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Part 1: Like No One Else | Part 2: Deity 1 | Part 3: Deity 2 | Part 4: Deity 3 | Part 5: Deity 4 | Part 6: Deity 5 | Part 7: Deity 6 | Part 8: Deity 7 | Part 9: Deity 8 | Part 10: Deity 9 | Part 11: Humanity 1
We’re examining the historical evidence that the man Jesus lived in Israel in the first century, and we’re excluding from that evidence—for the moment—the Bible and writings derived from it, such as the writings of the Church Fathers.
In the previous post we noted a couple of references in the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, one of which we identified as not completely from Josephus’s pen, and therefore not entirely valid. We also noted a reference in Tacitus’s Annals. Both Josephus and Tacitus were unbelievers and therefore not inclined to give Jesus undeserved historical weight.
I think it’s reasonable to acknowledge the historicity of Jesus on the basis of just these two references.
But there are others.
I would point you to this article, which lists some (but not all) of them. Let me share a few here.
Lucian of Samosata was a 2nd-century satirist, author of The Death of Peregrine, in which he writes,
“The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day,–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. … They … deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws” (11-13).
Lucian, like Josephus, was an unbeliever, and, like Tacitus, a hostile one. But he accepts Jesus’ life as a fact.
Mara bar Serapion was a Syrian philosopher, imprisoned by the Romans, who wrote a letter to his son during his imprisonment. In it he writes,
“What advantage did the Athenians gain by murdering Socrates, for which they were repaid with famine and pestilence? Or the people of Samos by the burning of Pythagoras, because their country was completely covered in sand in just one hour? Or the Jews by killing their wise king, because their kingdom was taken away at that very time? God justly repaid the wisdom of these three men: the Athenians died of famine; the Samians were completely overwhelmed by the sea; and the Jews, desolate and driven from their own kingdom, are scattered through every nation.”
Mara does not name Jesus, but he speaks of a “king” whom the Jews killed just before the fall of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews. And he parallels this king with Socrates and Pythagoras, who were certainly historical characters. There’s some uncertainty about the date of Mara and his letter, but some would put it in the 1st century, shortly after the fall of Jerusalem; others as late as the 3rd century.
Pliny the Younger, imperial governor of the Roman province of Bithynia in the early 2nd century, wrote a letter to the emperor, Trajan at the time, asking for advice on how to deal with the Christians there. He writes that they worshiped Christ “as though he were a god” and that some eventually denied him and worshiped Caesar (Book 10, Letter 96). Pliny of course objects to their regarding Jesus as a god—in his practice that’s a capital offense—but he does not question his historicity.
Suetonius, the Roman historian of the early second century, wrote The Lives of the Caesars, short biographies of the caesars who had lived up to his time. As we know, Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome; Priscilla and Aquila were part of that exile (Ac 18.2). Suetonius writes that “the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus,” a fact that motivated the exile. Skeptics will of course argue that “Chrestus” is not Jesus, but there is broad consensus among historians, religious and secular, that Jesus is the one being referred to.
There is more evidence, but this series is getting pretty long. For more depth, consider a couple of helpful relevant books:
Robert Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence (Eerdmans, 2000). 262p
Craig Evans, Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to the Background Literature (Hendrickson, 2005). 539 p
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
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