BS1F - JESUS AND THE HISTORIANS WHO WROTE ABOUT HIM
These genealogies are from men who followed this man Jesus or in Luke’s case followed the Apostle Paul. It’s important that we also find testimony from historians outside the inner circle of Jesus. Is there any outside writing that confirms that Jesus really did live?
That answer is “Yes”. Let’s remember here that by the time of the first century the writing of history was common.
This man - called Jesus Christ--- was so extraordinary that his life was documented carefully by eye-witnesses and historians. Let’s look at what some of the historians had to say so you can look them up for yourselves. Keep in mind as you read that many of these historians were hostile to Christ and his followers.
Tacitus was the leading historian of Imperial Rome. He wrote:
“The author of that name (Christian) was Christ who in the reign of Tiberius suffered punishment under Procurator Pontius Pilate.”
Tacitus Annals: Book 15:44
That was true for in 30 A.D. the Jewish leaders turned Jesus over to the Romans to be killed. Pontius Pilate had Jesus flogged….. and then crucified. His followers became known as Christians.
Pliny the Younger was a Roman author and lawyer born around 61 AD. His books and letters give us an important picture of Roman life in the first century.
He wrote these words about having to try the cases of Christians:
“Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed, I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment;
…those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserves to be punished.”
That was true. Great persecution started in earnest for the Christians after Jesus had died and lasted 3 long centuries.
Tertullian was the juris-consult in Rome. He would have been familiar with the Roman archives. He wrote in Chapter 5 of his Apology about Emperor Tiberius Caesar receiving intelligence from his outpost Palestine territory about a man - Jesus Christ - being divine. Tiberius brought this intelligence before the senate fully convinced about it. But the senate rejected his intelligence which angered Caesar. He then threatened death against all accusers of the Christians.
Tertullian wrote: “Tiberius accordingly, in whose days the Christian name made its entry into the world, having himself received intelligence from Palestine of events which had clearly shown the truth of Christ’s divinity, brought the matter before the senate, with his own decision in favor of Christ. The senate, because it had not given the approval itself, rejected this proposal. Caesar held to this opinion, threatening death against all accusers of the Christians.” Tertullina, Apology Chapter 5
This was true. Without the use of modern technology, the news of Jesus spread like wildfire – just by word of mouth and written report it had covered a distance of over 1400 miles! For Palestine was at the very far edge of the Roman empire.
Josephus was a Jewish Historian that wrote about Jesus in his book Antiquities.
“There was about his time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man for, he was a doer of wonderful works – a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.
He was Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestions of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, …those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, ….for he appeared to them alive again the third day…”
The Jews – and the leadership in particular -- had looked upon Jesus as a threat to their religion. But as a historian, Josephus had no choice but to report the facts he had been a witness to.
Celsus was a 2nd century Greek philosopher. He wrote during the time Christians were being persecuted. He was adamantly opposed to Christianity and yet through his writings he acknowledged much about Jesus as being true.
For example, Celsus addressed the miracles of Jesus, -- he expressed no doubt that they happened-- but he held that "Jesus performed his miracles by sorcery.” This was quite similar to ..
The Jewish Pharisees of Christ’s time. They didn’t dispute that Jesus had done the miracles but they accused him of doing them by the power of Satan.
Matthew 12:24
The fact that historians from the known world at that time were writing about this man confirms without doubt that Jesus did live. He fits every prediction of the man promised by God who would crush Satan’s head and “fix” the problem of sin.
Let’s go on to look at the 2 full accounts we have in literature that give the details of the birth of this man – the predicted Messiah. Again, it is Matthew and Luke who provide the details. Sometimes they confirm each other but often they are giving us different perspectives which is what accurate eye-witness accounts do.
Next Study: BS1G-The Story of Christ's Birth as Related by Matthew