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.
Named outside the BibleAncient writerc. 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…
- Found
- Transmitted in medieval manuscripts
- Now held at
- Various manuscript collections
- Language
- Latin
How far it goes
The letter's authenticity is not seriously disputed. It describes practice, not the events of the Gospels.
How historians use it
A primary source for Roman legal policy toward Christians, standard in secular Roman history.
In Scripture
Sources
- Pliny the Younger on Christians — text and discussion
- Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny: A Historical and Social Commentary (1966)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.