Ocotber 12, 2024

—Sometime around 50 A.D. Roman Emperor Claudius “commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome” (Acts 18:2). The reason? Luke doesn’t say, but Suetonius does! He wrote a history around 120 A.D., entitled The Lives of the Caesars, covering the Roman Emperors from Augustus (the emperor at the time of Jesus’ birth) to Domitian (the emperor who expelled the apostle John to the island of Patmos).

In his book Suetonius explains the emperor’s action, “Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome.” In other words, a growing number of Christians in Rome, perhaps evangelistic-minded Christians, became an irritation to the Jews, so the Jews turned to the emperor for help. The squeaky wheel gets the grease in an empire where peace mattered much, so the Christians must go.

—What a fabulous reference to Jesus by Suetonius! Well, at least most fair-minded historians see his mention of Chrestus as a reference to Jesus Christ, and Suetonius’ mention of Chrestus certainly corresponds with Luke’s record in Acts 18:2. Both historical references fit the same time frame, for example, and though admittedly some scholars remain hesitant to equate Chrestus with Jesus, it hardly seems possible that the detailed mind of Suetonius would have left hanging the identity of Chrestus if he referred to some unknown individual outside the mainstream of history. And who else could it be?

—Latin routinely adds “-us” endings to proper names. For example, Paul would be written as Paulus, so this would naturally explain the difference in endings between Chrestus and Christ. But in case you’re also wondering why Suetonius spelled the name Chrestus with an “e” rather than Christus with an “i” as one might expect, you should know that the almost unanimous consensus of historians contends that Suetonius simply spelled the name of Christ phonetically in the absence of any well-known template for the now common spelling of the name. But to strengthen this claim even further, many early church fathers likewise spelled Christ as Chrestus or even Chrestos, and sometimes you’ll even find them spelling the word Christians as Chrestians. Thus, the consensus of opinion among secular scholars and religious scholars across numerous different faiths leads to the comfortable conclusion that Chrestus refers to Jesus. Amazing!

—Daniel McCabe