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..In the early periods, none of the universal religions known to us allowed and unbelieving world to see their creative spiritual impulse which was transforming and reviving everything anew. The quality of dynamic power inherent in the Word of God was perceived only by the small group of those who believed in this creative Word of God and were filled with it. At first the world at large scarcely took any notice of it. Thus Jesus Christ was virtually ignored by contemporary historians. The historians of Palestine, Greece and Rome took no notice of the event which was to change the world of that time and without which the spiritual life of the West would be inconceivable. They paid no attention to the life, works and death of the founder of Christianity. Only Tacitus mentions in his Annals-- and the authenticity of this evidence is questioned-- a "Christ" who, in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, was killed by order of the governor Pontius Pilate, and he continues: "For the moment the destructive superstition had been repressed, but it broke again not only in Judea, the starting-point of this evil, but also in the capital where all that is hideous and shameful congregates and gains adherents." (Annals,Xv:44)
(9:2)
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