Evidences for Jesus outside the New Testament
Without a doubt, Jesus of Nazareth is the most influential figure in history. A person of such enormous significance will naturally be a subject of our curiosity and fascination. This interest has resulted in a long, rigorous search into the ancient sources that speak about him. The New Testament has usually been the primary source, and often the only source for studying about Jesus' life, teaching and ministry. However, in most scholarship of the last hundred years, it hasn't enjoyed that privileged position. New Testament scholars and other historians of ancient times have been keen in looking into extracanonical sources to understand Jesus and have often placed a higher value on them than on the canonical sources.
The history of scholarship regarding the life and teachings of Jesus can be traced via three "Quests for the Historical Jesus." These quests have, in various ways, sought to grasp the connection between the Jesus of history and the Jesus we read about in Scripture. It was once popular to maintain that Jesus could not be known as a figure of history. Today, virtually all New Testament scholars affirm that Jesus was a historical person, and the arguments that deny his existence have been shown to be weak and inexplicable. This quest for the historical Jesus has progressed through various periods of development with an increasing trust in the New Testament as a reliable source.
It is important to understand a couple of things from this very brief survey. First, several scholars betray their prejudice against the New Testament by quickly dismissing it as the main source for our understanding of Jesus. Second, in turning to the other sources, they implicitly bolster the New Testament's presentation of Jesus by recognizing references to him outside the canonical works. It is to some of these – the extrabiblical references – that the rest of the space will be devoted.
Jesus in Jewish writings
The Jewish historian Josephus (A.D. 37- A.D. 100) was born Joseph ben Mattathias into a priestly family. At the age of 29, he was a commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee when the Jewish revolt against Rome broke out. During the war he surrendered to the Romans and became sympathetic to their cause. He became a Roman citizen after the war and worked as a writer under Roman emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. He also took a Roman name – Flavius Josephus – to honor his patrons.
Christians took a lot of interest in his writings because they supplied much information on a few New Testament figures such as John the Baptist, James the leader of the early Jerusalem church, and Jesus. There is a broad agreement among scholars that Josephus wrote something like the following in his book, Jewish Antiquities:
At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of people who received the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians (named after him) has not died out (Ant. 18.63-64).
In the same book, he narrates the account of James' execution and briefly makes a mention of Jesus.
He assembled the sanhédrin of the judges, and brought before it the brother of Jesus called Christ, whose name was James, and some others. When he had accused them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned (Ant. 20.200).
Scholars are unanimous in affirming that the words "the brother of Jesus called Christ" are authentic.
Jesus in Classical writings
Cornelius Tacitus is generally considered by scholars as the greatest Roman historian. He was the proconsul of Asia in A.D. 112-113 where he was the neighboring administrator to his friend Pliny the Younger. Tacitus wrote Annals which describes events during the years A.D. 14 – A.D. 68 (from the death of Augustus through Nero). This was Tacitus' best work, and has been acknowledged by modern historians as our best source to learn about this period of history.
In Annals 15, chapters 38 through 45 describe the great fire in Rome during the reign of Nero (A.D. 64). The emperor blamed the Christians for this fire. In chapter 44, Tacitus writes the following:
But neither human effort nor the emperor's generosity nor the placating of the gods ended the scandalous belief that the fire had been ordered. Therefore, to put down the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the most unusual ways those hated for their shameful acts, whom the crowd called "Chrestians." The founder of this name, Christ, had been executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate. Suppressed for a time, the deadly superstition erupted again not only in Judea, the origin of this evil, but also in the city [Rome], where all things horrible and shameful from everywhere come together and become popular.
This is an explicit reference to Christians and Christ.
Suetonius (A.D. 70 – A.D. 140) was a Roman writer who practiced law in Rome and was a friend of Pliny the younger. For a short time around A.D. 120 he served secretary as to Emperor Hadrian. His best surviving work, Lives of the Caesars, narrates the lives and reigns of the first twelve emperors, from Julius Caesar to Domitian. In the fifth book of Lives called The Deified Claudius, Suetonius makes a straightforward reference to Christ.
He [Claudius] expelled the Jews from Rome, since they were always making disturbances because of the instigator Chrestus.
The best inference is that Suetonius misheard the name (the pronunciation of Christus and Chrestus would have been very similar) and misunderstood the report as a talking about a Chrestus active in the Jewish community at the time. The broad consensus among scholars is that when Jewish merchants and visitors in certain synagogues preached about Jesus Christ, there was a strong reaction to them which was referred to as "disturbances" by Suetonius.
There are other classical writers like Pliny the younger, Lucian of Samosata and others who have made direct mentions of Jesus in their writings. These references are important because there are people in every generation who don't believe the historicity of the New Testament and would want to see evidences for Jesus outside the Scripture.
Revanth T
