Who Is The Roman Soldier And Supposed Biological Father Of Jesus?
By RICHARD MILNER
History - Religion
Content Warning
This story contains discussions of sexual assault.
One version of Mother Mary and Jesus’ birth was that teenage Mary lived in the Roman province of Judea 2,000 years ago and got pregnant with the child of Roman soldier Panthera.
As Imperium Romanum shows, Tiberius Julius Abdes Panthera (sometimes written as Pantera) was a non-native Roman of Semitic origin from Sidon in modern-day Lebanon.
During the reign of Emperor Tiberius (14 to 37 C.E.), Panthera became a Roman citizen after 25 years of service in the Roman military and got "Tiberius Julius" added to his name.
Panthera was a 40-year Roman archer who died at 62. If he served 40 years during Tiberius' reign, he would've been born between 45 and 22 B.C.E and began between 27 and 4 B.C.E.
Greece & Rome noted that scholars agree that Jesus was born in 7 B.C.E. during the reign of King Herod, when Panthera would have been anywhere from 15 to 38 years old.
Panthera’s cohort of archers passed from Palestine to modern-day Germany from 6 to 9 C.E., so a Roman soldier named Panthera could have met Mary, the Mother of Jesus, at that time.
The Times of Israel outlines Panthera’s narrative as a by-the-books tale of an older man and a young girl, and a sexual act in a field that may or may not have been consensual.
Mary was deemed unfaithful to Joseph due to the pregnancy, and Jesus was a mamzer, or "bastard." Various Jewish texts call him Yeshu ben Pantera or "Jesus, son of Panthera."
As for Panthera, we can only say for sure what it reads on his tombstone: He lived, he was a soldier, and he died. His tomb is in modern-day Germany in the town of Bingerbrück.