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References to Jesus and Church outside the Bible

Another familiar complaint is that the only place we find any evidence about Jesus or Christianity is in the Bible, and that is suspect. That is not true.

In F.F. Bruce’s “Jesus and Christian Origins outside the New Testament,” there are several references to Jesus and the early church. Among them, we find:

A number of non-Christian sources can be listed for information (sometimes hostile) about Christianity.

Here are the quotes from the above sources:

Non-Christian Extra biblical Literature about Jesus

Six Minor Witnesses

Thallus

In the work of the third-century Christian historian Julius Africanus, we find a reference to a Roman historian named Thallus, who wrote a now-lost three-volume chronicle of world history in the mid-50s.[ 18] In this fragment, Julius discusses the darkness that fell on the land during Jesus’s crucifixion. During his brief discussion, he makes an offhand reference to Thallus, saying: “In the third book of his history, Thallus calls this darkness an eclipse of the sun— wrongly, in my opinion.”[ 19](Weak) “The fragment (18) of Africanus’s five-volume History of the World (i.e., to ca. 217) is preserved by the Byzantine historian Georgius Syncellus

Mara bar Serapion

Sometime between the late first and third centuries, a man named Mara bar Serapion wrote a letter to his son from prison. In it, he warns his son, who was a governing official, of the folly of persecuting wise and good men. He recounts the woes that fell on the Athenians after murdering Socrates. He describes the hardships that fell on the Samosians after putting Pythagoras to death. And, most significant for our purposes, he refers to the mistake the Jews made when they killed “their wise king because their kingdom was taken away at that very time.”[ 22] No one doubts that the reference to the loss of the Jewish kingdom refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews in 70 CE. Hence, some argue that this letter gives us an independent reference to the death of Jesus. (Weak) Van Voorst, Jesus outside the New Testament, 54.

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger, Pliny the Elder’s nephew and adopted son, was a Roman senator, lawyer, and civilian administrator. He published nine books of letters in his own time. In 110 CE, while governor of Bithynia, Pliny wrote to Emperor Trajan asking him for advice on dealing with Christians in his territory. In the course of the letter, Pliny recounts information about Christians he had gathered from people who had defected from the faith under threat of death. He says, “They [the former Christians] assured me that the sum total of their error consisted in the fact that they regularly assembled on a certain day before daybreak. They recited a hymn antiphonally to Christus as if to a god and bound themselves with an oath not to commit any crime but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, breach of faith, and embezzlement of property entrusted to them. After this, it was their custom to separate and then to come together again to partake of a meal, but of an ordinary and innocent one.” [ 24] Pliny Book 10, Letter 96.

Suetonius

Suetonius In the fifth volume of his Lives of the Caesars, the Roman historian Suetonius refers to the expulsion of Jews from Rome during Claudius’s reign in 49 CE. In about 120 CE, he notes that Claudius “expelled the Jews from Rome, since they were always making disturbances because of the instigator Chrestus.”[ 28] Some scholars argue that this reference to Chrestus is a reference to “Christ” (Jesus).

Celsus

In the late second century, the Neoplatonist philosopher Celsus wrote True Doctrine, the first known full-scale attack on Christianity.[ 34] Celsus denigrates the idea of the virgin birth and claims that Jesus was illegitimately born when Mary committed adultery. He argues that Jesus grew up to be a small and ugly man, gathered a small following of sailors and tax collectors, and amazed them with displays of sorcery and magic, a craft Celsus says he learned in Egypt. Celsus further claims that Jesus taught his disciples to beg and steal for a living and that when he died, hysterical women reported a resurrection.[ 35] We know from Celsus’s work that he was familiar with several New Testament texts and other Christian apologetic works. There is, therefore, little reason to suppose that Celsus had access to any independent sources of information about Jesus. Add to this the fact that his work is intensely polemical— often resorting to caricature and lampooning— and we must conclude that Celsus’s work has little historical value as it concerns Jesus.

The one point worth noting concerns Celsus’s contention that Jesus was a sorcerer and a magician. This was a common explanation for Jesus’s supernatural ministry among early opponents of Christianity, especially among Jews. According to the Gospels, even during his lifetime, adversaries alleged that Jesus cast out demons through the power of the devil (e.g., Mark 3: 22). What is significant is that no one in the ancient world seems to have flatly denied that Jesus performed miracles— let alone that he existed. Rather, they grant that he was a wonder-worker but offer a different explanation for how he performed his feats. Origen, Against Celsus, 1.28, 32, 39, 62; 2.6, 32, 44– 55; 6.75; 8.41.

Lucian of Samosata

A final reference of minor importance comes from Lucian’s work, The Death of Peregrinus, written sometime after 165 CE. In this work, Lucian warns his readers about the dangers of the teachings of the Christians, for he holds that these teachings contributed to the ruin of Peregrinus. In the course of his warning, he refers to Christ as “that other whom [Christians] still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world.” And he continues: [The Christians’] first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another after they have transgressed once and for all by denying the Greek gods, worshipping the crucified sophist himself, and living according to his laws. Therefore, they despise all things equally and regard them as common, without certain evidence accepting such things.[ 36] Since Christian claims were well known in most quarters of the Roman Empire by the late second century, some legendary Jesus theorists argue that we must assume that all of Lucian’s information was based on secondhand reports “of what Christians now believed about their origins.”[ 37] It thus does not represent anything like independent, reliable information about Jesus. We are not entirely convinced of this. Evans, “Jesus in Non-Christian Sources,” 462.

Important Sources

Tacitus

We first consider a passage from the early second-century Roman historian Tacitus. The Annals, Tacitus’s last and unfinished work, covers the period from Augustus through Nero (14– 68 CE) and was composed in at least sixteen volumes. Only parts of books 1– 4 and 12– 15 have survived. The portion of the Annals that is of interest to us (15.44) was most likely written around 115 CE. The passage comes in the context of a discussion of the great fire of Rome under Nero’s reign. Here Tacitus reports: Therefore, to stop the rumor [that the burning of Rome had taken place by order], Nero substituted as culprits, and punished in the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus. The pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue.[ 39]

If Tacitus’s statement can be trusted, it tells us three things about Jesus. First, it confirms that his execution was during the reign of Tiberius (14– 37 CE) and Pilate’s governorship (26– 36 CE). Second, it confirms that Jesus’s death was by execution order of the Roman governor of Judea, Pilate. And third, it claims that the movement was temporarily suppressed but broke out again even in Rome. The passage thus gives further evidence that in the span of three decades (since the time of Tiberius and Pilate), the Christian movement had grown to the point where it could be made a plausible scapegoat for a Roman emperor.[ 40] Tacitus’s report demonstrates that a mere thirty years after Jesus died (hence while many living witnesses of the founder were still alive) his followers were willing to be put to death for their faith, and in ways that were so barbaric it moved a very unsympathetic Roman historian to pity them.[ 60] Thus, Tacitus’s report provides solid, independent, non-Christian evidence for the life and death of Jesus, the remarkable resolve of his earliest followers, and the astounding early growth of the movement he founded.

Josephus’s “James Passage”

The second important non-Christian source is undoubtedly the most significant. Flavius Josephus is the single most important Jewish historian of the ancient world. His two most important works are The Antiquities of the Jews, which traces Jewish history from creation to his own day, and The Wars of the Jews (Jewish War), which chronicles Jewish history from the Maccabean revolt to the fall of Masada in 73 CE. While scholars agree that Josephus is often biased and self-serving in his writings, most also agree that he is in general a rather reliable historian.[ 61] As noted earlier, two passages in Josephus’s Antiquities mention Jesus.[ 62] In this section, we will consider the shorter and less significant of the two. This passage— often referred to as “the James passage”— mentions Jesus in passing to identify his brother James. It reads, When, therefore, Ananus [the high priest] was of this [angry] disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his authority]. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road. So he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James.” (Antiquities 20.9.1)[ 63]

If this passage is authentic, it not only confirms the existence of Jesus but also the New Testament’s claim that James was the brother of Jesus. This latter point is especially significant because Paul mentions James, the brother of the Lord, as a contemporary of his (Gal. 1: 19). This means that Paul would have viewed Jesus as a recent contemporary, thereby refuting the Christ myth theory that Paul thought of Jesus as a mythological figure who lived in the distant past. If authentic, the passage questions how Jesus could have arisen to embody Yahweh through legendary accretion. At the same time, his brother was still alive— indeed, with his brother becoming one of his followers! This is not easy to explain, especially in a first-century Palestinian Jewish context. It forces us to consider strongly the possibility that Jesus was in fact the kind of figure presented in the Gospels. …… ORIGEN’S REFERENCE Finally, in his work against Celsus (ca. 248), Origen refers to Josephus’s passage on the death of James. Origen most likely would not have cited this in his public apology unless he were quite sure his pagan readership would have found the passage in Antiquities—

The Testimonium Flavianum

As important as the James passage is in Josephus, it pales compared to the next passage. Known as the Testimonium Flavianum, this passage has been the focus of an incredible amount of scholarly attention for obvious reasons.[ 79] In its extant form, it reads, About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared. (Antiquities 18.3.3)[ 80]

Here we have the most important Jewish historian in ancient times, ostensibly acknowledging that Jesus existed and that he was wise, performed miracles, was the Messiah, was crucified and even rose from the dead! The issue, of course, is whether— or to what extent— this passage comes from the hand of Josephus himself. However, a Christian scribe likely altered the text. A Jewish writer would not likely have written Jesus was the Messiah. A reconstruction of the likely text from other sources provides the following: About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.[ 87]

Emperor Hadrian

Emperor Hadrian, in 124, advised his followers not to persecute the Christians. If they were guilty of crimes, punish them, but otherwise, let them be.

“A. Mnsncius Fundanus: I have received the letter addressed to me by your illustrious predecessor, Licinius Granianus. It appears to me that the matter cannot be left without inquiry, lest people otherwise peaceable may be disquieted, and a way may be opened to sycophants. If, therefore, the inhabitants of your province have, as they assert, any substantial accusation against the Christians, and if they can prove their accusation before the tribunal, let them pursue the legal course, and not be satisfied with questions and tumultuous cries. It would be far better to investigate any accusation brought before you. If a prosecutor comes forward to prove that the Christians do anything contrary to the laws, give sentence according to the seriousness of the offense. But, again, by Hercules, if any one makes this a pretext for calumnies, be observant of such a misdeed, and punish him severely ! “

Toldot Yeshu

Around the year A.D. 165, Justin Martyr penned his Dialogue with Trypho. At the beginning of chapter 108 of this work, he recorded a letter that the Jewish community had been circulating regarding the empty tomb of Christ: A godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilaean deceiver, whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb, where he was laid when unfastened from the cross, and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven.

Toledoth Yeshu

In approximately the sixth century, another caustic treatise written to defame Christ circulated among the Jewish community. In this narrative, Jesus is described as the illegitimate son of a soldier named Joseph Pandera. He is further labeled a disrespectful deceiver, leading many away from the truth. Near the end of the treatise, under a discussion of His death, the following paragraph can be found: Diligent search was done, and he [Jesus—KB] was not found in the grave where he had been buried. A gardener had taken him from the grave and had brought him into his garden and buried him in the sand over which the waters flowed into the garden.

Chronological Summary Of Writings Mentioning Jesus

Between AD 30 and AD 175, many Christian and non-Christian sources/writers testify to Jesus’s existence.

This is relevant because Jesus died in AD 30 (or AD 33), and these reports represent a true diversity of independent attestations supporting his existence. These sources reporting on Jesus were, by and large, in a position to know the truth of the matter and so had a justified belief. At the same time, there are no existing reports suggesting that people believed in a Jesus myth—not even one.

Conclusion

From this the following conclusions were reached by F.F. Bruce in Jesus and Christian Origins outside the New Testament

Nothing like this exist in history. Alexander the Great has no contemporary sources, 100 years later we have some fragments, 300-500 years later we have several histories.

The NT is historically accurate. The NT accurately records Jesus’ saying and his deeds. It details the early history of the Church. Because the NT is reliable, we know Jesus died and rose again. The NT says Jesus claimed to be God and did miracles to prove His claim. If so, then Christianity is true. If the NT is history, then the critics’ views are in error.