Born in the Second Century
For nearly two thousand years, we've been told that Christianity began around 30 AD - when the disciples of the backwoods preacher "Jesus of Nazareth" came to believe he had risen from the dead. But now, BORN IN THE SECOND CENTURY exposes this tale as a myth. Host Chris Palmero - an adherent of the Catholic Church - proves that Christianity began almost one hundred years after the imagined death of Jesus, through a close reading of the New Testament and books left out of the Bible.
Born in the Second Century
10. Pliny's Letter Part 1. Pliny's Letter Late and Spurious.
The Roman official Pliny the Younger supposedly wrote a letter that mentioned the Christian religion, all the way back in 112 AD. If this letter is genuine, it represents a major threat to BORN IN THE SECOND CENTURY. Therefore, host Chris Palmero launches a new multi-part series: the most comprehensive effort of the past three hundred years to prove that this letter of Pliny was in fact a forgery; a Christian forgery of the late second century in the spirit of Hadrian’s fake rescript to Fundanus.
Anyone who listens to this episode can learn about the background of Pliny the Younger and his famous letter; about the many arguments against its authenticity that will be presented in this series; about how Tertullian's apparent early use of the letter doesn't prove its authenticity, about whether Pliny himself was a historical figure, about whether Pliny's writings as a whole are genuine, and about the strange history of Book Ten of Pliny's Epistulae, in which this troublesome text occurs.
Opening reading: Pliny writes to Tacitus, expressing pride in the genius of both men, and hopes that they'll be remembered by posterity. Nineteen centuries later they still stand, thrusting out forbidding hands like the Pillars of the Argonath guarding the secrets of the true origins of Christianity.
But I've seen much more formidable objectives. And I propose to move immediately upon their works.
YouTube: @borninthesecondcentury
E-mail: secondcenturypodcast@gmail.com
Music: Pompeii Gray on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud
