Although there is damned little evidence proving an historical Jesus; I'm not one of those that question his existence. I suggest that Jesus was a run of the mill cult leader who claimed to be a Messiah. If , however, Jesus really was a virgin born, son of God who rose from the dead, walked on water, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, cured the lame, raised the dead and performed a gaggle of overt miracles surely SOMEONE would've put pen to paper to record his amazing and miraculous life. Instead, Jesus gets little publicity and any accounts that may refer to him are only as an unfortunate cult leader that got himself executed.
Here is a list of historians that lived during the time of Jesus or within 100 years afterwards. Not one mentions an historical Jesus though a couple mention Christians. No skeptic questions the existence of Christians
| Philo-Judææus | Seneca | Pliny Elder | Arrian |
| Petronius | Dion Pruseus | Paterculus | Suetonius |
| Juvenal | Martial | Persius | Plutarch |
| Pliny Younger | Tacitus | Justus of Tiberius | Apollonius |
| Quintilian | Lucanus | Epictetus | Hermogones Silius Italicus |
| Statius | Ptolemy | Appian | Phlegon |
| Phæædrus | Valerius Maximus | Lucian | Pausanias |
| Florus Lucius | Quintius Curtius | Aulus Gellius | Dio Chrysostom |
| Columella | Valerius Flaccus | Damis | Favorinus |
| Lysias | Pomponius Mela | Appion of Alexandria | Theon of Smyrna |
In order to rebut this list Christians will refer to a rather lengthy list of people who supposedly speak of Jesus. Don't be intimidated by the list - the vast majority only mention Christians (no skeptic questions the existence of Christians) or the occurence of an eclipse which is completely irrelevent.
As an example:
Cornelius Tacticus, a Roman historian
Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian
Seutonius, a Roman historian
Pliny the Younger, a Roman Politician
Thallus, a first century historian
Phlegion, an ex slave that wrote histories
Lucien, a Greek satirist
Celsus, a Roman philosopher
Mara Bar-Serapion, a citizen who wrote to his son
The Jewish Talmud
The Christian will go on to make the stupendously ridiculous claim that:
All together these extra-biblical written accounts agree that:
Jesus performed miracles.
Jesus had a brother named James.
Jesus was acclaimed to be the messiah.
Jesus was crucified under Pontis Pilate.
Jesus was crucified before the Jewish Passover.
An earthquake and darkness had occurred as Jesus died.
Jesus’ disciples believed that He rose from the dead.
Jesus’ disciples were willing to die for their belief that He rose from the dead.
Jesus’ disciples worshipped Him as God.
This is a seriously disingenuous list. It would lead the reader to assume that ALL these people saw miracles, worship, the resurrection, James as the brother of Jesus etc. Fact is virtually ALL of these people refer to Christians or Christian hersay - not independent accounts of Jesus! There is not a skeptic in the world that denies the existence of Christians.
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Cornelius Tacticus, a Roman historian
Do I see miracles? Resurrection? Worshiping? No - a man named Crestus (harmless one) was killed by Pontius Pilate who was known for killing thousands. If this WAS Jesus as recounted in the Gospels, wouldn't word of his massive miracles, godhood, resurrection and resurrection of all those other people make it somewhere into this document? He is shown here as the poor cult-leader that he was - not a miracle working Son of God.
| "Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, 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, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular." |
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Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian
Christians will quote 2 paragraphs from Josephus' antiquities.
In the first Jospehus claims that Jesus was truly the Christ and yet continues on as a devout Jew for the rest of his life. This paragraph called the "Testimonium Flavius" is largely accepted to be a forgery, probably written into Antiquities in the 4th century by Eusebius. It's interesting that not a single church father previous to the learned Eusebius ever mentions it though they all know Josephus.
Even if Testimonium Flavius was NOT a forgery (which it most definitely is) it is still in a book that wasn't written until 93 AD, 60 years after the event. This makes any report at least 3rd generation.
In the other paragraph Josephus only refers to Christians, the existence of Christians is not in dipute.
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Seutonius, a Roman historian
Refers to CHRISTIANS, not Jesus! He could've just as easily refered to Osiris or Juipter worshipers.
| Suetonius in a list of miscellaneous notes says that in 64 CE "Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and wicked superstition". He also says that between 41 and 54 CE Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, "since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Crestus". |
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Pliny the Younger, a Roman Politician
Pliny speaks of Christians, no one denies that Christians exist.
| "They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind." |
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Thallus, a first century historian
ONLY writes of an eclipse of the sun! It is SERIOUSLY disingenous to include Thallus as a WITNESS for Jesus. RIDICULOUS!
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Phlegon, an ex slave that wrote histories
ONLY mentions an eclipse! According to Eusebius:
| Phlegon, too, a distinguished reckoner of Olympiads, wrote more on these events in his 13th book, saying this: "Now, in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad [32 AD], a great eclipse of the sun occurred at the sixth hour [noon] that excelled every other before it, turning the day into such darkness of night that the stars could be seen in heaven, and the earth moved in Bithynia, toppling many buildings in the city of Nicaea." |
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Lucien, a Greek satirist
Refers to Christians - not Jesus and re-emphasizes the fact that Christians followed a philosophy of anti-materialism - what would later be called communism.
| "The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. . . . You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property." |
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Celsus, a Roman philosopher
Celsus lived during the 2nd century, over a hundred years after Jesus' death, and was simply repeating Christian legend from the point of view of a Jewish skeptic.
| Jesus had come from a village in Judea, and was the son of a poor Jewess who gained her living by the work of her own hands. His mother had been turned out of doors by her husband, who was a carpenter by trade, on being convicted of adultery [with a soldier named Panthéra (i.32)]. Being thus driven away by her husband, and wandering about in disgrace, she gave birth to Jesus, a bastard. Jesus, on account of his poverty, was hired out to go to Egypt. While there he acquired certain (magical) powers which Egyptians pride themselves on possessing. He returned home highly elated at possessing these powers, and on the strength of them gave himself out to be a god. |
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Mara Bar-Serapion, a citizen who wrote to his son
| What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise king? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good; he lived on in the teaching of Plato. Pythagoras did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise king die for good; he lived on in the teaching which he had given (quoted by F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Eerdmans Publishing Co., Fifth Revised Edition, p. 114). |
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The Jewish Talmud
| On the eve of Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover! - Ulla retorted: Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defence could be made? Was he not a _Mesith_ [enticer], concerning him Scripture says, _Neither shalt though spare, neither shalt thou conceal him?_ With Yeshu however it was different, for he was connected with the government for royalty [i.e., influential]. Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Nezer, Buni, and Todah. |
There is quite a bit of difference here between Jesus and Yeshu. Including: Hanged, connected to royalty, five unrecognizable disciples, forty days for witnesses to come forward rather than a trial in the middle of the night, hanged for being an 'enticer'. Is this Jesus? If it is then either the Talmud or Gospels got a WHOLE LOT OF things wrong. We certainly see nothing of miracles, Messiah claims or the spontaneous resurrection of many people.
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There are other quotes out there refering to High Priest Ananias, John the Baptist and James. So what? No one claims that these people didn't exist! The existence of Ananias doesn't corroborate a miracle-working Son of God who rose from the dead anymore than the existence of King Minos corroborates a superhuman, son of Zeus who slayed the Hydra.
Outside of the Gospels - If Jesus is mentioned (if he even is Jesus), it is a second hand account of an unfortunate cult leader who was executed. There is no corroboration of the Gospel's supernatural claims outside of the Gospels just as there is no corroboration of the PBMA cult-leader's miracles outside of the cult.
Christians will argue that here is enough evidence to prove the existence of Jesus just as there is enough for Galileo, Caesar Augustus but this is seriously silly. Do we have anything written by Jesus? Do we have anything written by unbiased witnesses? Do we have corroboration of Jesus stories from non-cult members?
The Gospels can be trusted no more than the Quran, the Book of Mormon or the Bhaghavad Ghita.