Which non-Christian source provides early testimony about Christians and Jesus, written by a Roman official?

• A. Pliny the Younger
• B. Josephus
• C. Luke
• D. Paul

Answer: (A)

Pliny the Younger provides the earliest non-Christian testimony from a Roman official about Christians and Jesus. As a provincial governor in Asia Minor, he wrote to Emperor Trajan around 112 CE detailing how he handled investigations into Christians. His letters describe Christians who worship Christ as a god, meet together on a fixed day, sing hymns to Christ, and live by oaths and baptism. This direct, official account from a Roman administrator confirms that a movement centered on Jesus existed outside Christian authors and gives a window into how Romans perceived and regulated early Christian practice.

Josephus is a Jewish historian who writes about Jesus, but he isn’t a Roman official and his passage about Jesus is subject to scholarly debate. Luke and Paul are Christian writers rather than non-Christian sources, so they don’t fit the “non-Christian source written by a Roman official” criterion.