# '300 Messiahs' Executed That Year? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 25, 2021, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342 "2021-09-25T22:22:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/42 "2021-10-08T17:34:07Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Also, I might as well inject, I did once hear (I forget exactly where—possibly the Science Channel too), that Roman’s were actually impressed by Christians killed in the Colosseum. This being the Dope, I’m surprised no one’s yet jumped in to address this. There’s [no documented evidence that Christians were martyred in the Flavian Colosseum.](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04101b.htm) That is, killed there specifically for their faith; Christians might have featured among the criminals publicly executed during festivals, or during gladiatorial combat. > [@The Catholic Encyclopedia](#): > > Pius VII in 1805, [Leo XII](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09167a.htm) in 1825, [Gregory XVI](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07006a.htm) in 1845, and [Pius IX](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12134b.htm) in 1852, contributed liberally to save the amphitheatre from further degradation, by supporting the fallen portions with great [buttresses](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03092a.htm)" (Lanciani). Thus at a moment when the Coliseum [sic] stood in grave danger of demolition it was saved by the [pious](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12748a.htm) [belief](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02408b.htm) which placed it in the category of monuments dearest to [Christians](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03712a.htm), the monuments of the early [martyrs](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09736b.htm). **Yet, after an exhaustive examination of the documents in the case, the learned [Bollandist](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02630a.htm), Father Delehaye, S.J., arrives at the conclusion that there are no historical grounds for so regarding it.** (My emphasis) ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/43 "2021-10-08T17:59:09Z")
@Slow_Moving_Vehicle I might have been too quick then to use the word _Colosseum_. Maybe they weren’t killed _exactly_ there. But the Romans still persecuted the Christians, didn’t they? Then the Romans (who were apparently impressed by strength and fortitude), were so impressed by the Christians and their determination that Constantine (now again, I could be wrong about that name) embraced Christianity. Right 🙂 ? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/44 "2021-10-08T18:12:15Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > How do you reconcile this with Jesus rescuing the adulteress in the “cast the first stone” story? There’s nothing to reconcile. According to the Gospel of John (the only Gospel in which this story is found), Jesus was asked for his opinion in order to test him. He certainly didn’t have any authority in the matter, and the woman couldn’t have been punished in any way without a trial before the Sanhedrin. But there’s a lot of doubt as to whether this story was part of the original text of John, or only added centuries later. This story is missing from four early manuscripts of John dating from the 2nd-4th century. The first mention of the story in another text is in the 4th century, and the earliest surviving manuscript to contain it is from the 5th century. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/45 "2021-10-08T18:23:06Z")
Thanks, that is certainly different from the way I [usually see it portrayed](https://www.google.com/search?q=cast%20the%20first%20stone&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CTKFNS4dKqrZYbRPiuYkvj2isgIGCgIIABAA&client=firefox-b-1-e&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CAIQrnZqFwoTCJiW4oS2u_MCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAR&biw=1333&bih=524) where the mob is standing there stones in hand, and Jesus saves her life by convincing the mob to let her go. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/46 "2021-10-08T20:25:43Z")
If the artist is trying to depict a scene from the Bible, details have to be added so that the viewer understands the reference. The accusers are shown wielding stones because the story is about throwing stones, even though no actual stones are in it. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/47 "2021-10-08T21:51:23Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > @Slow_Moving_Vehicle I might have been too quick then to use the word _Colosseum_. Maybe they weren’t killed _exactly_ there. But the Romans still persecuted the Christians, didn’t they? Then the Romans (who were apparently impressed by strength and fortitude), were so impressed by the Christians and their determination that Constantine (now again, I could be wrong about that name) embraced Christianity. > > Right 🙂 ? The Romans absolutely persecuted Christians. The scope and scale of some of the persecutions were likely exaggerated–remember it was frequently Christians, and often Christian monks, who are responsible for a lot of late/mid Roman Empire history surviving into the modern times. They would have had a vested interest in making sure recollections of persecutions painted the Pagan Emperors in as negative a light as possible in many circumstances. For example, Emperor Domitian (ruled 81 - 96) was commonly associated with various tales of severe persecution of Christian in the early Church era; modern scholars since the 1930s or so have found little real evidence to support this and think it was probably very exaggerated. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/48 "2021-10-08T23:20:04Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > @Slow_Moving_Vehicle I might have been too quick then to use the word _Colosseum_ . Maybe they weren’t killed _exactly_ there. But the Romans still persecuted the Christians, didn’t they? Then the Romans (who were apparently impressed by strength and fortitude), were so impressed by the Christians and their determination that Constantine (now again, I could be wrong about that name) embraced Christianity. > > Right 🙂 ? Wrong. Well, wrongish. Romans did persecute Christians (just not in the Colosseum, which was my point). Whether or not some Romans were impressed at the bearing of some Christians, I don’t know - as @Martin_Hyde pointed out, many records of these persecutions came from Christian chroniclers; hardly objective sources. In any case, that had nothing to do with Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, the sincerity of which is debated by historians; at least some think it was for reasons of _realpolitik_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/49 "2021-10-08T23:33:09Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > My head is still reeling from what I just heard on the Science Channel last night. I was watching a show on life in Judea around the time of Christ. Is there any chance you could give us the name of the show so we could check on the actual wording of the claim? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/50 "2021-10-09T03:46:02Z")
It’s been a while and I don’t think I DVR’d it either. Plus it was a rather spur-of-moment thing too. I was Channel surfing, and there it was. Sorry. It was about the true Jesus Christ though. Maybe someone else can help? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342/51 "2021-10-10T03:22:47Z")
The Science Channel? Is that the ghosts channel, aliens channel, or gold mining channel? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-messiahs-executed-that-year/951342.md?page=2)