Why is there no mention of Jesus outside the Bible or Koran?

Question

The asker removed this question:

Why is there no mention of Jesus outside the Bible or Koran?

I was disappointed because I wanted to know where Jesus is mentioned outside the Bible & Koran (surely he must have been!)

Please cite... otherwise your words are meaningless to me

Answer 1

There are really only a couple of references that are then cited by other sources.
Josephus is the one that most Christians like to point to. This is the specific passage:
"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 amongst 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 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 from him, are not extinct at this day."

You'll notice that he actually calls him "the Christ", which he wouldn't do unless he was also a Christian. Also, he conveniently addresses issues of Jesus' divinity. Again, no contemporary Jewish writer would do so. If that is what he believed, he would then (by definition) be a follower and believer of Jesus.
This is one of the reasons this source is so very suspect.

Answer 2

The point that should be made is that Josephus is the earliest writer that mentions Jesus, however the mention is not in his normal style and is contradictory to other statements that he makes. This makes the passage a candidate for having been inserted at a later time. It should be pointed out that there are several late 2nd and 3rd century writers that mention Jesus, but there are no contemporary writings of him. This is like having no writings of George Washington until the 1970's or later.

Answer 3

There are many texts that mention Jesus outside of the Bible and Koran. There is the version of Christianity found in the Bible, and a more "gnostic" version of texts that were also followed.
The Nag Hammadi Library is a codex of texts/gospels/apocrypha that didn't make it into the Bible for one reason or another, and all mention Jesus...
The Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Gospel of Judas, Apocryphon of John, etc. The Gospel of Thomas is believed to be one of the earliest texts found -written around 45-50CE, and is thought that it could be actual quotes from Jesus that were written down by Thomas - who was an apostle, or his spiritual twin (according to gnostic texts)

Roman writers also mention Jesus. Pliny the Older, Pliny the Younger both mention him - although they are from a later date and deal with Christians.

Answer 4

I would like to mention that the historian Josephus's, is records were kept by the monks, so whatever he wrote about Christ was manipulated by the monks. Aso the only mention that the Romans had of Jesus was that they hung him from a tree.

Answer 5

Read a book by Josh Mc Dowel call The Evidence That Can't Be Denied, it will be a good start to showing you other books to look for. He was an atheist who started out writing the book to disprove Christ. Guess that didn't work out the way he thought it would because he ended up being a believer instead.

Answer 6

Jesus was mentioned by Jewish historian Josephus.

Antiquities Book 20 Chapter 9

Though it appears there has been interpolations since Josephus would not refer to Jesus as the Christ. Scholarship, including Jewish scholarship, is almost unanimous to the fact that Josephus' original work did in fact mention Jesus of Nazareth.

Answer 7

The asker removed the question because, having read the answers, he realized he was blatently incorrect.

Jesus is mentioned in the Jewish Talmud; in ancient Roman documents; in the Jewish historian Josephus' writings; and in many other places.

EDIT: XX, get your hands on an unredacted copy of the Talmud. Question: by tradition, you say that Jesus is the bast*** child of a Jewish woman and a Roman soldier, right?

GUESS WHAT -- THAT'S FROM THE UNREDACTED TALMUD!

Answer 8

The Josephus quote was added 600 years ago, the Talmud notations refer to other people.

Answer 9

He was mentioned by the historian Josephus:

Now it is said that the elder Ananus was extremely fortunate...but the younger Ananus, who had been appointed to the high priesthood, was rash in his temper and unusually daring. He followed the school of the Sadducees, who are indeed more heartless than any of the other Jews, as I have already explained, when they sit in judgment. Possessed of such a character, Ananus thought that he had a favourable opportunity because Festus was dead and Albinas was still on the way. And so he convened the judges of the Sanhedrin, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, the one called Christ, whose name was James, and certain others, and accusing them of having transgressed the law delivered them up to be stoned. Those of the inhabits of the city who were considered the most fair-minded and who were strict in observance of the law were offended at this. They therefore secretly sent to King Agrippa urging him, for Ananus had not even been correct in his first step, to order him to desist from any further such actions. Certain of them even went to meet Albinus, who was on his way from Alexandria, and informed him that Ananus had no authority to convene the Sanhedrin without his consent. Convinced by these words, Albinus angrily wrote to Ananus threatening to take vengeance upon him. King Agrippa, because of Ananus' action, deposed him from the high priesthood which he had held for three months and replaced him with Jesus the son of Damnaeus.

Answer 10

Check out the book"case for Christ" it explains in detail all the evidence that supports Jesus Christ from Antiquities to ancient manuscripts.