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.
Lave'i 'i tu'a mei he Tohi TapuTohi tangata motu'ac. 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…
- Na'e 'ilo'i
- Transmitted in medieval manuscripts
- 'Oku tauhi 'i
- Various manuscript collections
- Lea
- Latin
- Na'e a'u mai fēfē kiate kitautolu
- Na'e 'ikai ke tanu — na'e hiki nima, to'utangata ki he to'utangata, kae 'oua kuo a'u ki he pulusi.
Ko e me'a 'oku ne fakahā
The letter's authenticity is not seriously disputed. It describes practice, not the events of the Gospels.
Founga hono ngāue'aki 'e he kau hisitōlia
A primary source for Roman legal policy toward Christians, standard in secular Roman history.
'I he Folofola
Ngaahi ma'u'anga fakamatala
- Pliny the Younger on Christians — text and discussion
- Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny: A Historical and Social Commentary (1966)
'Oku 'i he lea faka-Pilitānia 'a e ngaahi fakamatala ko 'eni he taimi ni. 'E muimui mai 'a e liliu.