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Pliny the Younger (61 AD – Ca

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Pliny the Younger (61 AD – Ca Pliny the Younger (61 AD – ca. 112 AD) (His Father was known as “Pliny the Elder”) Epistle concerning the Christian Religion1 In his correspondence with the emperor Trajan he reported on his actions against the followers of Christ. He asks the Emperor for instructions dealing with Christians and explained that he forced Christians to curse Christ under painful torturous inquisition: They were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and bound themselves to a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, adultery, never to falsify their word, not to deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of a meal--but ordinary and innocent food. Pliny then explains to the Emperor how he questioned suspected Christians by torture and eventually sentenced them to death. In light of the fact that Christianity was recognized as a sect of Judaism and as a threat to public order, it is therefore likely that, while his knowledge of Christianity itself was largely second-hand, he also had firsthand knowledge of basic beliefs such as Jesus' existence. More important here, however, is the testimony by Pliny that non- Roman suspects be executed for their confession of being Christians: Even this practice, however, they had abandoned after the publication of my edict, by which, according to your orders, I had forbidden political associations. I therefore judged it so much more the necessary to extract the real truth, with the assistance of torture, from two female slaves, who were styled deaconesses: but I could discover nothing more than depraved and excessive superstition In the meanwhile, the method I have observed towards those who have denounced to me as Christians is this: I interrogated them whether they were Christians; if they confessed it I repeated the question twice again, adding the threat of capital punishment; if they still persevered, I ordered them to be executed. For whatever the nature of their creed might be, I could at least feel not doubt that contumacy and inflexible obstinacy deserved chastisement. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome2 This indicates that Jesus was worshiped, and that believers of Christ may be put to death for their beliefs, in a short period of the early second century by Roman jurisdiction. Pliny executed members of what were considered at the time a fanatical cult. Being required to “curse Christ” is evidence that Pliny reported this as a means to force reactions of the suspect Christians under torturous inquisition. Also "a hymn to Christ as to a god" alleges that during that time Jesus had been accepted as both God and man 1 Taken from Wikipedia… c.f. Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus outside the New Testament, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000. Paul Barnett, Title Finding the Historical Christ, Volume 3, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2009. Gary R. Habermas, The historical Jesus: ancient evidence for the life of Christ, College Press, 1996. 2 Text of Letter located @ www.mesacc.edu/~tomshoemaker/handouts/pliny.html .
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