A Question About "When"
Most of us were taught that Christianity began around AD 30. Is that right?
Four promises to the reader
History, plainly told
The first Christians are usually placed in the reign of the emperor Tiberius. The book looks at the evidence for that, and for another answer.
It is simple
No footnotes and no long lists of books.
It is fair
When there is a good argument against the idea, the book says so.
It is honest about doubt
Nobody can be certain about events almost two thousand years ago. Much of the book is, in the author's own words, "educated conjecture."
It respects your faith
This book is about history. It does not say whether faith is right or wrong. History cannot answer that question.
The idea in brief
From a crisis to a world religion
- A crisisIn AD 70 the Romans destroyed the Temple. For the Jews it was a religious, political and economic disaster.
- A rumorIn such times people spread comforting stories. A rumor spread that the Messiah had come.
- QuestionsWhat was the purpose of his coming? What had he done? Where was he now? People searched the scriptures for answers.
- From tragedy to triumphThe terrible last days of the Temple may have been retold as the coming of the Spirit.
- A quick spreadThe good news reached Jewish communities across the empire, and the city of Rome.
- A builderPaul took the movement and turned it into a worldwide faith.
- A silenceThe Jewish historian Josephus never names the movement in his histories.
- A backward lookThe gospels and Acts placed the founding in the time of Tiberius.
Much of this is educated conjecture. The book says which parts stand on firm ground and which are informed guesses.
Twelve chapters
What is inside
The Story and Its Sources
What do we know, and how do we know it?
How Rumors Are Born
Frightened people are ready to believe good news.
What Tacitus and Pliny Tell Us
Two Roman writers give us the first outside pictures of the Christians.
The Day the Temple Fell
If Christianity was born from a crisis, what was the crisis?
The Silence of Josephus
The best witness of the war says nothing about the Christians.
Heralds, Prophets and Failed Predictions
If the Messiah story began as a rumor, we should see the same pattern again.
Where Is the Evidence?
Missing evidence is not proof. But it is a clue.
A Small Group and a Sudden Revelation
How might the first believers have gone from waiting for a warrior savior to worshiping a suffering Messiah?
A Brief Life of Paul
He never met Jesus in the flesh. Yet he did more than anyone to build the religion.
Dating the Letters and the Gospels
Do the New Testament writings themselves suggest a time after the Temple fell?
Putting It All Together
Let us look at the whole picture, and be honest about what we know and what we do not know.
The research behind the book
Check the sources
The book has no footnotes, to keep it easy to read. The academic references it rests on are gathered in one PDF you can download and keep.
The full Honours dissertation, Tiberius to Titus: Redating and Reassessing the Origins of Christianity, is free to read, along with a list of 52 items of evidence that discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Read the dissertation (PDF) ad70.com.au Academia.edu ResearchGate