Does anyone have references for the Roman's having Jesus' death on record?

Question

I have heard that the Romans recorded his death but I have never actually seen it anywhere. Does anyone know?

Answer 1

They have no record of his death.

The most "legitimate" record was that of the Jewish Historian, Josephus. Even conservative Christian scholars recognize this reference to be an insertion into the original writings of Josephus. They estimate 3rd or 4th century.

Answer 2

There is, as others have already said, no such record.
What you might be thinking of is the writings of Tacitus. He wrote, about a hundred years later, that there were Christians. In discussing what the Christians believed he said that Jesus was crucified. Some fundamentalist apologists then launch into a whole, imagined, argument that Tacitus must have had some independent source for the death of Jesus, he just didn't mention that that was what he was relying on. But there's no evidence for this, it's just wishful thinking. The simple answer- there are NO records from during Jesus' life to say that he actually existed.

Answer 3

After Nero blamed Christians for the fires that destroyed great segments of Rome in 64 AD, the Roman historian Tacitus had this to say about Christianity and Jesus:

"Nero fastened the guilt . . . 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 . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. . . ."

So, short answer to your question: YES. Several Roman non-Christian historians (including Pliny the Younger as well) have made reference to Jesus having lived and died. Pontius Pilate is even named as the official responsible.

Answer 4

Yes and I just heard his name on TV.

There are about nine non Christian historical records of Jesus being crucified, one was recorded by an official historian from Rome.

If you send me an E-mail and repeat the question, I'll get hold of a friend, who is a Ph.D. in Religious History and get the answer.

Pastor Art

Answer 5

The romans executed him as a criminal (according to the story). Do we keep a record of every criminal we execute? No. Maybe we do now with all the advances in modern technology. But remember at that time they were crusifying people constantly to keep the population in line. Why would they single out this one jew to record and not all of the others. That makes no sense.

Answer 6

Found this

http://www.biblestudy.org/question/what-did-roman-empire-write-and-think-about-jesus.html

Not about Jesus specifically (just interesting)
http://www.request.org.uk/main/history/jesus/jesus06.htm

I think the book called "A Case for Christ" had something about this also. http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=20930&netp_id=115837&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW

I can't say for sure though.

Answer 7

I concur. To date, no such written records have ever been found.