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THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS SERVANT JOHN
Introduction Part II

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Holy and Eternal Father,
Send Your Holy Spirit to help us begin to unravel the many mysteries surrounding the Book of Revelation concerning its inspired writer and when he wrote down the visions the glorified Christ revealed to him. We know the answers to these questions are available to us if only we have the wisdom to discern the evidence that You have placed before us. We pray in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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The ecclesiastical writers have taught that at the time of Claudius Caesar, when that famine which the prophet Agabus had announced in the Acts of the Apostles would come in ten years time was at its height, that during that difficulty this same Caesar, impelled by his usual vanity, had instituted a persecution of the churches. It was during this time that he ordered John, the Apostle of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to be transported into exile, and he was taken to the island of Patmos, and while there confirmed this writing.
Bishop Apringius of Beja (sixth century AD), Commentary on the Apocalypse 1.9

History notes that John had been banished to this island by the emperor Domitian on account of the Gospel and that then he was, appropriately, allowed to penetrate the secrets of heaven while (at the same time) prohibited from leaving a small space of the earth.
Bede the Venerable, Explanation of the Apocalypse 1.9.

Irenaeus, in the fifth book of his work Against Heresies, where he discusses the number of the name of Antichrist which is given in the so-called Apocalypse of John, speaks as follows concerning him: "If it were necessary for his name to be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been declared by him who saw the revelation. For it was seen not long ago, but almost in our own generation, at the end of the reign of Domitian."
Bishop Eusebius quoting St. Irenaeus, Church History III. xviii.2-3.

Dating of the Book of Revelation—Majority view:
Many of the Church Fathers and Church historians who agreed that St. John the Apostle wrote down the visions given to him by Christ in the New Testament book of the Apocalypse/Revelation could not come to an agreement on which Roman emperor had banished him to the island of Patmos. Bishop Apringius, who wrote a sixth-century commentary on Revelation, maintained that it was Emperor Claudius (died AD 54) who banished St. John, while the Venerable Bede, relying on the testimony of Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea quoting St. Irenaeus, believed it was Emperor Domitian (see the quotes above). Others testified that it was Claudius' successor, the vicious Emperor Nero, who banished St. John to Patmos. Most modern Biblical scholars hold the view that it was during the reign of Roman Emperor Domitian (ruled from AD 81-96) that the glorified Jesus revealed a series of visions to His servant, John. This view is based solely on a passage written by St. Irenaeus (died c. 200 AD) in his book Against Heresies, 5:30:3. Irenaeus, discussing the "Beast" passages in Revelation, wrote: If it were necessary for his name to be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been declared by him who saw the revelation. For it was seen not long ago, but almost in our own generation, at the end of the reign of Domitian.

Other scholars, however, who dispute dating the book of Revelation to the reign of Domitian, point out that there are significant problems with this view:

1. Irenaeus' passage, written in Greek, is somewhat ambiguous; for example, his words For it was seen could be referring to the book itself, which had not been circulated among the various churches in Asia Minor and the West until the reign of Domitian. Nowhere does Irenaeus say that the book was written at that time; although he does say that John lived until the reign of Domitian (ruled AD 81-96).
2. Irenaeus is the only source for this late dating of Revelation; all other ancient sources merely quote him.
3. Those other sources testify that there is no historical evidence of widespread abuse of Christians during Domitian's reign, and he usually only exiled troublesome Christian leaders. The only years of extensive Christian before Domitian occurred during the reign of Emperor Nero (ruled AD 54-68).

Dating of the Book of Revelation—Minority View:
Other Biblical scholars date the writing of the Book of Revelation to the period of widespread persecution of Christians during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero from the year of the fire that destroyed most of Rome which Nero blamed on the Christians in AD 64 until Nero's death in 68. Evidence that supports the minority view:

1. There is a lack of evidence for widespread Christian suffering during the rule of Emperor Domitian.
2. There are volumes of evidence and testimonies which support widespread Christian persecution during the reign of Nero.
3. The mention of the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem in Revelation 11:1 suggests it was still standing when John had his visions. The Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70 decades before the reign of Domitian in AD 81-96.
4. Internal evidence supporting the writing of the book during the reign of Nero Caesar appears in Revelation 13:18, identifying "the Beast" as a human being whose name equals the number 666, the letter to number equivalent of the Nero Caesar's name in Hebrew.
5. The suggested list of the seven or eight emperors in Revelation Chapter 17 can be supported historically by the two different lists of emperors composed by Roman historians.

Let's take these points one at a time:
Point #1: There is no historical evidence to support the Roman government's organized persecution of Christians during Domitian's reign. He was the son and brother of two previous emperors. Domitian's father was Emperor Vespasian who was succeeded as emperor by Domitian's elder brother, Titus. These men were the Roman generals who suppressed the Jewish Revolt that began in AD 66. Both previous emperors held a view of Christians, for the most part, ambivalent because Christians did not participate in the Jewish revolt against rule by the Roman Empire from 66-73 AD. Emperor Vespasian even gave his permission to St. Simon, a kinsman of Jesus and the second bishop of the Church in Jerusalem, to return with his Christian followers to Jerusalem from Perea (across the Jordan River) several years after the suppression of the First Jewish Revolt.

Those years of peace after the suppression of the revolt saw a considerable increase in the number of Christian communities across the Roman Empire. Soldiers in the lower ranks and high-ranking officers, Roman senators, and Romans of noble birth were converting to Christianity. Domitian's adverse reaction to Christians later in his reign may have been more from a fear of the spreading influence of Christians who were becoming influential in Roman politics and the army. Toward the end of his reign, when his mental illness began to manifest itself, Dormition also wished to be worshiped as a god. It was at this time when there is some evidence of the persecution of Christians. His cousin, the Roman political leader Flavius Clemens (Clement in English) was his most famous victim. Clemens, a proconsul who was known for his honesty and integrity, was very much admired by the people of Rome. The charge against Clemens was that he was "impious" because he refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, including his emperor. Some scholars suggest that Clemens' refusal to honor pagan gods may have been because of his Christian faith. The motivation for his execution could also have been envy and fear of Clemens' popularity and his influence with the Roman populous.

Bishop Eusebius (fourth century AD) believed Dormition ordered the execution of Clemens and his family because of their Christian faith. He wrote about the fate of Clemens' niece: For they record that in the fifteenth year of Domitian Flavia Domitilla, daughter of a sister of Flavius Clement, who at that time was one of the consuls of Rome, was exiled with many others to the island of Pontia in consequence of testimony borne to Christ (Eusebius, Church History III. XVIII.5). Eusebius also quotes the testimony of the Roman lawyer and Catholic priest, Tertullian (AD 155-240). He recorded that Tertullian wrote that there was some abuse of Christians during Domitian's reign but that it was not like the persecution during Nero's time: Tertullian also has mentioned Domitian in the following words: "Domitian also, who possessed a share of Nero's cruelty, attempted once to do the same thing that the latter did. But because he had, I suppose, some intelligence, he very soon ceased, and even recalled those whom he had banished" (Eusebius, Church History III.XX.9).

Point #2: Both the Roman historian Tacitus (Annals XV.44) and the writings of Pope St. Clement of Rome (1 Clement 6), who lived during the reign of Domitian, testify to the deaths of "immense multitudes" of Christians during the reign of Nero, but they do not mention any accounts of severe persecutions during the reign of Emperor Domitian.

Point #3: Revelation 13:18 appears to identify Nero as "the beast," a title he certainly earned not only for his persecution of Christians but for the murders of his family members including his first wife, his mother, and his pregnant second wife. Another critical passage for dating the book appears in Revelation 17:8-11. In that passage, St. John seems to be speaking of two different lists of Roman rulers, possibly the two different official lists used by Roman historians. One list composed by Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (Ad 69-126) began with Julius Caesar, naming eight Roman emperors. The other list by Publius Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56-117), historian and public official, began with Julius Caesar's successor, his great-nephew Octavian (Caesar Augustus), and only named seven emperors.

Roman historian Tacitus begins his list of Roman emperors in Annals, his history of Rome, with the name of the first man to bear the title "emperor" of the Romans: Augustus Caesar (Octavian). However, the Roman historian Suetonius began his list in Lives of the Twelve Caesars with Julius Caesar, even though Julius Caesar never officially bore that title, as did Dio Cassius in his Roman History and Flavius Josephus, the Jewish first century AD priest/historian, in his history of the Jewish people entitled Antiquities of the Jews. There were, therefore, two official lists in use in the first century AD.

In Tacitus' list, Nero is the fifth name, but on Suetonius' list, Nero is the sixth emperor. In Revelation 17:10, the inspired writer records: The seven heads are also seven emperors. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. Nero committed suicide (with help from a servant) in June AD 68 after a reign of fourteen years. He was immediately replaced by Galba who was murdered in AD 69 and replaced by Otho who only lasted 95 days before his murder. This historical succession seems to fit the passage in 17:10. Then, take into consideration the next line: The beast, who was alive and is alive no longer, is at the same time the eighth and one of the seven, and he is going to his destruction (Rev 17:11). Otho is both number seven and number eight on the lists of emperors. It possible from this passage to place the written record of St. John's visions on Patmos to just after Nero's death during the short reign of Galba and before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70. Also consider Revelation 17:8a: The beast you have seen was once alive and is alive no longer. This verse also seems to point to the recently dead Nero who was awaiting the resurrection of the dead and final judgment with the damned. At any rate, Domitian does not make the list because he would be number eleven or number twelve depending on the list.

There is also the interesting connection between the passage in Revelation 13:18: There is need for shrewdness here: anyone clever may interpret the number of the beast: it is the number of a human being, the number is 666. Some ancient sources list this number as 616. In ancient times most cultures did not have separate symbols for both letters of the alphabet and numbers. In both Hebrew and Greek, each letter of the alphabet also had a corresponding numerical value; however, in Latin, only six letters had a numerical value. In Greek, the word "gematria" denoted the letter value of names, words, or phrases (see the document The Significance of Numbers in Scripture in the Documents/ Scripture Study section). The gematria of "Neron Caesar" (an alternating spelling of Nero's name in the first century AD) in Hebrew is 666, while the sum of the letter-number value of "Nero Caesar" is 616. The sum of the letters of the words "Caesar-god" in Greek is also 616, and all six of the Roman numerals (I=1, V= 5, X=10, L=50, C=100, D=500) add up to 666. Note: M = 1,000 was two D's (500) back to back.

Point #4: Revelation 11:1: Then I was given a long cane like a measuring rod, and I was told, Get up and measure God's Temple, and the altar, and the people who worship there; but exclude the outer court and do not measure it, because it has been handed over to gentiles. The Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem on the 9^th of Ab (July/August) in AD 70. If St. John received a divine command to go to Jerusalem and measure the Temple during the reign of Domitian (sometime between AD 81-96), he would have protested that he could not measure the Temple because it no longer stood. If the Temple was still standing, then the vision must have occurred before the Temple's destruction in AD 70.

The Different "Schools" of Thought in Interpreting Revelation:
Most scholars agree that the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor describe the conditions of seven historical churches in St. John's own time. Most scholars also agree that the last half of Chapter 20 and all of Chapters 21 and 22 are prophetic visions of the "end times." The "end times" will culminate in the Second Advent of Christ, the Resurrection of the dead, the Final Judgment, the creation of the new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem, and the eternal life of the saints with God in the heavenly Sanctuary. The interpretation of the middle chapters of Revelation depends on two critical interpretive questions: What is the historical reference of the visions and what is the nature of the thousand-year period described in Chapter 20?

There are five different schools of thought on the interpretation of the middle chapters of Revelation:

1. The Preterist View (from the Latin term for "past"): The fulfillment of all the events of St. John's visions took place during the period of the Roman Empire. One of the most influential champions of this view was a Spanish Jesuit priest, Luis de Alcanzar (1554-1613). This view has the strength of making John's vision exceedingly meaningful for the early Church, but less relevant to the present age. Some contemporary Catholic scholars have adopted a variant of this view.
2. The Futurist View: Spanish Jesuit Doctor of Theology, Francisco Ribera (1537-91) and St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) were champions of this view. This school of thought holds that the middle chapters, beginning with Chapter 4 and including the concluding chapters of Revelation, apply strictly to the future. Today most evangelical Protestants (including the rapture theorists) and many Catholics support a futurist interpretation. The difficulty with this view is that it robs St. John's vision of any meaning for the early Christians for whom he was writing.
3. The Historicist View: Those who embrace this view hold that the events described in the middle chapters have found their fulfillment throughout the past two thousand years of the Church's history. This view was adopted by medieval dissenters in the Catholic Church and became widespread in the Protestant Reformation movement because they could use it as anti-papal propaganda. In this interpretation, the "whore of Babylon" is the Catholic Church, and the "Beast" is the Catholic Pope. This view was popular with Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other anti-Catholic reformation leaders. The Historicist view is less popular today but still has its supporters. In the opinion of the historicists, the seven trumpets equal seven historical invasions of Christendom by enemy armies like the Goths, Vandals, etc. The primary disadvantage to this view is that historicists fail to agree on which events of human history the symbolism of the visions foreshadows.
4. The Spiritual-Idealist View: In this view, particular historical events and characters have no one-on-one correspondence to the scenarios and figures in the book of Revelation. Instead, John's imagery symbolizes spiritual realities depicting the fight between good and evil, God and the Devil, etc., that Christians witness in every generation. In this approach, the references to the sun, moon, and stars, for example, are symbols for political rulers. In this approach to Revelation, all of John's visions concern ideas and principles. The strength of this view is that it secures the relevance of St. John's visions for all periods of Church history, but its weakness lies in its refusal to find a firm historical context to any of St. John's message.
5. The Progressive Parallels View: This theory developed from the literary analysis of the Book of Revelation and it is possible to apply it in the interpretation of a number of the four different schools of thought concerning St. John's visions. This view holds that the structuring of the book is in seven sections that run parallel to each other. Each of these sections portrays the Church and the world from the time of Christ's First Advent to the time of his promised Second Advent. In other words, it is not a historical chronology; the story starts all over again with each new section but is told or viewed from a slightly different perspective. In Scripture, repetition is like underlining, as in the Egyptian Pharaoh's double dreams, which Joseph son of Jacob-Israel interpreted in Genesis 41:1-7; 17-36. This view was suggested centuries earlier by Bishop Victorinus of Pettau (died under the Diocletian persecution of AD 284-305). He wrote: [this book] does not set forth a continuous series of future events, but repeats the same sequences of events under various forms (Bosimard, Introduction to the New Testament, page 702).

While each of these schools of interpretation in most forms receives approval by the Catholic Church, it is not necessary to accept any one theory in its pure form. Many modern commentators may teach that one scenario in the middle chapters of the Book of Revelation is a symbol of the present age while maintaining that another is a prophecy of a future event. St. Augustine held that the "first resurrection" in Revelation 20:5-6 refers to the present regeneration of the soul through baptism and that the thousand-year reign of Christ in Revelation 20:4-10 is a symbolic number that represents the era of the Church between Christ's two advents. But he also taught that the antichrist would be a specific individual who will appear toward the end of history to persecute the Church for a literal three and a half years.

The Secret Rapture Theory:
Most Evangelical Protestants and some Catholics influenced by Protestantism embrace the "Rapture Theory" in association with a futuristic interpretation of the Book of Revelation. The book The Rapture Trap by Paul Thigpen offers a complete presentation of the problems associated with the so-called "rapture theory." The chief weakness with this interpretation is that Evangelical Protestants who support a futuristic dispensation theory are teaching that there will be two "Second Comings" of Jesus Christ. According to this view, the first return of Christ is in the so-called "Rapture" (strictly a Protestant term) when only the righteous will be "raised up" with Christ and taken to heaven, followed by a period of tribulation for those "left behind." According to this view, there will be another return of Christ at the end of the age when all humanity, the living and the dead, will be bodily resurrected to face the Final Judgment. The theory of two "Second Comings" of Christ is not supported in Scripture nor by the teachings of the Catholic Church. It was introduced in nineteenth-century and made popular by a disaffected Anglican named John Darby. Today the theory is supported by Dallas Theological Seminary and by Protestant writers like Tim Lehay, author of the popular Left Behind book series.

The appealing part of this theory for many is that it teaches all Christians will be swept away by Christ in the "Rapture" and will, therefore, be able to avoid the Great Tribulation that those "left behind" must endure. However, the Catholic Church teaches: Before Christ's second coming, the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh (CCC 675). If God did not spare the suffering of His Son, or His Mother, or His disciples, then why should Christians of any age believe they are worthy to escape the testing of their faith through suffering?

Some scholars maintain it is possible to embrace all these schools of thought at once, and the Catholic Church agrees to the extent that she has always taught that Scripture can have several levels of meaning and fulfillment. An example of several levels of meaning can be applied to the interpretation of the "Beast" in the Book of Revelation Chapter 13. The "Beast" might refer simultaneously to the Roman Empire, to Nero Caesar the persecutor of Christians, to Hitler and Nazi Germany, and the final Antichrist still to come.

The Question of the Thousand Year Reign in Revelation 20:1-10

The most hotly debated issue is the "millennium," a word from Latin meaning "a thousand years" that does not appear anywhere else in the Bible except in Revelation 20:4-7. There are three schools of thought concerning the millennium passages in the Book of Revelation:
The Premillennial View: After Christ returns to earth in glory, He will reign for a literal thousand years before the final consummation of God's plan. The title of this view comes from the "pre-mills" belief in Christ's "Second Coming" before the millennial reign. Some who have adopted this interpretation think that this reign takes place with the saints in heaven, but historically this position has tended to believe in a literal, earthly kingdom with its capital city at Jerusalem. The Catholic Church explicitly rejects this position. This view was known as the chilian' heresy (from Greek word for thousand), a heresy vigorously denounced by the Church in the fourth and fifth centuries AD. It is the same heresy proposed by the Jehovah Witnesses and others who believe that before the final Judgment Day Christ will come again in the flesh and in human history to visibly rule an earthly kingdom.

There are two forms of this theory: historic premillennialism (discussed above) and dispensational premillennialism. The dispensational premillennialists believe in two Second Comings of Christ: the so-called Rapture' before the great tribulation and a second "Second Coming" of Christ at the end of the age. Dispensationalism divides history into seven "dispensations" or progressive stages in God's revelation to humanity. They see the seven letters of to the seven churches in Chapters 2-3 as symbolically representing these seven stages. The Catholic Church pronounced her stand on this form of millennialism in the 1944 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. The Church stated: In recent times on several occasions this Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office has been asked what must be thought of the system of mitigated Millennarialism, which teaches, for example, that Christ the Lord before the final judgment, whether or not preceded by the resurrection of the many just, will come visibly to rule over this world. The answer is: The system of mitigated Millenarianism cannot be taught safely.

Most fundamentalist Protestants are millenarians, and some Catholics became influenced by this view without knowing it is opposed to the teaching of the Church. There are also Catholics who hold the view that Christ will have an invisible spiritual reign on earth for one thousand years and maintain that this theory does not violate the Church's prohibition of an earthly, physical reign. However the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that to hope for any future golden age of humanity does not agree with Church doctrine: The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism (CCC 676).

The Postmillennial View: This view emerged from the teaching of the protestant John Calvin during the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century AD. It teaches that the kingdom of God is now being extended through the world by the preaching of the Gospel, social activism, and the work of the Holy Spirit in worldwide conversion. Through this process, the world will eventually become Christianized, and the return of Christ to the earth will take place only at the close of a long period of righteousness and peace that will come at the end of the "millennium" which is either literal or symbolic (there are variations to each of these views). This view also is not in harmony with the Church. In CCC 677 the Church teaches: The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause His Bride to come down from heaven.

The Amillennial View: The term means "no millennium," which is a misnomer. Amillennialists believe in the millennium of Revelation chapter 20, but they insist that it refers symbolically to the present age between Christ's two advents rather than to a future, literal thousand years. For an explanation of this view, see St. Augustine's City of God. St. Augustine taught when Christ defeated Satan through His Passion and self-sacrifice on the altar of the Cross, Satan, the "ancient serpent" (Rev 12:9) was bound. Satan was not entirely removed from human history but was restrained from exercising his full power on humankind and from seducing those who belong to God through the covenant in Christ's blood (Lk 22:20). Since that time, Christ has been exercising His dominion on earth through His Kingdom of the Church because He is reigning in the hearts of people love Him. St. Augustine also believed that just before the Second Advent at the end of the present age, God will set Satan loose one more time. Then, Satan will rage against humanity with his whole force of fallen angels for three and a half years. Some "amills" do not insist on a literal three-and-a-half-year period, but Augustine does; according to St. Augustine, this will be the period of the great tribulation. Although this is a view widely held in the Church since St. Augustine taught it in the fourth century AD, the Church has never ruled on this theory one way or the other. The Church does teach that Christ reigns now, and the Church is the sacrament of that reign in the world.

We will be revisiting these various theories of the Millennial Reign of Christ in Revelation, Chapter 20.

Appendix:

THE OLDEST SECULAR ACCOUNTS & HISTORICALEVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS OF NAZARETH

No serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus. Otto Betz

1. Cornelius Tacitus: (55-120 AD) Roman historian. His most acclaimed works are the Annals and the Histories. The Annals cover the history of the Roman Empire from the period covering Augustus Caesar's death in AD 14 to the suicide of Emperor Nero in AD 68, while Tacitus' Histories record the history of the Roman Empire after Nero's death and until the reign of Domitian in AD 96. In the Annals, Tacitus alludes to the death of Christ and the existence of Christians living in Rome: But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also (Annals XV,44). The misspelling of Christ as "Christus" was a frequent error made by pagan writers.

It is interesting that except for Tacitus' passage, Pontius Pilate is not mentioned in any other surviving pagan document. It is an irony of history that the only surviving reference to Pilate in a pagan writer's text is because he ordered the execution Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ (Messiah).

2. Suetonius: Roman historian and court official during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. Suetonius wrote: As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome (Life of Claudius 25.4). Chrestus is a misspelling of Christus. The spelling probably assumes that the rendering of Jesus' title "Christos" ("anointed" in Greek) was the same as the ChiRho symbol of two Greek letters. In addition to being a symbol for the first three letters of the word "Christos," it was also a literary notation that indicated a quote "worthy of note" in a document using the chrestus"/ChiRho Greek letters as a symbol in the document's margin. Acts 18:2 mentions Emperor Claudius' expulsion of the Christians from Rome, an event that took place in AD 49.

In Lives of the Caesars, Suetonius also wrote: Punishment by Nero was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. Assuming Jesus' Crucifixion was in the early thirties (most modern scholars date Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection to AD 30, some others to AD 33), Suetonius records a Christian presence in the Roman capital less than twenty years later. He reports that they were suffering for their faith and dying for their conviction that Jesus had lived, died, and had risen from the dead.

3. Pliny the Younger: Roman governor in Bithynia. In AD 112, he wrote to Emperor Trajan to seek advice as to how to deal with the Christians. He recounts that he had been killing Christian men, women, and children. He was concerned that his persecution of Christians was not discouraging their beliefs. He noted that many Christians had chosen death over being able to avoid death by simply bowing down to a statue of the emperor or being made to curse Christ. He wrote that they preferred death: to curse Christ, which a genuine Christian cannot be induced to do (Epistles X, 96).

4. Thallus: A secular author, writing circa AD 52, he is best known for a history of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Trojan War to his own time. The document no longer exists, but other authors quoted from it including the Christian writer Julius Africanus, who wrote circa AD 22. Julius Africanus cited Thallus' comments about the darkness that enveloped the land during the late afternoon hours when Jesus died on the Cross. He wrote: Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun—unreasonably, as it seems to me (unreasonably of course, because a solar eclipse could not take place at the time of the full moon, and it was at the season of the Paschal full moon that Christ died (Julius Africanus, Chronography 18.1). The importance of Thallus' comment is that the reference shows that the Gospel accounts of the darkness that fell across the earth during Christ's crucifixion were well known, and the unexplainable phenomena were even noted by non-Christians.

5. Phlegon of Tralles: Julius Africanus also quoted another secular scholar whose works are now lost. Phlegon wrote a history called Chronicles. Phlegon also commented on the darkness at the time of Christ's crucifixion: During the time of Tiberius Caesar, an eclipse of the sun occurred during the full moon (Julius Africanus, Chronography 18.1).
(The third century AD Christian apologist Origen also referenced Phlegon's record of this event in his work Celsum 2.14,33,59, as does the sixth-century writer Philopon (De.opif.mund. II, 21.

6. Mara Bar-Serapion: A Syrian stoic philosopher, he wrote a letter from prison to his son in about AD 70. He compared Jesus to the philosophers Socrates and Pythagoras.

7. Lucian of Samosata: He was a Greek satirist who lived in the latter half of second century AD. He spoke scornfully of Christ and the Christians but never argued that Jesus never existed. Instead, he wrote: The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account (The Death of Peregrine, 11-13).

8. The Babylonian Talmud: The Jewish Babylonian Talmud records, It has been taught: On the eve of Passover, they hanged Yeshu. And an announcer went out, in front of him, for 40 days (saying): He is going to be stoned, because he practiced sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and plead in his behalf.' But, not having found anything in his favor, they hanged him on the eve of Passover (Talmud: Sanhedrin 43a; df.t.Sanh. 10:11; y. Sanh 7:12; Tg. Esther 7:9). Another version of this text reads: Yeshu the Nazarene. Yeshu/Yeshua is the rendering of Jesus' name in Aramaic. "Hanged" is another way of referring to a crucifixion; see Luke 23:39 and Galatians 3:13.

9. Flavius Josephus (born Yosef ben Matityahu): He was a Jewish priest, historian, and Roman citizen who was born in AD 37, seven years after Jesus resurrection, and died in AD 100. He wrote four books, but his best-known works are The Jewish Wars (the only eyewitness account of the Jewish revolt against Rome that survives) and Antiquities of the Jews (a history of the people of Israel/Judah). In Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus provides this account about Jesus of Nazareth: Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ (Messiah); and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.3.3 [63]).

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