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Is Tacitus' references to Vestal Virgins proof that the Goddess Vesta is real?

It seems that many Christians seem to think that Tacitus' references to Christians - the followers of Christ - in Rome is proof that Jesus was real.

On this basis, would it not also be true that when Tacitus chronicles the Vestal Virgins - followers of the Goddess Vesta - that this is equal proof that the Goddess Vesta is real.

Here is a translation of one of his Histories volumes. Search on 'Vestal' to find his references.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16927/16927-h/ii.ht...

4 Answers

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  • CC
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
    Favourite answer

    It seems christians also like to pick and choose which type of logic works for them while denying the same type of logic if it works for others.

    Source(s): An atheist perspective.
  • 1 decade ago

    I completely agree with a previous answerer.

    The logic is seriously flawed that takes Tacitus' mention of the followers of some God or Goddess and tries to compare it with his casual mention of "Christos" as a historic person who lived and was exectured in a real place under the authority of an actual Roman emperor and at the order of an actual Roman governor.

    Anyone who has taken the time to check into what authoritative historians have to say about the veracity and accuracy of Tacitus work would not suspect that Tactius was in the habit of putting anything into his writings which he did not first verify for himself. Generally this kind of question will only be found out here on the internet where urban legends and conspiracists abound. Some of the worst perpetrators are those who attempt to defend the untenable position that Jesus never existed, i.e. that Jesus is nothing more than a myth.

    For instance, the respected historian (not a Christian!), Michael Grant had this to say about proponents of the Jesus myth and how they are viewed by serious historians:

    "To sum up, modern critical methods fail to support the Christ-myth theory. It has 'again and again been answered and annihilated by first-rank scholars'. In recent years 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus'—or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary."

    Michael Grant, Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels, New York: Scribner, 1995, p. 200

    Even the Bart Ehrman, the one time evangelical, turned critic, has this to say on the subject:

    "I don't think there's any serious historian who doubts the existence of Jesus. There are a lot of people who want to write sensational books and make a lot of money who say Jesus didn't exist. But I don't know any serious scholar who doubts the existence of Jesus."

    Bart Ehrman, interview with Reginald V. Finley Sr., "Who Changed The New Testament and Why", The Infidel Guy Show, 2008

    Refutations could be multiplied, but I think this makes the point.

    For more: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christ_myth_theory

  • 1 decade ago

    Vestal virgins existed in the ancient world, as did Christians. Neither reference proves the existence of Christ or of Vesta, but simply mentions that there were people who believed in Christ and Vesta.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    Fallacious logic.

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