Could Paul be the Christ in Annals 15.44?

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MrMacSon
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Could Paul be the Christ in Annals 15.44?

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Annals 15.44

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.

Jay Raskins has proposed that Tiberius is a substitution for Nero, and Pontius Pilate is a substitute for Porcius Festus, so it would read -

"Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty (during the reign of Nero) at the hands of one of our procurators, Porcius Festus, & a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out ... in Judæa, the first source of the evil.."

Raskins uses Josephus's account of Festus in Antiquities 20.8.10 as support for his argument -
10. Upon Festus’s coming into Judea, it happened that Judea was afflicted by the robbers, while all the villages were set on fire, and plundered by them. And then it was that the sicarii, as they were called, who were robbers, grew numerous. They made use of small swords, not much different in length from the Persian acinacae, but somewhat crooked, and like the Roman sicae, [or sickles,] as they were called; and from these weapons these robbers got their denomination; and with these weapons they slew a great many; for they mingled themselves among the multitude at their festivals, when they were come up in crowds from all parts to the city to worship God, as we said before, and easily slew those that they had a mind to slay. They also came frequently upon the villages belonging to their enemies, with their weapons, and plundered them, and set them on fire.

So Festus sent forces, both horsemen and footmen, to fall upon those that had been seduced by a certain impostor, who promised them deliverance and freedom from the miseries they were under, if they would but follow him as far as the wilderness. Accordingly, those forces that were sent destroyed both him that had deluded them, and those that were his followers also.

Acts 25 is about Paul being brought before Festus at Caeserea in Judea -

7 When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him. They brought many serious charges against him, but they could not prove them. 8 Then Paul made his defense: “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.”

9 Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?”

10 Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. 11 If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

12 After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!”



23 The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

24 Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. 25 I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. 26 But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. 27 For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.”


Acts 26 follows with a speech by Paul in which he accounts his persecution of followers of Jesus of Nazareth -
9 ... ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.
Then Paul's account of his experience on the road to Damascus, then a few interchanges among Paul, Festus, and Agrippa, before Agrippa says to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Then Acts 27 with the boat journey to Rome.

Could the passage in Annals 15.44 -- "but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre" --
refer to a Christ-Paul finding his centre in Rome?



Caesarea Maritima was an important port city in Judea. And it featured in several events -

According to Josephus, Caesarea was the scene in AD 26 of a major act of civil disobedience to protest Pilate's order to plant eagle standards on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem (Antiquities of the Jews XVII:III:1,2,3. The Jewish War II:IX:3.)
  • Could Annals 15.44, with Pilate in it, be referencing this event?? [unlikely]
Also according to Josephus, the outbreak of the Jewish revolt of AD 66 was provoked by Greeks of a certain merchant house in Caesarea sacrificing birds in front of a local synagogue ( BJ 2.14.5 (?))

In AD 70, after the Jewish revolt had been suppressed, many Jewish captives were brought to Caesarea Maritima; Kasher (1990) claims that 2,500 captives were "slaughtered in gladiatorial games" to celebrate the victory of Titus. Caesarea became the provincial capital of the Judaea Province, before the change of name to Syria Palaestina in 135 ad in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt.
  • Kasher, Aryeh (1990) Jews and Hellenistic Cities in Eretz-Israel: Relations of the Jews in Eretz-Israel with the Hellenistic Cities During the Second Temple Period (332 BCE-70CE) Mohr Siebeck, ISBN 3-16-145241-0, p 311


Could "hatred of mankind" refer to either of Pauls activities? persecuting or evangelising??


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