Jesus In History?

Question

Are there any other historical references of Jesus besides the bible because when reading some answers to an old question someone stated that as fact

Answer 1

Cornelius Tacitus (born A.D. 52-54) - A Roman historian, in A.D. 112, Governor of Asia, son in law of Julius Agricola, who was Governor of Britain A.D. 80-84. Writting of the reign of Nero, Tacitus alludes to the death of Christ and to the existence of Christians in Rome:
"But not all the relief that could come from man....availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite of 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...."

Tacitus has a further reference to Christianity in a fragment of his "Histories", dealing with the burning of Jerusalem Temple in A.D. 70, preserved by Sulpicius Severus.

Lucian of Samosata - A satirist of the second century, who spoke scornfully of Christ and the Christians. He connected them with the synagogues of Palestine and alluded to Christ as:
"the man who was crucified in Palestine because He introduced this new cult into the world....Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they were all brothers one of another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist Himself and living under His Laws." Lucian also mentions the Christians several times in other writings.

Flavius Josephus (born A.D. 37) - A Jewish historian, became a Pharisee at age 19; in A.D.66 he was the commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee. After being captured, he was attached to the Roman headquarters. He says in a hotly contested quotation:
"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 in the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians so named for Him are not extinct at this day."

The Arabic text of this passage is as follows:
"At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And His conduct was good, and He was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and other nations became His disciples. Pilate condemned Him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become His disciples did not abandon His discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them three days after His crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders." The above passage is found in a Arabic manuscript. Bishop Agapius in the tenth century writes: We have found in many books of the philosophers that they refer to the day of the crucifixion of Christ" We also find from Josephus a reference to James the brother of Jesus, in Antiquities XX 9:1.

There are at least five more ancient secular historians who wrote about Christ, Pilate, and the events of the crucifixion. Giving us more than enough written proof, outside of the Bible, if that is what you are looking for - that Christ did walk the earth, performed miracles, was crucified, and rose again in three days.

Answer 2

Search for Dr. Paul Maier on the internet. He is one of the leading Christian historians today. He brought the Christian world & the world in general for that matter, a readable version of Josephus (who was prolific in his historical writings). Any of his works will contain many references from outside the Bible that speak clearly to the fact that Jesus is a historical figure.

I just read one of his books titled Pontius Pilate (the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to death). It's an excellent piece of historical fiction which paints Pontius Pilate as a very real person as well; it's actually from Pilate's point of view.

Answer 3

Many times when I read in history the date will say BC( before Christ ) don’t u think that is kind of part of history. Our religion is all about faith and what u believes in. So it’s a personal choice if the next guy sees the bible as historical events then, that’s his believe. . I personally see Jesus (or his story) as someone that left a mark in history .He has effected many people 's ways of living threw out history.

Answer 4

Actually yes. There is a large reference in the Qur'an. One reference can't be stated as fact, but two can, seeing as they correlate in much of what they say. There is also a large portion on Virgin Mary if you're interested. However, unless you can read Arabic, I would suggest trying to find a Transalated version, with notes, like Tafsir. You could try googling, but avoid any site that comes up called answeringchristianity.com It's a lot of stuff that makes muslims look really racist/prejudiced.

Answer 5

basically like at present, what makes information are the extremely undesirable issues that occurred, no longer elementary good issues, no count number how good that's. you won't be able to blame the jews and present day sources because of the fact they have been too busy recording extra"significant issues." Jesus did no longer lead rebelions, did no longer have diverse followers - it particularly is why the crucified him because of the fact they concept they could smash out with executing the kind of minor irritant. As for crucifixion, it develop into dime a dozen for the period of those cases. How ought to a guy, born of humble mum and dad and who develop into even born in a manger compete with different extra noteworthy figures of the day. whether CNN develop into already there on the time of Jesus, they does no longer have bothered with a guy whose face develop into so elementary he ought to wander away in a crowd? no longer except this guy set a donkey bomb in front of the Temple! in fact, the only reason Josephus Flavius ever reported this Jesus develop into interior the context of his followers who have been already beginning off to make their presence felt interior the classic international. popular awareness at that factor beleieved those Christians have been basically a passing fad, like diverse different cults that existed at that factor. no longer even the Essenes have been featured with the help of historians for the period of their time yet we now understand they existed. All human strikes do no longer prosper previous their alloted 60 seconds of repute. That the Jesus tale continues to be believed with the help of limitless multitudes at present, it develop into no longer because of the fact historians of that factor made them extra popular than they should. extremely it tells of a as quickly as obscure phenomenon that quickly captured the hearts of limitless thousands and thousands, a rejected stone that became the cornerstone of a faith, the mustard seed that has now develop right into a brilliant tree. you may in contrast to this tree, yet ought to you deny the fact that it got here from the kind of small insignificant seed, in spite of each and every thing no longer something comes from no longer something.

Answer 6

Almost all the individuals that wrote about him, were born after he died, and was just relaying more second hand stories that they heard from the Christians.

Some of them, have been declared false, because lines were added in at a much later time.

Only the transcriptions of these documents exists, not the real documents.

Answer 7

Nothing reliable. The references included in Josephus, et al are considered fraudulent by many scholars. Other references could have been about any number of self-proclaimed Messianic figures that were alive during the same period.
Tacitus, Pliny and others rely on unreliable second hand sources. There are no reliable eyewitness account outside the bible.

Answer 8

EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS OF NAZARETH
In addition to the secular historian Josephus providing significant evidence to the life of Jesus as documented in this website's homepage there were other contemporary historians who were secular non-Christian writers with no motive to fabricate events. Tacitus, a Roman historian, wrote the following in his Annals, c. AD 115, which refer to what the Roman Emperor Nero did after the great fire of Rome which occured c. AD 64:

"Consequently, to get rid of the report, 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 Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."Annals 15 -44

Exitiabilis is the latin word for mischievous. It means destructive, fatal, deadly. Tacitus was stating that it was “a destructive or fatal or deadly superstition”. By effectively calling Christianity evil, it is obvious that he was not a Christian. It is important to note that Tacitus is not referring to the death of Jesus as superstition either. Tacitus wrote his history of Rome covering the death of Augustus to the death of Domitian,c.14-96 AD. He used earlier works by historians cross referencing them with each other. He sought to verify his facts, something unusual in the writing of the time.

Phlegon, a Greek writer of the 2nd Century provides further evidence:

"Phlegon mentioned the eclipse which took place during the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus and no other (eclipse); it is clear that he did not know from his sources about any (similar) eclipse in previous times . . . and this is shown by the historical account of Tiberius Caesar." Origen and Philopon, De. opif. mund. II21

"And with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place ...” Origen Against Celsus

Another Roman writer who was familiar with Christ and his followers is Suetonius (A.D. 75-160). Suetonius considered Christ (Chrestus) as a Roman insurgent who stirred up seditions under the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54): "Judaeos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes (Claudius) Roma expulit" (Clau., xxv).

The Jewish Talmud, another ancient document written shortly after Christ's life on Earth refers to Jesus having been crucified on the eve of Passover.

The gospel records: What about the gospel accounts? Importantly, they were written by eyewitnesses. Lee Strobel in his book "The case for Christ" rightfully states that the "eyewitnesses who wrote about Jesus were preaching to people who lived at the same time and in the same area that Jesus lived. This is important, because if the disciples were exxagerating or rewriting history, their audiences would have known it and called them on it.." By the end of the nineteenth century, archaeological discoveries had confirmed the accuracy of the New Testament manuscripts. Discoveries of early papyri were consistent with documentation from the time of Christ to later manuscripts. In addition to the papyri discoveries, an abundance of other manuscripts came to light. Over 24,000 copies of early New Testament manuscripts are known to be in existence today. In fact, as historical records, the gospel accounts can be considered to be some of the the most reliable ever.

Answer 9

Well the one from Josephus was pretty clear, but it was several generations later and thus second hand. Any of the others that I have seen are debatable.

If there was such a man, he certainly didn't really impress the guys who met him. Well with the exception of his very close circle who had reason to exaggerate the claims a little.

Answer 10

I know that the historian Josephus talked about Jesus

Answer 11

Pliny The Younger, Tacitus, Josephus are all secular sources for his existence. There was also a guy called Julius or Justus or something that wrote about him.