Did Jesus Exist?

The Historicity of Jesus of Nazareth

If one were to look outside of the Bible for an extrabiblical view of Jesus’s existence, is there any proof of Him?

1.     CORNELIUS TACITUS (55 - 120 A.D.) – Perhaps he is one of the greatest historians of ancient Rome. Tacitus calls Christians a ‘deadly sect’ and even describes how Nero blamed Christians for the fire that happened in A.D. 64 (Ann. 15.38-44; 15.44.2-8; Wenham, & Walton, 2001). In addition,Tacitus verifies that Jesus was crucified at the hands of Pontius Pilate who was the governor of Judea during the reign of Tiberius. In Tacitus’s Annals XV, 44 he writes:

Christus, the founder of the [Christian] 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, by through the city of Rome also. (Annals 15.44)

2.     THALLUS (~ 52 A.D.) – During a written debate, Thallus explains the midday darkness which occurred during the Passover of Jesus' crucifixion. Habermas (1996) quotes Thallus:

On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness. The rocks were rent by an earthquake and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the Passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Savior falls on the day before the Passover. But an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time[italicsadded]... Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth-manifestly that one of which we speak. (Chronography XVIII.47)

3.     PLINY THE YOUNGER (63 - 113 A.D) – “A Roman author and administrator who served as the governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, Pliny the Younger was the nephew and adopted son of a natural historian known as Pliny the Elder” (Habermas, 1996, pp. 197-198). In one of his letters, Pliny wrote to Emperor Trajan due to his concern of murdering to many Christians for not denying their faith in Christ. Pliny comments that these people worshiped Christ as if he were a God! Any sceptic should find it rather convicting that the early Church followers of Jesus were so bold that they would rather be put to death than to deny their faith and renounce that Jesus is not a God.

I asked them directly if they were Christians...those who persisted, I ordered away... Those who denied they were or ever had been Christians...worshiped both your image and the images of the gods and cursed Christ. They used to gather on a stated day before dawn and sing to Christ as if he were a god... All the more I believed it necessary to find out what was the truth from two servant maids, which were called deaconesses, by means of torture. Nothing more did I find than a disgusting, fanatical superstition. Therefore, I stopped the examination, and hastened to consult you...on account of the number of people endangered. For many of all ages, all classes, and both sexes already are brought into danger... (Pliny the Younger, n.d., 10.96)

4.     LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA (120 - ~180 A.D.) – This was a man who was a strong opponent to Christianity. He would ridicule Christianity and the Christ they worshiped. During his ridicules and writings, Lucian confirms the death of Christ by crucifixion and that He was the founder of Christianity.

The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day- the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account... It was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers from the moment they are converted and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws... (The Death of Peregrinus 11-13)

5.     CELSUS (~ 178 A.D.) – Another strong opponent to Christianity was a man named Celus. He went to great lengths to try and disprove the deity of Jesus but yet interestingly never denied His existence! He records reports of Jesus miracles, resurrection, and virgin birth all while making some erroneous claims about these events. Many of these accounts can be found in Origen’s responses to Celsus claims:

Jesus, on account of his poverty, was hired out to go to Egypt. While there he acquired certain [magical] powers... He returned home highly elated at possessing these powers, and on the strength of them gave himself out to be a god... It was by means of sorcery that He was able to accomplish the wonders which He performed... Let us believe that these cures, or the resurrection, or the feeding of a multitude with a few loaves... These are nothing more than the tricks of jugglers... It is by the names of certain demons, and by the use of incantations, that the Christians appear to be possessed of [miraculous] power... (Origen, 1885, 1.6)

Jesus had come from a village in Judea, and was the son of a poor Jewess who gained her living by the work of her hands. His mother had been turned out by her husband, who was a carpenter by trade, on being convicted of adultery [with a Roman soldier named Panthera]. Being thus driven away by her husband, and wandering about in disgrace, she gave birth to Jesus, a bastard. 

One who was a God could neither flee nor be led away a prisoner... What great deeds did Jesus perform as God? Did he put his enemies to shame or bring to an end what was designed against him? No calamity happened even to him who condemned him... Why does he not give some manifestation of his divinity, and free himself from this reproach, and take vengeance upon those who insult both him and his Father? (Origen, 1885, 2.9)

Jesus accordingly exhibited after His death only the appearance of wounds received on the cross, and was not in reality so wounded as He is described to have been. (Origen, 1885, 2.9)

6.     MARA BAR-SERAPION (Post 70 A.D) - Mara Bar-Serapion while he was in prison wrote a letter to his son. In this letter, while comparing himself with three other famous people, Mara acknowledges Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, and His execution all before Rome was destroyed.

What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that their kingdom was abolished[Italics added]. God justly avenged these three wise men: The Athenians died of hunger. The Samians were overwhelmed by the sea. The Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good. He lived on in the teachings of Plato. Pythagoras did not die for good. He lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise King die for good. He lived on in the teaching which He had given. (Evans, 2014)

7.     FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS (37 - 100 A.D.) – Josephus was a Pharisee and a Jewish historian of both priestly and royal ancestry. He confirms Jesus’s existence, teaching, miracles, disciples, death by crucifixion, and brother James who later became a believer after he saw the risen Lord.

Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, [if it be lawful to call him a 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. [He was the Christ], 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. [For he appeared to them alive again the third day. As the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him]. And the tribes of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day. (Antiquities XVIII, 3:2) [There are 2 versions of this text, one containing the text in brackets and the other without them.]

So [Ananus] assembled a council of judges, and brought before it the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, whose name was James, together with some others, and having accused them as lawbreakers, he delivered them over to be stoned. (Antiquities XX 9:1)

8.     THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD – After the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, about 20 years later the rabbis confirmed in Yavneh that all of the Old Testament scriptures used in Palestinian Judaism were in fact inspired words of God (Corduan, 2012). Later, approximately in A.D. 200 a book called the Mishnah was formed by several scholarly rabbis who wrote down a collection of oral law and legal interpretations regarding the civil/ceremonial commandments, prayer, feasts, Holy Matters, and ritual cleanliness of the Old Testament (Corduan, 2012; Morgan, 2012). In addition to the Mishnah, the Gemara was formed which are exhaustive narratives and illustrations from famous rabbis regarding the biblical text. The Gemara focuses on the how [application] rather than the what [Mishna] (Morgan, 2012). Together, the Mishnah and the Gemara form what is known today as the Talmud (Corduan, 2012). The Talmud speaks of Jesus’s crucifixion on the eve of Passover (Habermas, 1996; Victor, 2016).

On the eve of the Passover Yeshu (Jesus) [Some texts add: the Nazarene] was hanged [crucified]. Forty days before the execution, a herald went forth and cried, 'He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.' But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of the Passover. (Sanhedren 43a)

Perhaps there are other sources that can further prove the historicity of Jesus and the events of Him in the Bible but I think we get the picture.

References

Corduan W. (2012). Neighboring faiths: A Christian introduction to world religions (2nd ed.). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.

Evans, C. A. (2014). NT313 Jesus and the witness of the outsiders. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Habermas, G. R. (1996). The historical Jesus: Ancient evidence for the life of Christ. Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company.

Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1987). The works of Josephus: Complete and unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson.

Lucian. (1905). The Death of Peregrinus, in the works of Lucian Samosata (Vol. 4). Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

Morgan, G. R. (2012). Understanding world religions in 15 minutes a day. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers.

Origen. (1885). Origen against Celsus. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), F. Crombie (Trans.), Fathers of the third century: Tertullian, part fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, parts first and second (Vol. 4). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

Pliny the Younger. (n.d.). Letters (Latin). Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library.

Tacitus, C. (1906). Annales (Latin). (C. D. Fisher, Ed.). Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library.

Victor, W. M. (2016). Jesus, Trial of. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The lexham Bible dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Wenham, D., & Walton, S. (2001). Exploring the New Testament: The Gospels and Acts(Vol. 1). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.