Talk:Tacitus on Jesus
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This article has an NPOV header because parts of the article are POV. The phrase "We have here an enemy of Christianity,a serious historian,accepting the historical existence of Jesus at a time closer to the events then most modern day critics of his existence.", whilst likely true, is designed to put a POV spin on the facts.
Hmm... I agree. Moreover, the article goes on to say that Tacitus "was not particularly interested in the Jews or the Christians." So like, I'm removing the Tacitus=Enemy of Christ, and the NPOV header.Yeago 21:35, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The article seems to me to be inaccurate to the point of Macbeth's wife. Surely T. is saying more than that Xians (and Jesus) were around: look at the word "evil" Kdammers 02:54, 10 July 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Linking of Nero
OMG, what a silly damned dumb debate.
[edit] Alternate Translation
Since when is procurator supposed to translate into prefect... Ah, yes, since Pilatus was not procurator, unlike what is mentioned in a text written in part against Nero by a Tacitus who was maybe a tad eager to make him into more of a monster than he may have been. Actually, the A.T. seems to be, maybe, a bit unreliable. D.
[edit] Translation problem
The English translation you offer is slightly inaccurate as a representation of the Latin: the predicate is missing. What Tacitus actually says is that Nero "punished those, whom the mob was accustomed to call Christians, who were hated for their immorality" (per flagitiam). So it is even a bit more scurrilous: he turns the Christians' own name for themselves against them. The stress (the inflected verb) is actually on the "calling", rather than the hating, which is an adjective. One of those beautifully untranslateable Tacitean sentences that carries twice as much weight as the structure will bear. It all reminds one rather of the apocryphal story about the English miners' strike, where a strikebreaker was supposedly interviewed in a fit of rage and talked about "that Arthur Scargill, as he calls himself...". Peter Agocs, Budapest
- The inaccuracy of that passage was apparent even to me, and I don't speak Latin. Can someone who does, please check the translation? PiCo 08:12, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
- I too have found the passages to be translated very poorly. It had "falsely accused" instead of "fasten" for the lain word subdidit. Talk about POV! This article needs some work. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Hoshidoshi (talk • contribs) 04:25, 26 March 2007 (UTC).
[edit] Move to "Tacitus on Christ"?
Since Tacitus never uses the word "Jesus", should not this article be renamed "Tacitus on Christ" or "Tacitus on Christus"?--Panairjdde 17:56, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
- I see your point, but prefer the current title. The debate is whether the passage provides evidence for Jesus of Nazareth. We use "Jesus" to refer to that particular guy. Paul B 22:48, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] I'm adding NPOV header again
I'll list my reasons soon, if it is not already self-evident. --Ķĩřβȳ♥ŤįɱéØ 10:45, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
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- It rarely is with articles about Jesus. It may be self-evidently too skeptical to one, and self-evidently too credulous to someone else. I really can't guess which you might think it is. Paul B 11:04, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
