Lucian of Samosata on the Christians
A hostile pagan satirist, writing to entertain, takes the crucifixion in Palestine and the character of the Christian communities as common knowledge.
Named outside the BibleAncient writerc. AD 165
A satirist writing to mock a charlatan describes, in passing and with contempt, what Christians were like: they worship a man who was crucified in Palestine for introducing a new cult, they take his teachings on trust, they hold their goods in common, and they are extraordinarily willing to die.
…the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world… they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted.
- Found
- Transmitted in medieval manuscripts
- Now held at
- Various manuscript collections
- Language
- Greek
- How it reached us
- Never buried — copied by hand, generation after generation, until printing.
What it shows
Lucian is writing satire, not history, and his interest is in ridiculing gullibility. What he assumes his readers already know is the useful part.
How historians use it
A standard non-Christian source on second-century Christian practice.
In Scripture
Sources
- Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament (2000)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.