What evidence is there to show that Jesus Christ existed (objective evidence, not religious or Biblical)?

Question

I'm looking for evidence which counter-argues the popular "Jesus Christ never actually existed" theory. By the way, his name was Yeshuah ben David was it not?

Answer 1

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus, "the greatest historian" of ancient Rome (55-120 AD)
Titus Flavius Josephus, court historian for Emperor Vespasian (37-97 AD)
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas, chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD)
Pliny the Younger, Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor around 112 AD
Lucian, a second century Greek satirist
Mara Bar-Serapion, of Syria, writing between 70 and 200 AD
Acts of Pontius Pilate, reports sent from Pilate to Tiberius, (referred to by Justin Martyr 150 AD)

This is the most complete list I could find. Here is the link so you can read what each of these sources wrote.
http://www.westarkchurchofchrist.org/library/extrabiblical.htm

It includes other sources too, but most of them would probably be considered "religious" sources.

God be with you.

Answer 2

Why are some of you mentioning the "Jesus tomb" ?

The fact is that Jesus was a very common name s was joseph and mary! Did you all get your info from history channel or did any of you actualy bother to read the book?
I read the book and if you do the math,it is all just coincidental and really no big deal since so many families bore the same names.

Someone said: "Isreal has sealed the tomb and will not allow further study. "

Ummmmm if you bothered to read the book and didnt depend on the history channel to tell the story,You would know that isreal only reburied the bones and not the ossuaries and as for the tomb,that was plowed over and is indeed a part of someones property now since a development was built where it was discovered.The owner of the home refuses to allow an archeoligal dig but a ventilation pipe was installed into the tomb for some reason or another.
The jesus tomb has no solid proof and again only relies on "faith" to keep its interest.

Answer 3

I don't know where you got Yeshuah ben David. I thought it was Joshua ben Joseph. I haven't heard of anything that mentions him by name, but Pontius Pilate was governor at the right time. That's been established. Annas and Caiphas have also been established as real. So has Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimetha. St. Paul also existed as did Peter. Those people are real and it would be odd, at the very least, if the only mythical person in the whole bunch was Jesus.

Answer 4

If you believe that Alexander the Great lived or other famous people in history, then you have to believe a man named Jesus lived. More written about him than any other man in history. The only question is, is he who he said he was. And there are many innocent people who died saying he was. They saw what he did when he was on earth and then they saw him leave. Their lives were changed because Jesus proved himself to them. So it comes down to whether you believe it or not. If not, then you can throw out all other historical figures too. None of them existed.


1 Timothy 3:16
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.

Answer 5

Well there were the bone boxes found in Israel with similar names. Not much else other than a few ancient stories written well after the alledged events though. None of the historians mentioned lived in the same time period and they did not talk about Jesus, only Jesus believers.

Answer 6

If Jesus, (Yezua in Hebrew some spell "Yeshua"), did not exist, explain "why" the Council of bishops at Nicea looked over 220 books written ABOUT this man and all he taught or did ? Explain, how a person who supposedly did NOT exist manage to influence many cultures including some of the native Americans here in North, Central, and South America ?

There is one problem with denial in the existence of a person called Yezua. MANY, and I mean "many" men of the time he is said to have existed were ALSO preaching and trying to spread their own beliefs and to this date we have no record of "them," but we have many of this Yezua, who ONLY supposedly ministered for 3 years and then was put to death. To the north in Israel (Galilee) and in Jerusalem, they have found remnants of worshiping places of this Yezua dating back to the first century. I am not much on the Hebrew faith and for years denied that this person even existed but in my faith I ran across writings an ancient Egyptian priest called Nu wrote. Around 2600 years before this Jesus is suppose to have existed this priest foretold a divine "child" of the Lord in heaven would be born on EARTH. His writings can be found in the British Museum. In the hebrew prophesies then you run across all the writings of Isaiah and Micah, of "course," in "my" theory "plagerized" by the hebrews much later around 800 b.c.

For a person NOT "existing" why so much CHRONOLOGY and not just this, but so many of DIFFERENT cultures obsessed with the very SAME person ?

Answer 7

You'll have to travel to Israel to see the evidence,
About 15 years ago a stone was excavated from an outdoor amphitheatre with the name of Pontias Pilate inscribed on it.
Also you can visit the Garden tomb and still view "Golgatha", the place of the skull where Christ was buried.
The evidence abounds everywhere.Seek and you will find.

Answer 8

How about Roman History and Jewish History? Yes his name is Yeshuah ben David - son of David.

However, the New Testament uses his name identifying his purpose and not his actual Hebrew name. In the New Testament the name for Savior was used, and not his name as Yah of Yahweh.

Answer 9

First all of his name was not Jesus. Jesus is a Greek name. The man who much has been written about in the Bible was a Hebrew of Afro-Asiatic origin. His name was Yeshua ben Yoseph. He looked nothing like the European icon that is depicted in movies and pictures. That icon was created by Leonardo da vinci, at the request of the Pope. Yeshua had very swarthy skin, and his hair was like wool. So he would have looked like any other black man in the region. The first century Jewish historian Josephus described Yeshua as a average looking man with dark skin. He was not the sort of man that would stand out in a croud, by his appearance alone. His message, however, distinguished him from other Hebrews in the region.

Answer 10

most of the evidence of his existence. disagrees with the christian beliefs that he disappeared after death.

one of the few pieces of evidence that we do have is an old tibia/fibia (leg bones) nailed to a piece of wood. this would lend some cerdibility to the thought that people were crucified by nailing them to a cross. or stake.

the tomb that was discovered in the early 80's is great evidence, but it would also prove that jesus was married to Mary M. and had a family. so thet is discounted by Christianity. and Isreal has sealed the tomb and will not allow further study.