would have ignored so valuable a testimony had they known of its
existence, and would they not have known of it had it really existed?
The Christian Fathers, who not only collected assiduously all that
they could use to establish the reality of Jesus--but who did not
hesitate even to forge passages, to invent documents, and also to
destroy the testimony of witnesses unfavorable to their cause--would
have certainly used the Tacitus passage had it been in existence in
their day. _Not one of the Christian Fathers_ in his controversy with
the unbelievers has quoted the passage from Tacitus, which passage is
the church's strongest proof of the historicity of Jesus, outside the
gospels.

But, to begin with, this passage has the appearance, at least, of
being penned by a Christian. It speaks of such persecutions of the
Christians in Rome which contradict all that we know of Roman
civilization. The abuse of Christians in the same passage may have
been introduced purposely to cover up the identity of the writer. The
terrible outrages against the Christians mentioned in the text from
Tacitus are supposed to have taken place in the year 64 A. D.
According to the New Testament, Paul was in Rome from the year 63 to
the year 65, and must, therefore, have been an eye-witness of the
persecution under Nero. Let me quote from the Bible to show that there
could have been no such persecution as the Tacitus passage describes.
The last verse in the book of Acts reads: "And he (Paul) abode two
whole years in his own hired dwelling, and received all that went in
unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching things concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, _none forbidding him_." How
is this picture of peace and tranquility to be reconciled with the
charge that the Romans rolled up the Christians in straw mats and
burned them to illuminate the streets at night, and also that the