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TRADITION VS SCHOLARSHIP

Suetonius says the Jews of Rome kept rioting under the emperor Claudius, stirred up by a man he names. What name does he give?

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The answer

Chrestus. Suetonius says Claudius expelled Jews from Rome "because of their constant disturbances impelled by Chrestus." Many scholars take Chrestus as a garbled memory of Christus, the Latin for Christ.

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Why it’s interesting

If he does mean Jesus, he must mean Jesus's followers, since Jesus had been executed some twenty years before. Suetonius says nothing else about the man.

Genuinely debated
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