Is There Evidence That Jesus Really Existed?

Other essays in this volume defend the reliability and inspiration of the canonical Old and New Testament books. Here, we inquire as to what additional data from the New Testament era may inform us about the life of Jesus, even if we were limited to using only the available non-Christian and Christian sources outside the Bible.

What information concerning Jesus is reported in sources outside of the Bible? Non-Christian sources have made some surprising comments regarding Him and the earliest Christians. Christian writers have also provided valuable insights into how they viewed Jesus as the early church developed. We will provide some of the more important historical references to Jesus from sources outside the New Testament, all from within several decades after Jesus’s death.[1]

Before looking at these nonbiblical texts, it is important to place them in perspective, especially because some popular skeptics think that only nonbiblical references are useful in such an effort as ours. Such a view is seriously mistaken. The vast, almost unanimous view among critical scholars across a wide theological spectrum, including atheists and other unbelievers, is that both New Testament and non-New Testament sources provide valuable information about Jesus.

In fact, the New Testament sources are considered by historians to be extremely important. The agnostic New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman writes, “Whatever one thinks of them as inspired scripture, they can be seen and used as significant historical sources.”[2] Thus, the sources discussed in this chapter should be understood as evidence that complements the New Testament accounts.

Non-Christian Sources (AD 90–125)

The first group of writings will come from three non-Christian sources. The first two sources are from historians, one Roman and one Jewish. Each source only briefly discusses Jesus, as there was no attempt to provide comprehensive biographical details.

Tacitus (Roman Historian). Cornelius Tacitus (c. AD 55–120) was an important Roman historian. His writings provide valuable information regarding a number of Roman emperors. Relevant for our purposes is Tacitus’s comments in Annals 15.44, written around AD 115. While describing the great fire that occurred in Rome during Nero’s reign (AD 54– 68), Tacitus mentioned both Jesus and Christians. He wrote:

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre [sic] and become popular.[3]

Tacitus’s comments provide us with a number of important details about Jesus.

(1) Christus (from the Latin) was the founder of the Christians, and

(2) Pontius Pilatus (again Latin), a Roman procurator, put Christus to death

(3) by the most “extreme penalty”

(4) while Tiberius was the emperor.

(5)His death temporarily stopped the movement,

(6) but it “again broke out”

(7) in Judaea and

(8) eventually in Rome.

These eight facts described by Tacitus align nicely with the New Testament accounts of Jesus. Tacitus apparently did not think very kindly of Christians; he saw them as holding an evil and “most mischievous superstition.” Nevertheless, due to the treatment endured by the early Christians, Tacitus seemed to pity them as having suffered due to the gluttony of “one man’s cruelty.” This early Christian suffering may have moved Tacitus such that, even though he disagreed with these believers, he included their sad story in his account of the fire at Rome.

Josephus (Jewish Historian). Flavius Josephus (c. AD 37–97) was different from Tacitus in a number of ways. Josephus was, like Paul, a Pharisee. Unlike Paul, he participated in the Jewish revolt against the Romans (AD 67–70). Josephus was eventually captured, but was able to make some significant political inroads with the future Roman emperor, Vespasian. As a result, Josephus was a Jew working with the Romans so he could produce a number of different works.

The writings of present value for this chapter come from his Antiquities. In this work, Josephus mentioned Jesus and James, the brother of Jesus, as well as John the Baptist. Regarding Jesus, Josephus wrote,

Now, there was about this 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 receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst 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, as the divine prophets had foretold these things and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.[4]

The majority of commentators believe that the italicized words above

are likely Christian interpolations (i.e., additions to the original). Part of the reason for this is that Origen, an early Christian scholar, said that Josephus did not believe Jesus was the Messiah.[5] There is no need to delve further into the debate regarding the authenticity of the passage. For our purposes, we will follow the conclusion held by many scholars. As stated by ancient historian Edwin Yamauchi, “the passage has an authentic core but also includes Christian insertions.”[6]James Charlesworth agrees: “We can now be as certain as historical research will presently allow that Josephus did refer to Jesus,” and in the process provided “corroboration of the Gospel account.”[7]

Much like Tacitus above, several facts are provided by this brief comment even when we exclude the italicized portions. Josephus corroborated that Jesus was (1) a wise teacher, (2) did marvelous deeds, (3) had Jewish and Gentile followers, and (4) was condemned by Pilate to crucifixion (5) at the instigation of the Jews, but (6) His followers continued after His death and (7) were called Christians. We can add from Josephus’s other texts that (8) Jesus was considered by some to be the Messiah (9) and had a brother named James.[8]

Ancient Christian Sources: Non-New Testament AD 90–125

We will now turn to two Christian non-New Testament sources. These are some of the earliest Christian writings we possess outside of the New Testament. They date from the end of the first century to the beginning of the second century.

Clement of Rome. Clement of Rome wrote a letter to the Corinthian church that is commonly thought to be the earliest Christian writing outside of the New Testament, being dated to approximately AD 95 or even earlier.

In this epistle, Clement wrote to the Corinthians and responded to various issues, including providing some information about Jesus:

The apostles have preached the Gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from God. Christ, therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both of these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the firstfruits, having proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe.[9]

In this passage, Clement described that

(1) the good news of the kingdom of God was central to the Christian message;

(2) the gospel was given to the apostles directly by Jesus;

(3) Jesus’s resurrection confirmed the truthfulness of these teachings 

(4) as did the additional confirmation of Scripture.

(5) The apostles were provided with assurance by Jesus’s resurrection and Scripture as they proclaimed the good news.

(6) The apostles appointed bishops and deacons to minister to future believers.

Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch and a leader in the early church. He was condemned to die in Rome for being a Christian. While being escorted to Rome he wrote seven letters, six of them to churches and one to an individual (Polycarp). These letters were written around AD 110–115 and discuss a number of different topics and contain several historical references to Jesus.

While we recommend reading all of Ignatius’s letters, due to space limitations, we will cite only one here. In his epistle Trallians, Ignatius stated, Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and did eat and drink. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; He was truly crucified, and [truly] died…He was also truly raised from the dead, His Father quickening Him, even as after the same manner His father will so raise up us who believe in Him by Christ Jesus.[10]

Ignatius’s purpose here was to respond to Gnostics who typically denied the aspects of Jesus’s corporeality. In doing so, Ignatius affirmed that Jesus

(1)       was of the lineage of David and

(2)       born of Mary.

(3)       Thus, He really lived, ate, and drank before

(4)       being crucified under Pontius Pilate.

(5)       God raised Him from the dead and

(6)       will similarly raise believers.

The Contribution Made by Multiple Sources

In this essay, we investigated four early sources for the historicity of Jesus, two each from both unbelievers and believers. Our goal was to briefly introduce some historical claims made about Jesus from outside of Scripture.

As a side note not to be forgotten, skeptical New Testament scholars (such as major atheists, agnostics, and other non-Christian thinkers) also hold that many additional comments and New Testament sources provide significant texts for understanding Jesus. For example, of the 13 epistles that bear Paul’s name, Ehrman states that contemporary scholars grant that seven of these texts were written by Paul: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. As such, these seven “undisputed” works may be cited, investigated, and employed as authoritative when it comes to providing an understanding of what early Christians knew and believed about Jesus.

In addition, many other individual New Testament texts, including dozens of early creedal passages, provide many more pieces of historical information regarding Jesus Christ. This is especially the case when even a small number of these minimal facts alone indicate that the heart of the gospel message is true.[11]

But even just the four sources mentioned here provide helpful corroboration of particular facts taught in the New Testament accounts. Brought together, the available sources contribute much more than is often realized concerning the historical Jesus.

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[1] For further information on this topic, see Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000); Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1996).

[2] Bart D. Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (New York: HarperOne, 2012), 74 (emphasis added).

[3] Tacitus, Annals, 15.44. Another Roman historian, Suetonius, also made a brief mention of Christians suffering under Nero after the great fire in Rome. Suetonius, Nero, 16.

[4] Josephus, Antiquities, 18.3.

[5] Origen, Contra Celsum, 1.47. However, when Eusebius quoted Josephus, he

included the disputed sections (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 1.11).

[6] Edwin M. Yamauchi, “Jesus Outside the New Testament: What Is the

Evidence?” in Jesus Under Fire, ed. Michael J. Wilkins and J.P. Moreland

(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), 212.

[7] James Charlesworth, Jesus Within Judaism (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1988), 93-94.

[8] Josephus, Antiquities, 20.9.

[9] Clement of Rome, Corinthians, 42.

[10] Ignatius, Trallians, 9.

[11] Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 2d ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 262, 290, 44.