Did Jesus Really Exist?
That was one of my first questions I asked years ago. Did Jesus really exist? And can I find something outside the New Testament that proved Jesus did indeed exist?
Yes.
Sometimes you don’t want to read a 10 minute, highly intelligent, uses big words blog post to see if there are non-Christian sources out there that prove that Jesus really did exist in history. We just was a simple answer until we are ready to dive deeper.
Enter here.
When reading this book (Questioning the Bible), these three names came up as sources outside the New Testament that attest to the life of Jesus. Maybe there are more but this gives you a start. Sometimes a start is just what you need.
To dive deeper into each source, click the links below.
Three Sources that prove Jesus existed:
Pliny the Younger
Pliny is a Roman writer who wrote letters about Christians in Rome. He wrote: “they gather on a certain day of the week, sing hymns, take an oath for no fraud, theft, or adultery. They share meals.”
Source: https://www.bartehrman.com/who-was-pliny-the-younger/
Cornelius Tacitus
Tacitus was a Roman historian. Jesus appears in his book the Annals, book 15 chapter 44. He wrote about Christian persecution under Tiberious and Nero.
Source: https://medium.com/@zduncan/tacitus-on-jesus-fdcc005f0fb7
Flavius Josephus
Josephus was a Jewish historian who wrote about Jesus in the Antiquities 18:63. “Jesus was a wiseman. More than a man? Won over many Jews, condemned to death by Pilate, on the third day.”
Source: https://www.namb.net/apologetics/resource/josephus-and-jesus/
As stated above, there are more to each of these three. Definitely worth digging into but these at least prove there is historical evidence of the existence of Jesus. In this same book I’m reading it says there is more historical evidence for Jesus than Julius Caesar. He also quotes skeptic Bart Ehrman saying, “whether we like it or not, Jesus certainly existed.”
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