Early Classical Authors on Jesus
Ebook
Margaret H. Williams examines how classical writers saw and portrayed Jesus, engaging with the fact that as the originator of a new (and still existing) world religion, Jesus of Nazareth, otherwise known as Christus (Christ), is an individual of indisputable historical significance.
Williams shows how from the outset Jesus was a controversial figure. Contemporary Jews in the Roman province of Judaea tended either to adore or to abhor him. When indue course his fame spread throughout the wider Roman empire, reactions to him there among both Jews and non-Jews were no less divergent. Each of the early classical writers who makes mention of him, the historian Tacitus, the biographer Suetonius, the epistolographer Pliny and the satirist Lucian, takes a different view of him and presents him in a different way. Williams considers these different depictions and questions why these writers had such differing views of Jesus. To answer this question Williams examines not only to the different literary conventions by which each of these writers was bound but also to the social, cultural and religious contexts in which they operated.
A detailed analysis of the earliest surviving non-Christian references to Jesus Christ, providing insights from Classics scholarship to the study of Jesus and his reception in the ancient world.
Preface
Abbreviations
Chapter 1. Another Book on Jesus?
Chapter 2. Pliny and Christus (i) – Setting the Scene
Chapter 3. Pliny and Christus (ii) – Investigating the Cult of Christ
Chapter 4. Tacitus's Testimony for 'Jesus' – Authentic or Interpolated?
Chapter 5. Tacitus on Christus – a Master Rhetorician at Work
Chapter 6. Suetonius and Chrestus – the Third Classical Writer to Refer to Christ?
Chapter 7. Lucian of Samosata – a Satirical Take on Jesus
Chapter 8. Celsus – the First Serious Pagan Critic of Jesus
Chapter 9. Celsus's Tripartite Assault on Jesus
Chapter 10. Overview and Conclusion
Appendices
Appendix 1. Inscriptions Relating to Pliny, Tacitus and Suetonius
Appendix 2. Suetonius's skill in source-evaluation: Gaius 8.1-5 and Div. Aug.7.1-2
Appendix 3. Suetonius's Compositional Practices
Apendix 4. Chrestus, the Unknown (and Unknowable?) Claudian Agitator
Bibliography
Author Index
- Title: Early Classical Authors on Jesus
- Author: Margaret H. Williams
- Publisher: T&T Clark
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780567683199, 9780567683151, 056768315X, 0567683192
- Resource ID: LLS:9780567683199
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-12T04:02:23Z
Margaret H. Williams is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, UK.