REL 1005 Chapter : External References
Document Summary
Jewish antiquities 18. 63-64 (boldface portions are what scholars think to be real text, without later christian insertion) Now there was about this time jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a worker of incredible things, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the. And the tribe of christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. But all human efforts, all the emperor"s gifts and propitiations of the gods, were not enough to remove the scandal or banish the belief that the fire [in the summer of 64 ce] had been ordered. And so, to get rid of this rumor nero set up as culprits and punished with the utmost cruelty a class hated for their abominations, who are commonly called christians.
