Tacitus on the execution of Christus
A hostile Roman historian records the execution of Christus under Pilate in the reign of Tiberius, and the movement's spread to Rome within a generation.
Named outside the BibleAncient writerc. AD 116
Writing about Nero's blaming of the Christians for the fire of Rome, the Roman senator and historian Tacitus explains where the name came from. He is contemptuous of the movement — he calls it a pernicious superstition — which is precisely what makes the passage useful: he has no motive to confirm anything.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.
- Found
- Transmitted in medieval manuscripts
- Now held at
- Laurentian Library, Florence (Medicean II)
- Language
- Latin
- How it reached us
- Never buried — copied by hand, generation after generation, until printing.
What it shows
The passage's authenticity is accepted by the overwhelming majority of classicists. Whether Tacitus drew on official records or on report is unknown, and he uses the later title procurator rather than prefect.
How historians use it
Routinely cited in secular ancient history as evidence for the historical existence and execution of Jesus.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Tacitus, Annals 15.44 — text and translation
- Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament (2000)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.