Is Jesus documented anywhere besides the bible?

Question

Just curious if there is anything besides the bible that documents the existance of Jesus. I had a conversation with an Athiest whom said that's the only place Jesus is even acknowledged and that He is first mentioned in one of the apostle's books that was written 40-60 years after his death.

Is there any good way to argue that Jesus was a real person, besides the "I have faith" defense?

Answer 1

Josephus and Tacticus there are other historians do a google search.http://srd.yahoo.com/loc=head&st=yahoo/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=historic+jesus&fr=ush-ans

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

Well there are references by Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and these men, particular Pliny, were not believers but persecutors. Also the Jewish Talmud, written a couple centuries after his death by respected Jewish priests, affirms that Jesus was real and performed great miracles and wondrous signs, but it just attributes them to sorcery - witchcraft basically. But I don't really use these sources in debates because they are not eyewitness accounts. But of course you have to realize, why would non-Christians, or even enemies of Christ, begin building the case for him?

Answer 4

You can go to www.AnswersInGenesis.org and somewhere there in a FAQ, you can look up Jesus, or historians, and you will see a few there.
For good arguments, you can read, More Than a Carpenter, by um... William McDonald? You can get it on the above site. it is a good quick read. Also The Case For Christ, by Lee Strobel.
I like to say Jesus created reality, and made sure it pointed to Him. The above books do a good job showing how.

Answer 5

Yes: The Qur'an. There is an whole surah (chapter) devoted to Mary (on her be peace).

"Allah! There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-Subsisting, Eternal. It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).
[Qur'an 3:2-3]

There are also several books that are not in the Bible and I don't know why and who got to decide what went into the Bible. These books include:
The Gospel of Barnabas,
http://www.itl.org.uk/
Infancy Gospel of Thomas,
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancythomas.html
The Gospel of Thomas,
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html

The Quran has only one version and is unchanged and preserved and recognises all the Prophets of God (on them be peace).

"We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption). [Quran 15:9]"

"Nay!, this is a Glorious Qur'an, (Inscribed) in a Tablet Preserved! " [Quran 85:21-22]

Salam (peace).

Answer 6

Take a look at your calendar. It's measured in years ... from the year Jesus was born.

Take a look at western civilization ... it was preserved and rebuilt by the church that Jesus founded.

There's also ample historical and archeological evidence for much of the old testament, and Jesus, as well.

Answer 7

As usual there are a lot of answers here but none are rite.

The Jewish historian Josephus which had a reputable reputation (but not a Christian) wrote about Jesus and the early Christians.

http://members.aol.com/FLJOSEPHUS/testimonium.htm

His writings are well known and relied upon for their quite good and accurate content.


For more Bible based information plz feel free to email me.

Answer 8

During the Korean War, a photo journalist had enough black and white film left for one last picture. Anxious to get back to his "dark room" and develop the film, he aimed his camera up toward the distant sky where planes were taking off; many planes were already flying above and there was a lot of clouds above the planes. That is all he saw, when he snapped the picture. When he developed the film, much to his surprise, the last picture he took of the planes......... was a perfect black and white picture of Jesus Christ!! If you looked closer, and examined the picture more thoroughly, you could make out some of the planes and clouds that made up the "impressionist" type photo of Jesus. It was what photographers call a head shot. This picture appeared in Time magazine, I tore it out and carried it in my wallet for years and years. That's pretty good documentation! And up to date. I could give you more, but some things I want to keep for myself and share only with those I know will appreciate it. God reveals his truths to those with hungry hearts, to those who have a passion for the truth.

Answer 9

In terms of holy books, Jesus is mentioned in the Jewish Talmud as well as the Islamic Koran, but as a prophet or messenger of God rather than as the son of God.

Also several ancient pagans, Jews, and Christians wrote historic texts that mentioned Christ. Amongst them:

Eusebius of Caesarea

Flavius Josephus

Justin Martyr

Philo of Alexandria

Tacitus

Tertullian.

but in the end, faith really is the bottom line.

Answer 10

That is true as far writing is concerned but John was a prophet who was assigned duties prophethood before Jesus. He informed about him details and then he confirmed that he was speaking about this prophet. And Jesus was assinged duties of prophethood after him. He was never mentioned in any other religions books except Jews becasue Jesus was sent as a prophet to them only.

Answer 11

erm , nope seriously.

the only places he is documented to be son of god , saviour of human is only in bible and scriptures. of all it only appear after many years of his death.

that aside. lets assume he exist as a real person. when he was hang and god resurrected him . witness who were non-believer will surely be believer. who in the first place want to toy with the term Hell when they witness it first hand ?

and look , there are different view of jesus , whether he is some of god or something else , thus came islam and jew .

and usually in the past , when someone historical or make a big difference in history or such appear , a coin of his image is usually made for remembrance and as far as i am aware of , there isnt any for jesus.

nevermind that , then here will come the arguement on how true the bible was due to the fact it doesnt contradict or that there are fufilled prophecies.

if you do actually examine and READ all the prophecies , some actually fail . seriously , no point for me to lie if you have the bible , just go look for the exact one in the internet and you decide if you wan to accept it as a failed prophecies or not.

that aside , for contradictions . if you do notice only in the first book as i always like to say , that only in the first book ,you will find how god create us . but do you find in other of the 39 books that also tell us how god create us ? no , none that i know of . i didnt come across any other book that also says god create us in the 6th day.
so if there isnt repetition of informations in the bible , how could they contradict each other ?there are some apparent contradiction but it still boils down to whether would you wan to accept it as contradiction or whether you don't want to. one of the examples is that did judas kiss jesus ? 1 book apparently say he didnt even get near jesus , while the other said he kiss jesus to show he's the one. go read through the bible if you want to.

and also to add on for prophecies , you must note that quite a number of them are given infinite amount of time to be completed , and some are pretty obvious would happen . it is also exclaimed by skeptics that some of these apparent 'prophecies' were written after the incident happened , and not before.

of course if you were a christian and bible believe , surely you would say ' NO ITS PROVEN TO BE WRITTEN BEFORE THE INCIDENT' well for atheist , its the other way round .

and lastly , i would always like to mention Galileo .. why ? because he is the one who prove earth rotate around sun , and not the other way round .

but lets assume he was wrong , but when he said this , the church imprisoned him because it would have prove the bible wrong during that time.

this clearly show us that instead of proving themselves to be right , they will do ANYTHING to stop people from proving them wrong . there may be more facts that are hidden and remained untold . but hey , again, it will still boils down to whether do you wan to accept evidence SHOWN infront of your face as REAL evidence or do you want to believe its a conspiracy by a demon to confused you guys.

but do remember , Atheists have no reason to prove the bible wrong if the bible is correct.

if atheists know the bible is right , they would have converted instead of lying to you guys and get burned in hell.

on the other hand , christianity stands to lose out donations , faith and will feel like a fool for condemning others and repeatedly claim bible to be perfect words from god.

so i rest my case , and leave you to decide. sure you can boo me , it just show how childish you are.