Hardly a bastion of biblical truth, even Wikipedia reports, “The scholarly consensus is that Tacitus’ reference to the execution of Jesus by Pontius Pilate is both authentic and of historical value as an independent Roman source.” You’ll find this quote in their article entitled “Tacitus on Jesus.”

A Roman historian and senator, Tacitus is best known for his two substantial books, the Annals and the Histories that chronicle the history of the Roman Empire from 14-68 A.D. and from 69-96 A.D., respectively. In the former, which dates to approximately 116 A.D., Tacitus reports on the Great Fire of Rome, on the consensus of most Romans that Nero himself set the blaze and on Nero’s efforts to absolve himself from blame, leading to the persecution of Christians during his reign.

Tacitus writes, “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.” We can only surmise that the “mischievous superstition” surrounding the Christians is a reference to their belief that Jesus rose from the grave.

Did you know that there were so many reputable Christian and even non-Christian sources that confirm the history of Jesus? I certainly didn’t before I launched this study! Even so I’ve never doubted that Jesus lived, died and rose again to defeat sin and death. Historians may doubt the latter, but they soundly affirm the former.

Daniel McCabe