Editing Tacitus on Jesus (section)

==Authenticity==
[[File:Lipsius manuscript.jpg|thumb|180px|The title page of 1598 edition of the works of Tacitus, kept in [[Empoli]], [[Italy]]]]

Most scholars hold the passage to be authentic and that Tacitus was the author.{{sfn|Van Voorst|2000|p=42-43}}{{sfn|Shaw|2015}}<ref name="Willem">{{citation |first=Willem |last=Blom |title=Why the Testimonium Taciteum Is Authentic: A Response to Carrier |work=Vigilae Christianae |date=2019}}</ref> Classicists observe that in a recent assessment by latinists on the passage, they unanimously deemed the passage authentic and noted that no serious Tacitean scholar believes it to be an interpolation.<ref name="marg tac">{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Margaret H. |title=Early Classical Authors on Jesus |date=2023 |publisher=T&T Clark |isbn=9780567683151 |pages=67–74}}</ref>

Suggestions that the passage may have been a complete forgery have been generally rejected by scholars.{{sfn|Van Voorst|2000|p=42}}{{sfn|Furneaux|1907|loc=Appendix II,  p. 418}} [[John P. Meier]] states that there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support the argument that a scribe may have introduced the passage into the text.<ref>{{cite book |last=Meier |first=John P. |title=[[John P. Meier#A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus|''A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus'']] |publisher=Doubleday |date=1991 |volume=1 |pages=168–171}}</ref> Scholars such as Bruce Chilton, [[Craig A. Evans|Craig Evans]], Paul Eddy and Gregory Boyd agree with John Meier's statement that "Despite some feeble attempts to show that this text is a Christian interpolation in Tacitus, the passage is obviously genuine".<ref name=ChilEvans465 >{{cite book |title=Studying the historical Jesus: evaluations of the state of current research |first1=Bruce |last1=Chilton |first2=Craig A. |last2=Evans |date=1998 |isbn=90-04-11142-5 |pages=465–466}}</ref>{{sfn|Eddy|Boyd|2007|p=181}}

Tacitus was a patriotic [[Roman Senate|Roman senator]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Josephus, the Bible, and history |first=Louis H. |last=Feldman |date=1997 |isbn=90-04-08931-4 |page=381}}</ref><ref name= MAPowell33 >{{cite book |title=Jesus as a figure in history: how modern historians view the man from Galilee |first=Mark Allan |last=Powell |date=1998 |isbn=0-664-25703-8 |page=33|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press }}</ref> His writings show no sympathy towards Christians, or knowledge of who their leader was.{{sfn|Evans|2001|p=42}}<ref name="Ancient Rome' page 293">{{cite book |title=Ancient Rome |first=William E. |last=Dunstan |date=2010 |isbn=978-0-7425-6833-4 |page=293|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref> His characterization of "Christian abominations" may have been based on the rumors in Rome that during the [[Eucharist]] rituals Christians ate the body and drank the blood of their God, interpreting the ritual as cannibalism.<ref name="Ancient Rome' page 293"/><ref>{{cite book |title=An introduction to the New Testament and the origins of Christianity |first=Delbert Royce |last=Burkett |date=2002 |isbn=0-521-00720-8 |page=485|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> [[Andreas Köstenberger]] states that the tone of the passage towards Christians is far too negative to have been authored by a Christian scribe.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament |first1=Andreas J. |last1=Köstenberger |first2=L. Scott |last2=Kellum |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-8054-4365-3 |pages=109–110|publisher=B&H Publishing }}</ref> Van Voorst also states that the passage is unlikely to be a Christian forgery because of the pejorative language used to describe Christianity.{{sfn|Van Voorst|2000|p=39-53}}

Tacitus was about seven years old at the time of the [[Great Fire of Rome]], and like other Romans as he grew up he would have most likely heard about the fire that destroyed most of the city, and Nero's accusations against Christians.{{sfn|Barnett|2002|p=30}} When Tacitus wrote his account, he was the  governor of the province of Asia, and as a member of the inner circle in Rome he would have known of the official position with respect to the fire and the Christians.{{sfn|Barnett|2002|p=30}}

William L. Portier has stated that the references to Christ and Christians by Tacitus, Josephus and the letters to [[Emperor Trajan]] by [[Pliny the Younger]] are consistent, which reaffirms the validity of all three accounts.{{sfn|Portier|1994|p=263}}