Extra-Biblical Evidence of Jesus

Jesus: A Man of History

“Historically it is quite doubtful
whether Christ ever existed at all”
~Bertrand Russell

SECULAR SOURCES

Tacitus (Roman Historian)
“To relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also”

Lucian (Greek Satirist)
“The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account”

Suetonius (Roman Historian)
“As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he (Claudius) expelled them from Rome”

“Punishment by Nero was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.”

Pliny (Roman Governor)
“They (Christians he was persecuting) affirmed, however, that the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as to a god”

Thallus (Secular Historian) & Phlegon (Secular Historian)
Thatllus, in the third book of his histories, explains away this darkness (at the crucifixion) as an eclipse of the sun—unreasonably, as it seems to me.” (quoted by Africanus)… “During the time of Tiberius Caesar an eclipse of the sun occurred during the full moon.”

Mara Bar-Serapion (Stoic Philosopher)
“What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that they their kingdom was abolished…nor did the wise King die for good; He lived on in the teaching which He had given.”

JEWISH SOURCES

Babylonian Talmud (Early Rabbinical Writings)
“On the eve of the Passover they hanged Yeshu. And an announcer went out, in front of him, for forty days (saying): ‘He is going to be stoned, because he practiced sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray.”

“His mother was Miriam, a women’s hairdresser. As they say…’this one strayed from her husband’…who was the descendant of princes and governors, played the harlot with carpenters”

Josephus (Jewish Historian)
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; and the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.”

“The brother of Jesus the so-called Christ, whose name was James, together with some others, and having accused them as law-breakers, he (Ananus) delivered them over to be stoned.”


Established History from Antagonistic Sources
1. Jesus was a historic person
2. Jesus taught in Palestine in the first century
3. Many people believed that he performed healings and exorcisms
4. Jewish leadership was involved in the death of Jesus
5. Jesus was crucified by the Romans under Pontius Pilate
6. His followers believed that he was still alive
7. All kinds of people throughout the empire worshipped him by the beginning of the second century

CHRISTIAN SOURCES

Early Oral Tradition (likely creedal statements)
Luke 24:34
Philippians 2:6-11
Romans 1:3-4
1 Timothy 3:16
Romans 4:24-25
1 Timothy 6:13
Romans 10:9-10
2 Timothy 2:8
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
1 Peter 3:18
1 Corinthians 15:3-5
1 John 4:2