Pliny the Younger reports on the Christians
Within eighty years of the crucifixion, a Roman official investigating Christians as a legal problem describes worship of Christ as divine, already established across a distant province.
Nommé hors de la BibleAuteur antiquec. AD 112
A Roman provincial governor writes to the emperor Trajan asking how to handle Christians. In explaining what he has learned from interrogation, he describes their practice: meeting before dawn, singing to Christ as to a god, binding themselves by oath not to commit theft, adultery or fraud, and eating together.
They were in the habit of meeting on a fixed day before dawn and singing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and binding themselves by oath not to any wickedness…
- Découvert
- Transmitted in medieval manuscripts
- Conservé à
- Various manuscript collections
- Langue
- Latin
- Comment il nous est parvenu
- Jamais enfoui — recopié à la main, génération après génération, jusqu'à l'imprimerie.
Ce qu'elle montre
The letter's authenticity is not seriously disputed. It describes practice, not the events of the Gospels.
Ce qu'en font les historiens
A primary source for Roman legal policy toward Christians, standard in secular Roman history.
Dans l'Écriture
Sources
- Pliny the Younger on Christians — text and discussion
- Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny: A Historical and Social Commentary (1966)
Ces textes sont pour l'instant en anglais. Les traductions suivront.