If someone asked you to prove Jesus really lived, how would you answer?

Answer 1

This would take some time. But I would first explain to them that there are not many people living who deny that Jesus actually existed, because there is far too much Historical, and Archaeological evidence. But basically I would say :

Jesus is mentioned by early historians who were not Christians.
1. Josephus - a Pharisee and Jewish historian
Writing about Ananias, a high priest mentioned in the Book of Acts in the Bible, Josephus, the most significant Jewish historian of the period wrote:

"He convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned." (Josephus, The Antiquities 20.200)

The Bible teaches that Mary had other sons after she bore Jesus. One of them was James. According to the New Testament, James did not even believe in Jesus before his crucifixion. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, says that Jesus appeared to James. It seems that this made a believer out of James. This passage from Josephus confirms important details in the New Testament and directly mentions Jesus, called the Christ.

Remember that not all Jews liked Jesus, and Josephus was not a Christian. He was known as an accurate historian. We have evidence then, apart from the Bible, that Jesus really did exist as a historical person, and that some called him 'the Christ', which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach, or Messiah.

2. Tacitus - A Roman Historian
n A.D. 115, Tacitus, the most important Roman historian of the first century, wrote as follows:

"Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberias at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome ... Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty: then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind" (Tacitus, Annals 15.44)

It is clear from this passage that Tacitus was no friend of the Christians. He called Christianity a 'mischievous superstition'. But at the same time, he tells us the following:

3. Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate, who was known of to Roman historians.
This is totally consistent with the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John on this point and is in fact part of the apostles creed - an important Christian statement of faith of the early church.
This happened during the reign of Tiberias (i.e. a time consistent with the A.D. 33 date which is the year most likely to have been the year of the crucifixion).

4. Christ's crucifixion briefly stopped the spread of Christianity ('for a moment') but then it broke out again from Judea and spread even to Rome. Its clear that Christianity started amongst JEWS.
Already an immense multitude believed in Jesus by the time of Nero and were arrested for their faith by Nero.

5. Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, wrote as follows to the Emporer Trajan around 111 A.D.
"I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubborness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished...

They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: that they met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery ...

This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they called deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths." - Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96

This letter, this time from a persecutor of the church, shows us that the Christians by the early second century most definitely considered Christ to be a god, if not God.

6.Other Jewish Writers
The Talmud is a collection of writings very important in Judaism. It mentions Jesus, but not favorably. According to the Talmud, Jesus was a false Messiah, who practiced magic and deceived the people. He was called a sorcerer. This corroborates the accounts of the gospels that Jesus did many supernatural signs and wonders - like healing the sick, feeding the five thousand with a few loaves and fishes and so on.

If we are to believe historians and writers hostile to Christianity who lived around the time of Christ or the early church, then Jesus really did exist. Furthermore, belief in Him was so strong amongst even a multitude of people that He was worshipped as God. He did supernatural things amongst the Jewish people, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate according to Tacitus, and was believed by many to be the Christ.

If we can believe anything in history we should believe these reports by the detractors of Christianity. They effectively put to rest the ideas, popularised by some, that Jesus of Nazareth never really existed, or if he did, the stories that went around about Him and who He was were not believed until much later.

Answer 2

You can't prove it. Josephus is a known forgery that xians continue to hang on to. There is absolutely no mention of Jeebus in any writings of any historian from CE 1-40. The best a xian can do is find someone who got a second hand story about Jeebus and wrote what someone told him. No first hand accounts and 1 obvious forgery don't make a very good case for Jeebus.

Answer 3

The Jewish historian Josephus, who lived in that time period, refers to Jesus in his writings.

In the last twenty years, archaeologists found a building capstone with Pontius Pilate's name on it, lending even more credence to the account of Jesus' imprisonment at Pilate's hands - washed or unwashed.

If He had never lived, how could history have even been "timed" from His birth to His death? (BC and AD.) He MUST have lived in order to have such an amazing impact on mankind!

Check out mathematician Ivan Panin's scientific proof!

Answer 4

It really is quite widely accepted. There are more historical documents about Jesus than there are about some Roman emperors you take for granted as having lived. He had a profound impact on society. There are sources dated to quite recently after his death - people who saw him would still have been alive, and it is hard for there to be a huge lie when people who would have been there are alive - for example, these holocaust never happened things are coming out just now when all the victims and nazis who participated are dead.

Answer 5

Did Jesus truly exist? Maybe and maybe not! But here is the important thing; whoever preached those wonderful, peaceful and kind words, is my Jesus and I don't need to prove anything to anyone.

Answer 6

Through secular historical document of the Roman Empire, Jewish historical writings, and non canonical writings, Dead Sea Scrolls.

Also, historical artifacts from digs around holy sites.

Answer 7

Look in any world history book or timeline.