Expert: Rev C.Brian Ross - 9/11/2011

Question
Good day
What are the different sources of historical proof that Jesus existed in history.
Regards,
Sunil Mahabir
Pembroke Pines, Florida

Answer
Hello, Sunil!

Thank you for your question - although it actually falls outwith the area of Biblical Studies!!

It is also a topic on which many books have been written, so the answer that I will offer is but a  brief overview, and is by no means an exhaustive answer.

The best source of historical proof that Jesus existed in history is, of course, the New testament itself.  There are those who will immediately retort that it wasn't written until the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, and that Jesus was just invented by the Christians of the time (without giving any alternative explanation, of which I am aware, as to how these "Christians" developed in the first place!).  However, let me use just one of the many arguments in favour of the early production of the New Testament.

The apostle Paul was martyred during Nero’s persecution in 64 A.D. We also know that Paul was still alive at the close of Acts (28:11-31), so Acts must have been written sometime before 64 A.D. Since Acts was a continuation of Luke's Gospel (1:1), we know that Gospel must have been written even earlier still. Any scholar will tell you that the Gospel of Mark predates the Gospel of Luke. This supports the writing of Mark in the 50s A.D., only about two decades after the crucifixion of Jesus. Outside the Gospels, no legitimate scholar will dispute that Paul wrote Romans in the mid-50s. This is important because Paul declares that Jesus is the resurrected Son of God in the opening lines of that New Testament letter. Galatians is another undisputed letter of Paul written in the mid-50s, in which Paul discusses his interaction with Peter and James, two of Jesus’ primary disciples, at least 14 years earlier in Galatians 1:18 and 2:1. Finally, in I Corinthians 15:3-8, Paul proclaims the earliest record of the Christian creed, in which Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead three days later. This early creed is important because scholars, using the historical records of Paul and his early travels to Damascus and Jerusalem, place the above creed at about 35 A.D., just 3 to 5 years after the crucifixion of Jesus.

Additional evidence - of greater or lesser importance - includes:

A letter from Pliny the Younger to Trajan (c. 110)
Tacitus (Annals, c.115-120)
Suetonius (Lives of the Caesars, c. 125)
Lucian (mid-2nd century)
Galen (c.150; De pulsuum differentiis 2.4; 3.3)
Celsus (True Discourse, c.170).
Mara Bar Serapion (pre-200?)
Talmudic References( written after 300 CE, but some refs probably go back to eyewitnesses)

I will leave you to check out these sources yourself.  Doubtless, a "Google" search will enable you to read them for yourself.  I would also commend Josh McDowell's book "Evidence that demands a Verdict: vol 1" (I believe that there is an updated version of this volume; there is also a vol 2).

I hope that this will be a satisfactory answer although, as I have already stated, the subject is much too large, and the evidence is so great, that it goes well beyond an AllExperts answer!

Kind regards

C.Brian Ross (Rev)