Why are there no historical records of Jesus, written during his lifetime?

Question

As far as I'm aware, the gospels were all written after the lifetime of Christ (and some significantly after). None of the historians of the day such as Pliny the Elder, mention Jesus in their writings and there are no Roman records of the trial of Jesus.

Can anyone explain this?

Answer 1

There are NO records whatsoever. Christians like to hang their hats on the Roman idea that they didnt record things that wrent their own....thats all BS...many things were recorded and Jesus wasnt one of them.
http://www.jesuspuzzle.com/

http://www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm

No one has the slightest physical evidence to support a historical Jesus; no artifacts, dwelling, works of carpentry, or self-written manuscripts. All claims about Jesus derive from writings of other people. There occurs no contemporary Roman record that shows Pontius Pilate executing a man named Jesus. Devastating to historians, there occurs not a single contemporary writing that mentions Jesus. All documents about Jesus got written well after the life of the alleged Jesus from either: unknown authors, people who had never met an earthly Jesus, or from fraudulent, mythical or allegorical writings. Although one can argue that many of these writings come from fraud or interpolations, I will use the information and dates to show that even if these sources did not come from interpolations, they could still not serve as reliable evidence for a historical Jesus, simply because all sources derive from hearsay accounts.

Hearsay means information derived from other people rather than on a witness' own knowledge.

Answer 2

Actually there is some things written about in the Bible about Jesus's early life. You need to begin with the New Testament and not just the gospels.

Personal nonawareness of something doesn't equate with that something nonexisting. There very well may have been or still are records that we haven't been made aware of for some reason. Who can say?

You do raise a good point however.

Do we document everyone's lives as they are being lived? No. Who would decide and what criteria would you use if you did so? How could an individual afford to put there own life on hold to document someone else?

You could argue that wouldn't someone have wanted to record that this was the Son of God on earth? Not everyone believed that to be true. Not everyone was educated, had the leisure or funds to write. Maybe God didn't want a written word spread during His time on earth. Maybe He wanted people to see or hear for themselves so there could be no doubt in their minds. Again, who can say?

Answer 3

There are a number of reasongs

1. History was very different back then. It was mainly written by those in power to make sure they had a legacy and people didn't forget them. For example, Josephus was Jewish but being paid by Rome. To Rome, during Jesus' lifetime at least, Jesus wasn't that big of an issue.

2. Most of the disciples seemed to believe that the end of the world was right around the corner. It wasn't until years later that they realized they'd better write this stuff down for future generations.

3. Of all the documents written 2,000 years ago, we don't have many. Papyrus (like paper) doesn't usually last very long under normal circumstances and it wasn't 10 cents to make a copy so there weren't many copies made.

Regardless, no modern scholars (exept for a few very liberal ones) believe that Jesus did not exist. We have 4 reliable accounts in the Bible, Josephus' account, a few accounts in the Jewish texts, and some later accounts about him by Romans, and perhaps some more that I can't think of right now.

Feel free to contact me if you're interested in more detail.

Answer 4

There are many reasons - just as there are many reasons that many pioneers gave birth to children that never had birth certificates, lived their lives and even died without birth certificates.

Non the less - have you not read about Roman Emperor Hadrian? what he did? He had such an intense hatred of the Jews he literally tried to erase them from history destroying buildings, records, even stripping the land bare to a desolate place. And people think Israel was always a barren desert - not so - not until Hadrian finished his handy work.

To add heartache to misery - the man renamed Israel to Palestine, the Greek name for Philistine (Philistines), the ancient enemy of the Jews.

Like I said - there are many reasons while there are no existing ancient records DURING his life other than the Bible and Josephus the Jewish/Roman Historian and a couple or three other historians.

There is evidence in some places that exist. Non the less - the New Testament IS a viable ancient record which holds as much validity as any proof of Aristotle, or, Socrates and others.

Answer 5

That is a good question and I have thought about that too. I think there were records which were kept but when the apostles all killed/died out (who most likely would have some writings), there was no one to keep the sacred writings. If they were written on paper, they probably wouldn't have lasted. I have heard of metal plates which were used to hold ancient writings/scriptures. I don't have enough room for all my thoughts. What do you know about mormons?

Answer 6

Even the Gospels do not provide any detailed knowledge regarding the life of Jesus, between 13 and 29, however there are a number of books providing evidence that Jesus travelled to India and through the Orient, his name is documented for example at Jagannath Puri in Orissa, were he was known as Yishi and associated with the Vaisnava community there before returning to the Middle East at age 30 to teach enlightenment and God consciousness to those communities, the potency of his preaching inflamed the Religious leaders of those communities and threatened their status, I think you know the rest.

Answer 7

The reason there are no historical records of Jesus is because the whole story is just that....A story! He didn't really exist!
'The Bible' is the worlds best selling novel and people have been brainwashed into believing it is true. The stories of 'The Bible' belong in the same category as 'Santa' and 'The Easter Bunny'.
People grow up and stop believing in Santa. Why do they continue to believe in God and Jesus forever?

Answer 8

Hey pal, are you sure you are history student?

Have you really find the history of the Rome? Have you heard of the battle of Masada? Err. . .

No point talking to those who have yet to enter college, if they canmade a statement without even first finding out the basic fact.

For a simple start, there are Roman's records. Go do your research before asking.

Beside, if you are really wish to know, don't politely. I can explain to you. But you seems to know all, and proud. I suggest you go back to college library to look for it.

Do you know how to use Opac system in the library? Check with the staff, they can help.

Answer 9

There's a number of interesting books about this and some even theorize that Jesus never existed, it's a very intriguing viewpoint.

Answer 10

No one can explain it, but many have tried to rationalize it.

In reality, there is no historical evidence of Christ whatsoever.

People who say so are confusing the issue: there IS historical evidence of Christianity (just not of christ)


To hammer this fact home, consider this:
This is a great deal of historical evidence of the worship of Zeus. However, there is no historical evidence of Zeus walking around.



By the standards that christians usually use to establish historical proof of christ, then David Koresh (who we have 100,000 times more proof existed than christ did) would have to be accepted as Jesus' second coming like he claimed.