davidlau17 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 5:01 pm
It seems a bit odd to me that Suetonius would use the name "Chresto" to refer to Christ (and simply calls followers of this character Jews) when he later uses the term "Christiani" to refer to Christians. This might indicate that the latter is an interpolation.
That's a good point. and, in another thread, Giuseppe has raised the prospect that what we refer to as "Chresto" was XPO. So, it'd be interesting to see the extant source manuscript for both terms ie. XPO and "Christiani"
fwiw,
a note, in some English versions of
Claudius 25, after 'Chrestus' has, "Suetonius has already, in
Tiberius, C. xxxvi.
a, mentioned the expulsion of the Jews from Rome ...". The note goes on to say, "this passage confirms the conjecture, offered in the note, that the Christians were obscurely alluded to in the former notice. The antagonism between Christianity and Judaism appears to have given rise to the tumults which first led the authorities to interfere ...". but I reckon that can be taken with a grain of salt.
a Suetonius, 'Claudius Tiberius Nero Caesar,' aka
Tiberius XXXVI [in turn, in
Twelve Caesars]
XXXVI. He suppressed all foreign religions, and the Egyptian
1 and Jewish rites, obliging those who practised that kind of superstition, to burn their vestments, and all their sacred utensils. He distributed the Jewish youths, under the pretence of military service, among the provinces noted for an unhealthy climate; and
dismissed from the city all the rest of that nation as well as those who were proselytes to that religion [similia sectantes],2 under pain of slavery for life, unless they complied. He also expelled the astrologers; but upon their suing for pardon, and promising to renounce their profession, he revoked his decree.
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/te ... apter%3D36
1 "Tiberius pulled down the temple of Isis, caused her image to be thrown into the Tiber, and crucified her priests."- Joseph.
Ant. Jud. xviii. 4.
2 'Similia sectantes'. We are strongly inclined to think that
the words might be rendered "similar sects", conveying
an allusion to the small and obscure body of Christians, who were at this period [supposedly] generally confounded with the Jews, and supposed only to differ from them in some peculiarities of their institutions, which Roman historians and magistrates did not trouble themselves to distinguish. How little even the well-informed Suetonius knew of the [supposed] real facts, we shall find in the only direct notice of the Christians contained in his works (
Claudius, C. xxv;
Nero, C. xvi.); but that little confirms our conjecture. All the commentators, however, give the passage the turn retained in the text. Josephus informs us of the particular occurrence which led to the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by Tiberius.-
Ant. xviii. 5.
3
3 I can't find Josephus informs us of expulsion of the Jews from Rome by Tiberius in
Antiquities xviii, 5.
* All I can find reference to is reference to Jews in relation to Josephus' account of John the Baptist in Ant 18.5.2,] ending with
"Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him"
And, where Vitellius,
"with Herod the tetrarch and his friends, went up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, an ancient festival of the Jews being then just approaching; and when he had been there, and been honorably entertained by the multitude of the Jews, he made a stay there for three days, within which time he deprived Jonathan of the high priesthood, and gave it to his brother Theophilus"
There's also,
"Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, went up to Rome, a year before the death of Tiberius, in order to treat of some affairs with the emperor, if he might be permitted so to do"
but that is not specific about what 'affairs' he 'treated'.
* ETA: I think that is supposed to be
Antiquities 18.3.5
5. There was a man who was a Jew, but had been driven away from his own country by an accusation laid against him for transgressing their laws, and by the fear he was under of punishment for the same; but in all respects a wicked man. He, then living at Rome, professed to instruct men in the wisdom of the laws of Moses. He procured also three other men, entirely of the same character with himself, to be his partners. These men persuaded Fulvia, a woman of great dignity, and one that had embraced the Jewish religion, to send purple and gold to the temple at Jerusalem; and when they had gotten them, they employed them for their own uses, and spent the money themselves, on which account it was that they at first required it of her. Whereupon Tiberius, who had been informed of the thing by Saturninus, the husband of Fulvia, who desired inquiry might be made about it, ordered all the Jews to be banished out of Rome; at which time the consuls listed four thousand men out of them, and sent them to the island Sardinia; but punished a greater number of them, who were unwilling to become soldiers, on account of keeping the laws of their forefathers (
11). Thus were these Jews banished out of the city by the wickedness of four men.
https://sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/ant-18.htm