The Evidence of Jesus outside the Bible (non-Christian sources)

What to Know

• Several early non-Christian writers—Josephus, Tacitus, Mara bar Serapion, Pliny the Younger, Lucian—reference Jesus, despite generally hostile views of Christianity, lending credibility to the Gospel accounts.

• These sources support three main points: Jesus lived when the Gospels say He did, was executed by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, and was worshipped as divine by His followers.

• Josephus, a Jewish historian, mentioned Jesus within 60 years of His death; Tacitus, a Roman historian, describes His execution during the reign of Emperor Tiberius.

• Pliny the Younger details early Christians’ worship practices, explicitly noting they sang hymns to Christ “as to a god,” reinforcing the idea that Jesus was viewed as divine soon after His crucifixion.

Now, let's explore another way to demonstrate the historical reliability of the Bible by examining references to Jesus Christ in early non-Christian sources. These references are particularly significant because they come from writers who were generally hostile to Christianity, making their accounts all the more noteworthy. We'll focus on establishing three main points through these sources:

1) Jesus Christ was a real person who lived during the time described in the Gospels and had a public ministry.
2) He was condemned to death by crucifixion under the authority of Pontius Pilate.
3) Jesus was worshipped as a God by His followers after His crucifixion.

We'll review references to Jesus from various sources such as Josephus, Thallus, Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Mara bar Serapion, Lucian, and certain Talmudic texts (in this post and future posts on the topic). These accounts will confirm to you key elements of the synoptic Gospels, including Jesus' birth out of wedlock through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, His connection with John the Baptist, the existence of His brother James, His gathering of disciples, His disagreements with Jewish leaders over the interpretation of the law, His performance of miraculous feats, His crucifixion by Pilate, and the belief among His followers that He was the Messiah who was resurrected after death.

First, in this post, we will use non-Christian sources, to establish that Jesus Christ lived during the time the Bible claims. The first mention of Jesus comes from the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who lived from around 37 to 100 A.D. In his work Jewish Antiquities, written in 93 A.D., Josephus refers to Jesus within 60 years of his death.

The Roman historian Tacitus, who lived from 56 to 120 A.D., also mentioned Jesus in his book Annals. He wrote,

"The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day – the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites and was crucified on that account."

He later adds, "Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called 'Christians' by the populace. Christus [Christ], from whom the name originated, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate."

Although Tacitus was not sympathetic to Christians, he provided clear evidence of their existence and worship of Christ, including his crucifixion under Tiberius at the hands of Pontius Pilate, exactly as the Bible portrays.

Mara bar Serapion, a Stoic philosopher writing around 73 A.D., referred to Jesus in a letter to his son, saying,

"On the eve of the Passover, Yeshua was hanged," using a synonym for crucifixion.

Pliny the Younger, a governor in Asia Minor, wrote to Emperor Trajan around 112 A.D., describing how Christians worshipped Jesus as a God:

"They [Christians] were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up."

Lucian of Samosata, a Greek satirist who lived from 120 to 195 A.D., mentioned Jesus in his work Death of Peregrine, stating,

"Or what advantage came to the Jews by the murder of their Wise King, seeing that from that very time their kingdom was driven away from them?"

These non-Biblical references, along with others, align closely with what we know about Jesus from the New Testament, providing strong evidence that Jesus was a real historical figure. The fact that so many different sources mention Him is remarkable, especially given the relative scarcity of such records from that time, and these sources’ general hostility toward Christianity.

Sources

1. Flavius Josephus: "Jewish Antiquities," Book 18, Chapter 3, Section 3.

2. Tacitus: "Annals," Book 15, Chapter 44.

3. Mara bar Serapion: Letter to his son, dated around 73 AD.

4. Pliny the Younger: "Letters," Book 10, Letter 96.

5. Lucian of Samosata: "Death of Peregrine," Chapter 11.

Next: The Evidence of Jesus outside the Bible (through the supernatural event of the sun darkening)
Previous: Textual Criticism of the Bible