100 Words: Historicity of Jesus, from Extra-Biblical Sources (Part 2)

Pliny the Younger. Lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Wrote hundreds of letters, many of which still survive, and was considered an honest and moderate man.

However, despite his honesty and moderation, he was no doubt hostile towards Christians. This is quite apparent in his letter to Emperor Trajan (around 112 AD) asking for council in dealing with Christians. Within this letter (Epistulae X.96) he writes:

“I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished… they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ — none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do… Others… were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god.”

Thus, Pliny the Younger serves as another source for the existence of a man whom people called Christ, as well as the persecution of those who followed him.

For Part 3, click here.