Jesus in History - Written Records: Pliny, Roman Governor

Pliny the younger was a Roman Governor in Bithynia (Turkey). He was executing Christians, but there were a lot of them! In 112 CE he wrote to the Emperor Trajan asking what he should do.

"They were in the habit of meeting before dawn on a fixed day. They would recite in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as to a God, and would bind themselves by a solemn oath, not to do any criminal act, but rather that they would not commit any fraud, theft or adultery, nor betray any trust nor refuse to restore a deposit on demand. This done, they would disperse, and then they would meet again later to eat together (but the food was quite ordinary and harmless)."

Pliny was persecuting Christians. He said that:

• By the beginning of the second century, there was already a Christian community in Bithynia large enough to come to the attention of the Roman governor.
• They worshipped Christ as a God.