Did Jesus of Nazareth
actually exist?

[Part 2]

We are considering the very existence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Did He really exist? We need to discuss this because some people, like the late Bertrand Russell on page 21 of his book Why I am not a Christian, wrote.

Here I may say that one is not concerned with the historical question. Historically it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know much about Him, so that I am not concerned with the historical question, which is a very difficult one.

However, we have already seen two historical references to Christ, from two very different types of people. The first was a very personal letter, written by a father in prison to comfort his son. The second was by Tacitus, the greatest Roman historian, who mentioned Christ's execution under Pontius Pilate. He also mentioned the fire in Rome. This is also referred to by another historian.

Suetonius and the Great Fire of Rome
Suetonius wrote about the lives of the first twelve Caesars, from Julius Caesar onwards. In his Life of Nero (16.2) he also mentions the Great Fire of Rome and to Christians being punished for it. An extract is given on the next page where we can, again, see that this evidence has not come from a Christian source, thus giving greater weight to the historical existence of Jesus Christ. However, this is not the only reference of interest to Christians that we find in Seutonious' writings. He also mentions something which is referred to in the Acts of the Apostles.

Suetonius and the expulsion from Rome
In Acts 18:1-3 we read the following:

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.

This ties up very well with what Suetonius wrote, but who is this "Chrestus" to whom he referred? In certain Gentile circles Chrestus was a variant spelling of Christus, and so this is another reference to Jesus Christ. However, it seems here that Suetonius is a little mixed up.

It appears that Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome because of discord and dissension among them, causing tension and trouble in that city. It is likely that the strife among the Roman Jews was caused by the recent introduction of Christianity into Jewish circles there. Suetonius, finding some records in the Roman archives of Jewish quarrelling over one Chrestus, inferred, wrongly, that Chrestus was actually in Rome at the time of Claudius. However, in spite of him being wrong on that point, Suetonius gives us clear indication that this Chrestus, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, did actually exist and had an influence on the affairs of Rome.

Of further interest is a section in his Life of Claudius (18.2). There Suetonius states that during Claudius' reign there were famines, "constant unfruitful seasons" as he puts it. This is exactly what we read in Acts 11:2:

One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.)

Not only are we seeing that there is much historical evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ, we are also seeing ancient documents confirming the accounts of historical events referred to in the Bible.

Suetonius Life of Nero (16.2)	Suetonius Life of Claudius (24.4)
Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men addicted to a novel and mischievous superstition.	As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome.

The Governor of Bithynia and his problem
We now look at another Gentile source, not an historian, but a Roman Governor. C. Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Younger, was governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor. In AD 112 he wrote to the Emperor Trajan with a problem. He asked the emperor for advice on how to deal with a troublesome sect called Christians, who were extremely numerous in his province, and who were causing him some embarrassment. He had questioned many, and tortured some, to find out their practices, and the evidence he secured is above.

Although these Christians were a problem to Pliny, and although he tortured some of them, his report does seem to be true and fair. This appears to be especially so in the closing words: "...to meet again to partake of food, but food of an ordinary and innocent kind." These words allude to the charge of ritual murder of which both the Jews and Christians were accused (see Josephus, Against Apion 2.8, for charges against Jews, and Tertullian, Apology 7, for charges against Christians).

Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia - Epistles 10.96 They [Christians] were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang an anthem to Christ as God, and bound themselves by a solemn oath (sacramentum) not to commit any wicked deed, but to abstain from all fraud, theft and adultery, never to break their word, or deny a trust when called upon to honour it; after which it was their custom to separate and then to meet again to partake of food, but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.

Resumé
So far we have looked at four different writers and at the evidence they have presented as to the historical existence of Jesus Christ. Two of them were historians, one was a Roman Governor and the fourth was an ordinary father. Surely such evidence would stand up in a court of law, but there is more to come, as we shall see in the next issue of Search.