Good Friday 2017: Bible Verses, Passages, & Readings

There are two facts about Jesus that aren't up for debate by historians: Jesus was baptized and crucified. For the crucifixion, there are historical references that aren't in the Bible. The Roman historian and senator Tacitus referred to Jesus, his sentencing to death by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in one page of his final work, Annals (written ca. A.D. 116). The text reads: "Roman Emperor] 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 Judaea, 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." Pliny the Younger, the Roman governor of Bithynia et Pontus (now in Turkey), also wrote about Christians and referenced their leader. Around 112 A.D., Pliny wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan asking advice on how to deal with Christians. According to Be Thinking, Pliny wrote: "They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food – but food of an ordinary and innocent kind." Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus also wrote about Jesus and early Christians, whom he still referred to as Jews in 41 to 54 A.D.