Question: "Did Jesus really exist? Is there any historical evidence of Jesus Christ?"

Answer: Typically, when this question is asked, the person asking qualifies the question with “outside of the Bible.” We do not grant this idea that the Bible cannot be considered a source of evidence for the existence of Jesus. The New Testament contains hundreds of references to Jesus Christ. There are those who date the writing of the Gospels to the second century A.D., more than 100 years after Jesus' death. Even if this were the case (which we strongly dispute), in terms of ancient evidences, writings less than 200 years after events took place are considered very reliable evidences. Further, the vast majority of scholars (Christian and non-Christian) will grant that the Epistles of Paul (at least some of them) were in fact written by Paul in the middle of the first century A.D., less than 40 years after Jesus' death. In terms of ancient manuscript evidence, this is extraordinarily strong proof of the existence of a man named Jesus in Israel in the early first century A.D.

It is also important to recognize that in A.D. 70, the Romans invaded and destroyed Jerusalem and most of Israel, slaughtering its inhabitants. Entire cities were literally burned to the ground. We should not be surprised, then, if much evidence of Jesus' existence was destroyed. Many of the eyewitnesses of Jesus would have been killed. These facts likely limited the amount of surviving eyewitness testimony of Jesus.

Considering that Jesus' ministry was largely confined to a relatively unimportant area in a small corner of the Roman Empire, a surprising amount of information about Jesus can be drawn from secular historical sources. Some of the more important historical evidences of Jesus include the following:

The first-century Roman Tacitus, who is considered one of the more accurate historians of the ancient world, mentioned superstitious “Christians” (from Christus, which is Latin for Christ), who suffered under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. Suetonius, chief secretary to Emperor Hadrian, wrote that there was a man named Chrestus (or Christ) who lived during the first century (Annals 15.44).

Flavius Josephus is the most famous Jewish historian. In his Antiquities he refers to James, “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.” There is a controversial verse (18:3) that says, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats....He was [the] Christ...he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.” One version reads, “At this time there was a wise man named Jesus. His conduct was good and [he] was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who became his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.”

Julius Africanus quotes the historian Thallus in a discussion of the darkness which followed the crucifixion of Christ (Extant Writings, 18).

Pliny the Younger, in Letters 10:96, recorded early Christian worship practices including the fact that Christians worshiped Jesus as God and were very ethical, and he includes a reference to the love feast and Lord’s Supper.

The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a) confirms Jesus' crucifixion on the eve of Passover and the accusations against Christ of practicing sorcery and encouraging Jewish apostasy.

Lucian of Samosata was a second-century Greek writer who admits that Jesus was worshiped by Christians, introduced new teachings, and was crucified for them. He said that Jesus' teachings included the brotherhood of believers, the importance of conversion, and the importance of denying other gods. Christians lived according to Jesus’ laws, believed themselves to be immortal, and were characterized by contempt for death, voluntary self-devotion, and renunciation of material goods.

Mara Bar-Serapion confirms that Jesus was thought to be a wise and virtuous man, was considered by many to be the king of Israel, was put to death by the Jews, and lived on in the teachings of His followers.

Then we have all the Gnostic writings (The Gospel of Truth, The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Thomas, The Treatise on Resurrection, etc.) that all mention Jesus.

In fact, we can almost reconstruct the gospel just from early non-Christian sources: Jesus was called the Christ (Josephus), did “magic,” led Israel into new teachings, and was hanged on Passover for them (Babylonian Talmud) in Judea (Tacitus), but claimed to be God and would return (Eliezar), which his followers believed, worshipping Him as God (Pliny the Younger).

There is overwhelming evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ, both in secular and biblical history. Perhaps the greatest evidence that Jesus did exist is the fact that literally thousands of Christians in the first century A.D., including the twelve apostles, were willing to give their lives as martyrs for Jesus Christ. People will die for what they believe to be true, but no one will die for what they know to be a lie.
Edited by Mysterion on Dec 24, 2010 at 03:52 PM

Awesome post Mysterion!
Edited by d4rfnader on Dec 22, 2010 at 11:53 PM

this

This. And guess what: you win an internet.

marry xmas oh and my parents are still not on crack (only my mom), EDIT:HOLY CRAP BEIGE IS GONE
i guess ill have to go with yellow THE GAME
Edited by catinthemafia on Dec 23, 2010 at 07:47 PM

murr

Indeed. I wish I was this smart.

I wish I was that smart too...someone else did all the hard research, I just found it!

Hey guys, a little Xmas animation for all of you to enjoy that I made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9sMIZKuEU0

ya ok.

I wish all the best to the forum members, even the ones I banned. Have a prosperous New Year!

Thanks to the guys over at LameorGame.com for the screenshot

Merry Christmas guys!

From your's truly Slow Bullet/Slayer 117

Hope you guys have a blast. This year in CE was my favorite! I hope the next one is even greater!

Whatta you mean man?

Merry Christmas everyone!

(yes that means you too dennis)

Merry Christmas guys!
I look forward to another great year!

Sep 9, 2010 - Dec 25, 2010
^For the amount of time I've been here I've sure had a blast! I can't wait to see next year!
Edited by pepzee on Dec 25, 2010 at 12:00 AM

christmas morning for me in the uk,merry christmas,have an excellant day guys.
cheers!

today in AR, its x mas.n me ripp open stuuf!!! LOL jk. merr chistmas

Merry Christmas and Slappy Hawlidaez.

Happy Christmas everyone!

aww thanks :)

you too
Edited by SeL on Dec 25, 2010 at 01:29 PM

Merry Christmas everyone! So what presents did you get?

I got five DVDs, a little bit less chocalate than I was expecting, £40, two Wii games, some socks which was handy because I was on the verge of frostbite in my feet this morning, a book that gives complete lies about the Inheritance Cycle and has rubbish pictures, How to Train Your Dragon(DVD and book!), a broken alarm clock(No batteries will fit, and the lid for the batteries breaks if you try to open it), a sachet of hot chocalate(Powdered obviously), a santa claus mug, and a box of horrible chocalate things with nuts in them(Fortunately that came with a card with £20 in it).

I got a Line 6 Spider Jam amp, and an Epiphone g-310 is on the way. I also got a Metallica Master Of Puppets, Judas Priest Screaming For Vengeance and Slayer Show No Mercy shirt plus some other misc. shirts, a 2 ft tall 3 ft wide poster with the Painkiller album artwork on it, and $50.
Pretty awesome Christmas if you ask me ;D

You play guitar?
What you got?

I got a pair of (Blue) V-Moda Vibe headphones, a $100 Target gift card, a super epic plaid hoodie, the star wars trilogy (4 5 6), A cool star wars lego thing, a 120g xbox 360 hdd, a data transfer cable, 12 months of xbl, COD:BO and RE:5. I think thats all of what i got.
Edited by Amazingcuziam on Dec 25, 2010 at 04:12 PM

Lol @elefant nice, i got an amp last year. guitar is epic XD

I got an xbox 360 halo reach edition, assassin's creed and 1 year of xbox live, so a pretty great christmas.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I got loads of clothes too. Lol.

Right now just a Squier Bullet, since I've only been playing since last Christmas. I wanted to get a Gibson this year, but it was way too expensive, so we went with the Epiphone.

What do you have?

Merry After-Christmas yall!