Misuse Of Textual Evidence

[Ellinas]

A couple of weeks back, I had the dubious pleasure of listening to a preacher who was trying to back up the historicity of Christ. I'm probably the only person who heard him who had any sort of classical background. And, it was fairly obvious to me that his comments lacked a certain credibility.

Now for these purposes this isn't a rant against Christianity per se, and I'm not claiming that Christ did not exist. Those are other and wider issues.  But I am annoyed by the misuse of ancient texts by people who clearly know nothing of their subject.

We were told Tacitus confirms Christ's existence and that he was not a Christian himself, and therefore independent. In fact, there is one short passage in the Annals, written well after the event, that speaks of the leader of the "notoriously depraved Christians" (as I seem to remember seeing it translating once) being put to death under the governorship of Pilatus. It says nothing about sources, and is evidence for nothing beyond a general knowledge of what Christians said about themselves (save for the "depraved" bit, of course).

Then we were told that Julius Africanus quotes Thallas to confirm the account of the darkness at the crucifixion. Again this was an account from a non-Christian and therefore reliable witness. Of course, it is odd that pagan authors can be both criticised for their pagan unreliability and quoted for their pagan truthfulness as occasion demands - but that's another story.

Actually, Sextus Iulius Africanus was a Christian apologist around the 3rd Century. Thallas does appear to have been pagan - but virtually nothing is known of him as all his writings are lost. Africanus only quotes him to denigrate his idea that a "darkness" was in fact an eclipse, which cannot occur at passover time. Whether Thallas said anything at all in relation to the crucifixion is unknown. A review of the issue is found here: http://infidels.org/...er/thallus.html

So, just as the old saying goes "beware Greeks bearing gifts", my advice to all of you if you ever find yourself in this situation is "beware Christians bearing authorities".