Early Reference to Jesus?

[merkavah12]

Greetings all,

I ran across this article

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26972493/?GT1=43001

and was wondering what you all thought of it.

Yours,

M12

[Noons]

Jim West already gave his opinion on it, and he's not too happy with the way the Discovery Channel is spinning this whole thing.

[merkavah12]

"Jim West already gave his opinion on it, and he's not too happy with the way the Discovery Channel is spinning this whole thing."

So I've seen. I especially love this one one comment:

"I’ve seen that bowl somewhere before. It looks very familiar. Ah yes - I’m sure it used to sit on Morton Smith’s desk. It’s where he kept his pencils." ;D

[Anonymous]

Briefly:

Hi all--our anonymous ancient historian in training here again.

Jim West is right, and the article is irresponsible in making these inflated claims (even apart for the Morton Smith note). Anyone who has any training in Greek paleography (or, for that matter, who has James' summer or so of Greek training) could look at the photograph of the cup in the article and see that "ChRISTOY" does not appear on the cup. The lexeme there is "ChRHSTOY." And eta, not an iota, is the first vowel in the name.

Now, it is true that Latin sources sometimes spelled "Christiani" as "Chrestiani"; Tacitus 15.44 uses this spelling, and Tertullian ridicules it at some point in his Apology. But I don't know of any Greek sources that spell "Christ" or "Christian" like this. And Chrestos, with the eta, was a fairly common name for Greek-ethnic slaves in the Roman empire. It would not be surprising to hear of a (probably) former slave named "Chrestos."

Any expert in early Christian history could have pointed this out: in Suetonius' Life of Claudius 25.4the name "Chrestus" was ascribed to a rouser of Jews in the city of Rome. Scholars have debated for centuries about whether the rouser was Jesus. (Compare Acts 18.2. I'm undecided about the identification of "Chrestus" with Jesus; the chronology between the two texts shows a big discrepancy, but chronology was neither Suetonius' nor Luke's strong suit.) But the controversy is famous enough that any expert in early Christianity should have been able to tell msnbc that "Chrestos" does not equal Jesus.

Thanks for your time!