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Well, actually, Jesus is mentioned by early historians who were not Christians. Let's see what we can learn from them about Jesus.
1. Josephus - a Pharisee and Jewish historian
Writing about Ananias, a high priest mentioned in the Book of Acts in the Bible, Josephus, the most significant Jewish historian of the period wrote:
"He convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned." (Josephus, The Antiquities 20.200)
The Bible teaches that Mary had other sons after she bore Jesus. One of them was James. According to the New Testament, James did not even believe in Jesus before his crucifixion. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, says that Jesus appeared to James. It seems that this made a believer out of James. This passage from Josephus confirms important details in the New Testament and directly mentions Jesus, called the Christ.
Remember that not all Jews liked Jesus, and Josephus was not a Christian. He was known as an accurate historian. We have evidence then, apart from the Bible, that Jesus really did exist as a historical person, and that some called him 'the Christ', which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach, or Messiah.
2. Tacitus - A Roman Historian
In A.D. 115, Tacitus, the most important Roman historian of the first century, wrote as follows:
"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 Tiberias at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome ... Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty: then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind" (Tacitus, Annals 15.44)
It is clear from this passage that Tacitus was no friend of the Christians. He called Christianity a 'mischievous superstition'. But at the same time, he tells us the following:
1. Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate, who was known of to Roman historians.
This is totally consistent with the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John on this point and is in fact part of the apostles creed - an important Christian statement of faith of the early church.
2. This happened during the reign of Tiberias (i.e. a time consistent with the A.D. 33 date which is the year most likely to have been the year of the crucifixion).
3. Christ's crucifixion briefly stopped the spread of Christianity ('for a moment') but then it broke out again from Judea and spread even to Rome. Its clear that Christianity started amongst JEWS.
4. Already an immense multitude believed in Jesus by the time of Nero and were arrested for their faith by Nero.
3. Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, wrote as follows to the Emporer Trajan around 111 A.D.
"I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubborness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished...
They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: that they met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery ...
This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they called deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths."
- Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96
This letter, this time from a persecutor of the church, shows us that the Christians by the early second century most definitely considered Christ to be a god, if not God.
4. Other Jewish Writers
The Talmud is a collection of writings very important in Judaism. It mentions Jesus, but not favorably. According to the Talmud, Jesus was a false Messiah, who practiced magic and deceived the people. He was called a sorcerer. This corroborates the accounts of the gospels that Jesus did many supernatural signs and wonders - like healing the sick, feeding the five thousand with a few loaves and fishes and so on.
CONCLUSION
If we are to believe historians and writers hostile to Christianity who lived around the time of Christ or the early church, then Jesus really did exist. Furthermore, belief in Him was so strong amongst even a multitude of people that He was worshipped as God. He did supernatural things amongst the Jewish people, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate according to Tacitus, and was believed by many to be the Christ.
If we can believe anything in history we should believe these reports by the detractors of Christianity. They effectively put to rest the ideas, popularised by some, that Jesus of Nazareth never really existed, or if he did, the stories that went around about Him and who He was were not believed until much later.
Copyright: Copyright (c) 1996-2005 Michael Fackerell · · Generator: TopicTree 0.8 · Generated: 03 Dec 2008, 06:18 pm AEST · Last modified: 2005-05-22 08:08:02 · 58 ms · Not to be served, but to serve...
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