the Christians, their doctrines, or their sacred books. About the _books_ indeed we need not expect any notice of these works, but about the Christians and their doctrines his silence is more remarkable, seeing that he was about sixty years old at the time of the crucifixion, and living mostly in Alexandria, so closely connected with Judea, and the Jews, could hardly have failed to know something of the _wonderful events_ that had taken place in the city of Jerusalem." (Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 61.)
The Rev. Dr. a.s.sumes that these "wonderful events" really took place, but, if they did not take place, of course Philo"s silence on the subject is accounted for.
[564:2] Both these philosophers were living, and must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earliest information of the existence of Christ Jesus, had such a person as the Gospels make him out to be ever existed. Their ignorance or their willful silence on the subject, is not less than _improbable_.
[564:3] Antiquities, bk. xviii. ch. iii. 3.
[564:4] Ibid. bk. xx. ch. ix. 1.
[564:5] John, Bishop of Constantinople, who died....
[565:1] Lardner: vol. vi. ch. iii.
[565:2] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 27.
[565:3] Life of Christ, vol. I. p. 63.
[565:4] Hebrew and Christ. Rec. vol. ii. p. 62.
[565:5] In his Eccl. Hist. lib. 2. ch. xii.
[565:6] Ch. 31, bk. xii. of Eusebius _Prae paratio Evangelica_ is ent.i.tled: "How far it may be proper to use falsehood as a medium for the benefit of those who require to be deceived;" and he closes his work with these words: "I have repeated whatever may rebound to the glory, and suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace of our religion."
[566:1] The original MSS. containing the "Annals of Tacitus" were "discovered" in the fifteenth century. Their existence cannot be traced back further than that time. And as it was an age of imposture, some persons are disposed to believe that not only portions of the _Annals_, but the whole work, was forged at that time. Mr. J. W. Ross, in an elaborate work published in London some years ago, contended that the _Annals_ were forged by Poggio Bracciolini, their professed discoverer.
At the time of Bracciolini the temptation was great to palm off literary forgeries, especially of the chief writers of antiquity, on account of the Popes, in their efforts to revive learning, giving money rewards and indulgences to those who should procure MS. copies of any of the ancient Greek or Roman authors. Ma.n.u.scripts turned up as if by magic, in every direction; from libraries of monasteries, obscure as well as famous; the most out-of-the-way places,--the bottom of exhausted wells, besmeared by snails, as the History of Velleius Paterculus, or from garrets, where they had been contending with cobwebs and dust, as the poems of Catullus.
[567:1] A portion of the pa.s.sage--that relating to the manner in which the Christians were put to death--is found in the _Historia Sacra_ of Sulpicius Severus, a Christian Father, who died A. D. 420; but it is evident that this writer did not take it from the _Annals_. On the contrary, the pa.s.sage was taken--as Mr. Ross shows--from the _Historia Sacra_, and bears traces of having been so appropriated. (See Tacitus & Bracciolini, the Annals forged in the XVth century, by J. W. Ross.)
[567:2] "_Christ_ is a name having no spiritual signification, _and importing nothing more than an ordinary surname_." (Dr. Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 64.)
"The name of _Jesus_ and _Christ_ was both known and honored among the ancients." (Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. iv.)
"The name _Jesus_ is of Hebrew origin, and signifies _Deliverer_, and _Savior_. It is the same as that translated in the Old Testament _Joshua_. The word _Christ_, of Greek origin, is properly _not a name_ but _a t.i.tle_, signifying _The Anointed_. The whole name is therefore, _Jesus the Anointed_ or _Jesus the Messiah_." (Abbott and Conant; Dic.
of Relig. Knowledge, art. "_Jesus Christ_.")