Is there any credible evidence for Christ outside of his biographies?

Question

I am a Christian and writing a paper about this, thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Cornelius Tacitus (A.D. 55-120), an historian of first-century Rome, is considered one of the most accurate historians of the ancient world. An excerpt from Tacitus tells us that the Roman emperor Nero "inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class...called Christians. ...Christus [Christ], 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...."

Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian (A.D. 38-100+), wrote about Jesus in his Jewish Antiquities. From Josephus, "we learn that Jesus was a wise man who did surprising feats, taught many, won over followers from among Jews and Greeks, was believed to be the Messiah, was accused by the Jewish leaders, was condemned to be crucified by Pilate, and was considered to be resurrected.". He also has a lengthy section about John The Baptist, and another about the death of James the Elder, who he says was the brother Jesus the "so-called" Christ.

Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and Thallus also wrote about Christian worship and persecution that is consistent with New Testament accounts.

Even the Jewish Talmud, certainly not biased toward Jesus, concurs about the major events of his life. In the Talmud, we lare told that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock, gathered disciples, made blasphemous claims about himself, and worked miracles, but these miracles are attributed to sorcery and not to God. Had he never existed, why would his enemies, less then 30 years after his death, be recording his biography?

Answer 2

In addition to the sources dewcoons describes, one could mention the Gospel of Thomas. It contains very little biographical narrative information. It is simply a list of things Jesus said. Many of those sayings also appear in the gospels of the New Testament; many do not. It is independent of those gospels.

Even New Testament historians who do not regard Jesus of Nazareth as in any way a divine being are quite comfortable with the amount of evidence for his historical existence.
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Answer 3

Yes.


Hannah J Paul

Answer 4

there is absolutely NONE, ZERO, ZILCH.... that's why there are so many atheists in the world

Answer 5

Not really.