Frankly, this is a silly argument against the historicity of Jesus. At the time Pliny the Younger wrote to Trajan there would still likely be eyewitnesses of Jesus’ death and resurrection alive. Certainly there were people still alive who interacted with the eyewitnesses. (Polycarp, Irenaeus, Clement, et al.) There was not enough time for a Christ-myth to develop. The devotion to Jesus, with a willingness to go to one’s death, for these early 2nd Century AD Christians cannot be explained away as belief in a myth.
Your argument from silence using Pliny the Elder is not at all persuasive.
The position that Jesus was not an historical figure is relegated to fringe, less than reputable critics. You look silly denying Jesus’ existence. You should spend your time trying to deny Jesus Christ’s deity or trying to explain away the evidence for the resurrection.
TW on July 30, 2021 at 8:39 am
Sadly, it looks like this letter of Pliny is yet another Christian fake.
Jesus isn’t just mythology, Jesus is a lie consciously constructed and spread by various people (Polycarp, Irenaeus, Clement, et al.) for their own reasons, good and bad.
Frankly, this is a silly argument against the historicity of Jesus. At the time Pliny the Younger wrote to Trajan there would still likely be eyewitnesses of Jesus’ death and resurrection alive. Certainly there were people still alive who interacted with the eyewitnesses. (Polycarp, Irenaeus, Clement, et al.) There was not enough time for a Christ-myth to develop. The devotion to Jesus, with a willingness to go to one’s death, for these early 2nd Century AD Christians cannot be explained away as belief in a myth.
Your argument from silence using Pliny the Elder is not at all persuasive.
The position that Jesus was not an historical figure is relegated to fringe, less than reputable critics. You look silly denying Jesus’ existence. You should spend your time trying to deny Jesus Christ’s deity or trying to explain away the evidence for the resurrection.
Sadly, it looks like this letter of Pliny is yet another Christian fake.
https://academic.oup.com/dsh/article-abstract/32/2/435/2669642?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Jesus isn’t just mythology, Jesus is a lie consciously constructed and spread by various people (Polycarp, Irenaeus, Clement, et al.) for their own reasons, good and bad.