Is there any evidence, outside of the bible, that Jesus existed?

Question

...and if so what is it and where is it?

The Quran references are irrelevant since it was wriiten after the bible and it's more than likely that Mohammed had read it.
The references in the work of Josephus are dubious and disputed.
Is there no historical evidence?

Don't just say "yes, it's in the history books" it isn't........

Answer 1

The Qur’an tells us a lot of wonderful things about Jesus. As a result, believers in the Qur’an love Jesus, honour him, and believe in him. In fact, no Muslim can be a Muslim unless he or she believes in Jesus, on whom be peace.

The Qur’an says that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he spoke while he was still only a baby, that he healed the blind and the leper by God’s leave, and that he raised the dead by God’s leave.

What then is the significance of these miracles? First, the virgin birth. God demonstrates his power to create in every way. God created everyone we know from a man and a woman. But how about Adam, on whom be peace? God created him from neither a man nor a woman. And Eve from only a man, but not a woman. And, finally, to complete the picture, God created Jesus from a woman, but not a man.

What about the other miracles? These were to show that Jesus was not acting on his own behalf, but that he was backed by God. The Qur’an specifies that these miracles were performed by God’s leave. This may be compared to the Book of Acts in the Bible, chapter 2, verse 22, where it says that the miracles were done by God to show that he approved of Jesus. Also, note that Jesus himself is recorded in the Gospel of John to have said, “I can do nothing of my own authority” (5:30). The miracles, therefore, were done not by his own authority, but by God’s authority.

What did Jesus teach? The Qur’an tells us that Jesus came to teach the same basic message which was taught by previous prophets from God—that we must shun every false god and worship only the one true God. Jesus taught that he is the servant and messenger of that one true God, the God of Abraham. These Quranic teachings can be compared with the Bible ( Mark 10:18; Matthew 26:39; John 14:28, 17:3, and 20:17) where Jesus teaches that the one he worshipped is the only true God. See also Matthew 12:18; Acts 3:13, and 4:27 where we find that his disciples knew him as Servant of God.

The Qur’an tells us that some of the Israelites rejected Jesus, and conspired to kill him, but Allah (God) rescued Jesus and raised him to Himself. Allah will cause Jesus to descend again, at which time Jesus will confirm his true teachings and everyone will believe in him as he is and as the Qur’an teaches about him.

Jesus is the Messiah. He is a word from Allah, and a spirit from Him. He is honoured in this world and in the hereafter, and he is one of those brought nearest to Allah.

Jesus was a man who spoke the truth which he heard from God. This can be compared with the Gospel According to John where Jesus says to the Israelites: “You are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God” (John 8:40).


The Virgin Birth of Jesus
Muslims believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. When the angels announced to Mary (peace be upon her) about Allah’s promise that she will have a son, she was surprised, since she was a virgin. “How can this be?” she thought. She was reminded that it is easy for Allah to create whatever he wills.

She said: My Lord! How can I have a child when no mortal hath touched me? He said: So (it will be). Allah createth what He will. If He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! and it is (Qur’an 3:47).

It is not difficult for Allah to do anything he wants. He can create a child with both human parents or only one. No miracle is beyond His power. After all, He had created Adam (peace be upon him) from neither a man nor a woman. He created the rest of us from both man and woman. What is so hard if Allah decides to create a human being from a woman only? He only commands “Be!” and it occurs.

Some people think that since Jesus, peace be upon him, had no human father then God must be his father. The Qur’an rejects this view. The position of Jesus with Allah is comparable to the position of Adam with Allah. Just because Adam had no human parent does not mean we should call him the Son of God.

Lo! the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then He said unto him: Be! and he is. (Qur’an 3:59).

According to the Qur’an, everyone except Allah are His servants.

And they say: the Beneficent hath taken unto Himself a Son. Assuredly ye utter a disastrous thing, whereby almost the heavens are torn, and the earth is split asunder and the mountains fall to ruins, that ye ascribe to the Beneficent a son, when it is not meet for (the Majesty of) the Beneficent that He should chose a son. There is none in the heavens and the earth but cometh unto the Beneficent as a slave. (Qur’an 19:88-93)


The Miracles of Jesus
According to the Qur’an, Jesus, on whom be peace, performed the following miracles by Allah’s leave:

1. Spoke while he was only a baby.
2. Healed those born blind.
3. Healed the lepers.
4. Revived the dead.
5. Breathed life into a bird made of clay.

In the Qur’an Allah quotes Jesus, peace be upon him, as saying:

Lo! I come unto you with a sign from your Lord. Lo! I fashion for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, and I breathe into it and it is a bird by Allah’s leave. I heal him who was born blind, and the leper, and I raise the dead, by Allah’s leave. And I announce to you what you eat and what you store up in your houses. Lo! herein verily is a portent for you if you are to be believers.
And (I come) confirming that which was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful some of that which was forbidden unto you. I come unto you with a sign from your Lord, so keep your duty to Allah and obey me. Lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is a straight path. (Qur’an 3: 49-51).

Again, in the Qur’an Allah tells us about the situation on the Day of Judgement:

In the day when Allah gathers together the messengers and says: What was your response (from mankind)? they say: We have no knowledge. Lo! Thou, only Thou art the Knower of Things Hidden.
When Allah says: O Jesus, son of Mary! Remember My favour unto you and unto your mother; how I strengthened you with the holy Spirit, so that you spoke unto mankind in the cradle as in maturity; and how I taught you the Scripture and Wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and how you did shape of clay as it were the likeness of a bird by My permission, and did blow upon it and it was a bird by My permission, and you did heal him who was born blind and the leper by My permission . . . (Qur’an 5:109-110)

Not all of these miracles are recorded in the canonical gospels, the four gospels contained in the Christian Bible.

The fact that Jesus spoke while he was yet a baby is not written anywhere in the Bible. This should not be surprising, because none of the Gospels can claim to recover every single event in the life of Jesus. Instead, the gospel According to John seeks to emphasize that the events were too many to record.

Similarly, the miracle of breathing life into a bird made of clay is not attested by the Christian Bible. This too should not make us wonder. It is obvious that the writers of the gospels could write down only the tradition that was available to them. Furthermore, they could not write down everything they knew about Jesus for they were writing on papyrus material that were very limited in length.

What is worthy to notice here is that the Prophet Muhammad, may peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him, was honest enough to promulgate this information about Jesus. The religion taught by God through Muhammad would deny the divinity of Jesus. Any human being, therefore, who wished to deny the divinity of Jesus would have tried to belittle Jesus. Since Christians looked upon the miracles of Jesus as a proof of his divinity, we might expect that any human being who tries to deny the divinity of Jesus would not have informed people of miracles not previously known to them. He might have even tried to deny some of the miracles recorded in the canonical gospels. On the other hand, the prophet Muhammad honestly conveyed the message delivered to him from Allah. (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.)

Allah tells us the truth without fear. Human beings trying to win followers tell us only what is conducive to winning us over. They usually withhold information that could lead to opposite conclusions. On the other hand, Allah informs us about the miracles of Jesus even if people use this information to support their prior commitment to the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus. Allah does not need to win worshippers. Those who worship Allah does so for their own good. And those who worship false gods do so to their own detriment.

What Allah emphasizes, though, is that the miracles of Jesus do not prove he was divine. The miracles he performed were a sign, a proof, that he was God’s messenger. He performed them with God’s help and permission. Those who use his miracles as proof of his divinity would choose to forget the following sayings of Jesus:

I can of my own authority do nothing. (John 5:30)

They also forget the declaration of Peter:

Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know. (Acts 2:22 KJV).

These passages suggest that Jesus did not do miracles on his own. These, rather were accomplished by God’s leave. Allah reminds us of this. Jesus also constantly repeated to his audience that the miracles he performed were by God’s leave.

Answer 2

I am not a religous person.... but I wont be 'biased' towards this example.

There are mentions of Jesus... and that he was real, such as the new testament for example and some early writing of him in Christian type notes, etc.

However, for today, we dont (none that convinces me) have anything good enough to proove he was real.

I feel that he may have been a real person, but I dont believe he had the 'powers' of what we are told about him when we were younger. Do you honestly think he can walk on water and all that crap?

He may have been a real person.... but no different to anyone else, and the guy has been 'spiced up' to encourage strong beliefs towards the world of Religion.

Back in those days... people truely belived in these things and will always strive to follow people such as him!!!

Today, I would hav thought that we are living in the world of reality and accept the fact that things like the Bible were created to make people follow their religions.

Science has proved many things and questioned many examples from the Bible. However, people need to believe in something and feel they have reasons as to why they are here on Earth. Believing in a religion makes people more comftable in life, and I understand that,

I accept my opinons as realistic, and believe we should be living in a world where Religion no longer exsists.

To me, the Bible is a very important book, especially for its age, but a book of great stories. Nothing more, nothing less!!!

Jesus Christ if he did exsist, may have been an influential person back in the day, but I dont beleive he was as 'Influenctial' as the Bible tells us.

Thats my opinion....

Answer 3

I believe that the Quran you mentioned can not have accepted the fact that Jesus existed without confirming this. More over, the Quran accepts Jesus as a Prophet of God, while Christainity accepts him as the Son of God.

This shows that at some times, Jesus lived on earth because out of the mouth of 2 the truth shall be conbfirmed.

Answer 4

There is more written evidence outside of the Bible that JC lived and was a real person. Roman records, Jewish and Greek records still survive to this day. You may have to hunt for them, but there are books today, written in English that will tell you his story. The 'church' does not mention these too often because thse books talk about JC in human terms rather than the 'sunday school' concept they would prefer to tell. Good hunting if you really are interested in learning the truth.

Answer 5

Depending on what thinking you agree with on the timeline, you're talking about one person that lived somewhere between 1600 and 2000 years ago. Given that, if he existed, he wasn't royally entombed or otherwise set in a monument, at this point there's very little in the way of physical evidence that could point to his existence.

Most of the non-religious evidence comes from unrelated literature, but it's fairly sparse, and there's a lot of noise. Christianity, like all religions, has borrowed a significant amount from previous mythologies, and so its unclear how much of the literature, religious or not, is actually referring to an actual person.

Answer 6

Yes, different people alive in those times wrote about a man called jesus. For example Romans, Jews etc. Do I know where it is? History books, and most probably the Vatican.

Answer 7

Tacitus, the Roman historian, mentions the existence of Jesus and his sect in one of his Annales (I cannot recall which not having the book in front of me) and comments that he had been put to death by one of the imperial procurators.

This is the earliest reference that I know of outside of the dubious religious writings having been written at some point in the late 1st Century A.D.

Answer 8

Yes it is there in the History books,everything in the Bible is back up by Historical facts.

Answer 9

They have been hunting and digging in all the records both Roman and Jewish and they have not found a single piece of evidence to prove his existence. You have to have FAITH. that means in believing in something that probably doesnt exist like Santa or the Tooth Fairy. If this is ok with you --well thats OK. But for the rest of us ---no matter how hard we try--- if we cant find any evidence we dont bother. Better things to do with our lives.and not interested in what happens after we die.
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Answer 10

Yes...there are 67 other historical text other than the bible that speak of Jesus

Answer 11

Here we go again...

Josephus was a secular historian of the Roman Empire who mentioned Jesus and the early church.