What Non-Christian Sources Reveal About Christ
When I was in graduate school at the University of Missouri, I was given an assignment to compare and contrast the teachings of two ancient philosophers. After receiving approval to write about Jesus of Nazareth and the Greek Stoic Epictetus, I received a "D" on my paper for failing to prove that Jesus had ever lived. Of course there was no markdown for failing to prove that Epictetus lived, nor were any other students in my class expected to provide evidence that their chosen philosophers had lived. The professor's argument was that there was no evidence that Jesus had ever lived, and therefore I should have known to start my paper with a defense for his existence if I wanted my paper to be taken seriously.
Since that time, I've met others who have claimed that Jesus never lived and that the accounts which comprise the Bible were fabricated. Yet, virtually no respected scholar of that period of history even questions whether Jesus lived because the evidence is so strong.1 Do you know what that evidence is? How would you respond if you were told Jesus never existed?
Although there are many reasons to believe that Jesus lived (and that the biblical accounts of his life are historically reliable), I like to point to the non-Christian sources, which are often unknown to the average skeptic, as support for Jesus' life.
Keeping in mind that most people in ancient Israel were not literate, that manuscript-consuming fires (both accidental and intentional) were prevalent, and that the writing material of the time was papyrus, which easily disintegrates, it is remarkable that today there are ten known non-Christian writers who mention Jesus within 150 years of his life.2 By contrast, there are only nine non-Christian sources who mention Tiberius Caesar, the Roman emperor during the life of Jesus!3 Take a moment to let that sink in.
Not only is there more non-Christian attestation to the life of a humble carpenter from rural Israel than to the life of the Roman emperor, but the writings of these non-Christians bear remarkable similarities to the gospels, affirming many of the earliest Christian claims and painting a very similar picture of the life and death of Jesus! In fact, if we didn't have any Christian accounts whatsoever and had to rely entirely on non-Christian and anti-Christian sources, we would still know the following:
"Jesus was a real man who lived in history. He was reportedly born of a virgin and had an earthly father who was a carpenter. He lived in Judea, in the region known as Palestine. He was wise and righteous. His teaching was so influential that He developed a large following of Jewish and Gentile disciples. He taught His disciples to live with the same virtue He exhibited, and His moral code was exceedingly high. But Jesus was more than a moral teacher: He possessed “magical powers” and had the ability to predict the future accurately. His supernatural acts and teachings persuaded many Jews to walk away from their beliefs. Jesus claimed to be God, and His disciples readily accepted this claim. The Jewish leadership ultimately brought charges against Jesus based on His actions and teachings. He was prosecuted and crucified under Pontius Pilate, during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. There was an earthquake and darkness at the point of the execution. Jesus' followers reported seeing Him resurrected three days after the crucifixion, however, and Jesus even showed them His wounds. His followers believed the resurrection proved Jesus was the Messiah. They adopted Jesus' moral teaching and lived their lives accordingly, holding to their belief in His deity, even though it meant they would suffer greatly at the hands of the Roman Empire. They were ultimately persecuted for their faith in Christ."4
So who were these non-Christians whose testimony of Jesus survives to this day? They include Josephus, who lived approximately 37-100 AD, was the historian for the Roman emperor Domitian, and is known as the greatest Jewish historian of his time; Tacitus, a well-known and highly respected Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a Roman politician; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Thallus, a first-century historian; Seutonuis, a Roman historian; Lucian, a Greek satirist; Celsus, a Roman philosopher; Mara Bar-Serapion, a private citizen who wrote to his son; and the Jewish Talmud.5
These non-Christian sources, which include credible and respected historians of the first and second centuries, are but one piece of evidence for the life of Jesus. Knowing this, when I received my near-failing grade in graduate school, I appealed to the head of the department and asked for a reevaluation of my paper, as well as an opportunity to share the compelling evidence that Jesus lived. Though I was not given the opportunity to present this evidence, I was given an A- on the paper, an apology for the clear bias against my work, and a huge boost in motivation to make known the evidence for Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Thanks, Professor!
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[1] In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship, Bart Ehrman (a secular agnostic) wrote: "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees" B. Ehrman, 2011 Forged : writing in the name of GodISBN 978-0-06-207863-6. p. 285; Michael Grant (a classicist) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." in Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels by Michael Grant 2004 ISBN 1898799881 p. 200; Richard A. Burridge states: "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that anymore."
[2] For a complete listing from these sources, see Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1999), 381-385; see also Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus (Joplin, Mo.: College Press, 1996), chapter 9.; see also J. Warner Wallace, Cold Case Christianity (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2013), chapter 12.
[3] Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004), 222.
[4] Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 2004); see also J. Warner Wallace, Cold Case Christianity, (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2013), chapter 12.
[5] Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004), 222.
