Is there any historical document that is not written for or in the Bible which can prove certain Bible details

Question

Such as that there were "three wise men" who "followed a star" or that Mary was a "virgin" when she became pregnant or that Jesus was killed by the Romans under the wishes of the Jewish rabbis.Can anyone point to any document that was written from an outside and non religious source that has enough historical significance to be considered as proof which gives credence to the Bible and religious writings?And, if so, to what extent does that outside source verify biblical details.And, which ones?

I don't want claims of evidence found.I want sited sources.And, to what extent those sited sources prove actual details.I could just as easily say, "well they dug up some proof that fairies are real".Would you believe that without more then just me saying it?

Answer 1

Well 1,000 years before the story of Noah and the ARk was written--the sumerian "epic of gilgamesh" was written depicting the gods destroying the world by flood, having gilgamesh build an ark and fill it with animals, and ride out the deluge. Does that count--wait--no probably not--all we can conclude from that one is that Noah and the Ark was a plagerism taken from someone elses mythology.

Answer 2

Regarding the events of the MURDER of Yahshua the Messiah you can check the historical documents of the letters of Pontius Pilate, they are preserved.

The wise men story, and the virgin birth are added into the text according to the 1965 Jerusalem Bible. Well actually, the first two chapters of Matthew. The Luke passages do not teach the same thing and are all future tense promises, i.e. she was GOING to have a son and etc. By taking the infancy chapters of Matthew out does nothing to the prophecies given concerning Messiah but strengthen them. Joseph was his daddy according 7 passages in the N.T. The prophets had said he was going to be raised up from amongst his brethren. 2 Sam 7:14 said he would be a sinner and be forgiven and even told HOW. Heb. 7:27 defends such as well. The Isayah 7:14 passage is fulfilled in the 8th chapter most agree, but I do believe it has a secondary meaning and that is Yahshua the messiah was born of the Virgin Spirit of Yahweh at his baptism.

Answer 3

There is very no confirming documentation that is contemporary to the life of Jesus. Most of the confirming writers sited by Christians either are writing several years later or are writing about the later followers of Christ.

There is very little confirmation for the old Testament, except for locations and civilizations. While this confirms that the bible was written in the area, it does not lend evidence to God. The first historic reference of Israel is in the 13th century BCE, about the same time we start seeing archaeological signs of the Hebrew civilization. There is no evidence to support the story of Joseph through the Exodus, including Moses.

On the other hand, a reference to the Kingdom of David was recently found, but once again, this does not speak to the question of God or not.

Edit:
Notes on Josephus, He would have started to write at least 24 after the death of Jesus, and his passage is contested as not being part of his original writings. If indeed the passage is authentic, it is still here-say as Josephus would not have been an eyewitness to Jesus' life. All in all, the best that can be said at this point is that it would not be surprising if Jesus had existed.

On dieing for one's faith, people have done this throughout human history, sometimes willingly, sometimes as a sacrifice, and sometimes unwillingly. This is not specific or unique to the Christian religion.

Answer 4

Well prove them, I don't know, but there is a huge, and I mean overwhelmingly huge, parallel between the Bible and a lot of Ancient Greek and Egyptian historical documentation. Whether that proves the Bible is true or just proves that it's origins are even older then Christianity I don't know. Often by some 5000 years older, yet the exact same story, there are a tonne of examples. Yes Zeitgeist has a huge amount of them in it. I will post the transcript, the actual movie may blow your mind. But all the sources are cited and well documented. You can research them and make your own decision.

Answer 5

Despite the claims of some here, there are in fact no sources that are considered reliable by objective scholars that support any of the stories in the Bible, and even the ones that are disputed are extremely few. There are of course historical accounts of, for instance, the invasion of Israel by the Babylonians, and their taking of many Israelites into captivity in Babylon, as related in the Bible, but that is a very broad story. As for the specifics of the Bible stories, and of various characters therein, there is no evidence.

Several answerers mention Josephus, and his work is the one most often cited as "proof" of the existence of Jesus. Josephus was a 1st Century Jewish historian who wrote twenty books of Jewish history. Out of all that work, in which Josephus devotes whole pages to obscure Jewish revolutionaries, Jesus, who is supposed to have been such a trouble-maker for the Jewish and Roman authorities, rates a mention in only one small paragraph. The trouble is that that paragraph is considered bogus, what is called an "interpolation," by virtually all objective, i.e., non-believing, scholars, and even some of the believers. There are a number of very good reasons why the passage is considered bogus, not the least of which is that no writer, Christian or otherwise, makes reference to it before the middle of the 4th Century, nearly three hundred years after it is supposed to have been written. For instance, Origen, a famous 2nd Century Christian writer, quotes from Josephus at length, yet never mentions the "Jesus" passage.

You may also get references to Tacitus and Suetonius, and other Roman writers, who mention a "Chrestus" or a "Christos" whose followers caused some trouble. The problem with that is that "Christ" is a title, not a name, and there were a lot of people in 1st Century Palestine, and elsewhere, claiming to be the Christ, or, in Hebrew, the Messiah. Also, the specific passage in Tacitus is also widely considered to be an interpolation, since no writer mentions it until the 15th Century.

Other answerers offer as proof the fact that various places and people mentioned in the Bible either still exist, such as Jerusalem, of have been demonstrated to have existed, such as the Pool of Saloam or King Herod. All this proves is that the writers of the stories chose to place their characters in familiar places, and to include real people. I can take you to any mainstream bookstore and in fifteen minutes give you a whole cartload of books in which the story unfolds in real places, against the backdrop of real events, and sometimes even with the participation of real, historical people, but in which the story line and the central characters are all fictional.

As for your specific questions, no, there is absolutely no evidence that there were ever "three wise men" who "followed a star" to Bethlehem, nor that anyone matching the description, sparse as it is, of Mary in the Bible even existed, let alone whether she was a virgin or not. As for your Jesus question, I believe I have already dealt with that.

Ultimately, as one answerer pointed out, it's a matter of faith. I am not a believer myself, as may be obvious, but if you're looking for historical corroboration for the stories in the Bible you're going to be disappointed. If you need such corroboration to believe in whatever truth may be contained in the stories, then your faith is illusory.

Answer 6

Well it depends on what you mean by "bible" - it is a pretty big book covering a thousand year time period. I'm not going to catalogue every discovery ever made in the history of biblical archaeology that dovetails with the descriptions of scripture... entire books have filled that topic (I recommend Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman's "The Bible Unearthed" for one of the more scholarly ones.)

If you're specifically referring to the New Testament... there are certain things that have some corroboration... various people Paul meets on his journeys in Acts are folks who are referred to in either Josephus or the Babylonian Talmud, and the details generally correspond. Josephus also describes the execution of Jesus' brother "James the Just" in Antiquities Book XX (James the brother of Jesus is featured in Acts, Galatians, and is the one to whom the Letter of James is attributed.)

The Roman historian Tacitus confirms some of the broad strokes of the crucifixion in "Annals" (i.e. that he was a messianic figure executed in Palestine by Pontius Pilate during the reign of the emperor Tiberius.)

The Babylonian Talmud retells the story from a slightly different perspective, saying that Jesus was "hung on a tree" at Passover.

The thing to keep in mind, however, is that the bible itself is not considered to be without validity as a secular source by historians - not entirely. Because the various books were written independently and at different times by people often with no knowledge of the other works that would be canonized, details that agree are generally regarded by historians to be corroborative. For instance Paul of the letters had not seen any of the gospels, since he wrote them before those were set down. So details that he is aware of that dovetail with the synoptics or John are generally thought to be corroborative.

See Donald Harman Akenson's "St. Saul: The Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus."

Answer 7

The best historical evidence for the claims made by Christians are found in the response of the world to those claims.

Look up the early Christian persecutions, why they were carried out, and what they were about, and you'll find a pretty good outline of all the early Christian beliefs, most of which are centered precisely on the person of Jesus Christ, who is without a doubt, a real, historical figure.

Answer 8

The writings of Flavius Josephus.

"Josephus was a historian who lived from 37 A.D. to about 100 A.D. He was a member of the priestly aristocracy of the Jews, and was taken hostage by the Roman Empire in the great Jewish revolt of 66-70 A.D. Josephus spent the rest of his life in or around Rome as an advisor and historian to three emperors, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. For centuries, the works of Josephus were more widely read in Europe than any book other than the Bible. They are invaluable sources of eyewitness testimony to the development of Western civilization, including the foundation and growth of Christianity in the 1st Century."

Answer 9

The Bible is discounted as a historic textual content cloth only by skill of people who're prejudiced against its non secular content cloth. anybody who needs to "disprove" the Judean/Christian God could desire to commence with the main important checklist of His interactions with humankind, and which skill disproving or brushing off the Bible. it quite is fairly much comical, the tests that folk will rally against the Bible, that are actually not demanded against the different historic writing! the prejudice is so of course glaring, and yet those so-called "experts" nevertheless have the cajones to disclaim their very own bigotry!

Answer 10

Do you not understand that the bible has been proven historically accurate?

Those place and towns talked about still exist and have been inhabited all this time. It is their history. There are over 600 writings concerning Jesus and his life and miracles.

They have tax records. genealogies, census counts, court records including punishments. They kept prison records. The kings mentioned do, in fact, exist and have been proved. They drag their mummies all over the world showing them. They have the hieroglyphics to tell them what happened as well as all the old languages. These folks in that area have lived there since God`s time.. The bible stands on it`s own merit..

There are tons of archaeologist's works that do indeed prove the bible. Not to mention the reports of the eyewitnesses. Why would you believe eyewitnesses of today but not then?

Peace & God bless from Texas <><

Answer 11

A Roman writer named Josephus has provided some historical evidence about a Jewish Rabbi named Yeshua (Jesus) and His followers. He does not provide evidence of virgin birth, three wise men, etc. as he was not present at every event.
There are other documents that record the execution deaths of His Diciples, which begs the question: Why would anyone die for preaching and teaching in His name knowing that claims about Him were false? They had chances to renounce their faith in Jesus in order to save their lives and they refused. Their faith provides ample evidence for me.