Every child grows up believing in imaginary characters. Whether it’s a character associated with a holiday or cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, childhood is filled with imaginary people. We can see it in how many kids think superheroes like Superman are real. We can see it in how many kids have imaginary friends. When children believe in imaginary characters, we don’t get too worried because we know that developing the imagination is an important part of childhood.
But when we reach adulthood, we outgrow belief in imaginary friends and make believe characters. We view adults whose lives still revolve around make believe characters as odd. We all know that grown ups don’t believe in pretend or make believe people.
Some have suggested that Jesus of Nazareth is such a make believe person. A few years ago when LIFE magazine did a cover story on the identity of Jesus, they asked several people who they thought Jesus was. Jon Murray, the founder of American Atheists is quoted as saying,"There was no such person in the history of the world as Jesus Christ. There was no historical, living, breathing…human being by that name. Ever. [The Bible] is a fictional, nonhistorical narrative. The myth is good for business" (LIFE December, 1994, p. 68).
In the 19th century a German historian named Bruno Bauer claimed that Jesus never existed. Although Bauer’s arguments didn’t gain wide appeal, one of Bauer’s students was persuaded. That student was Karl Marx, who went on to become the founder of communism. Ever since then, denial of Jesus’ existence has been a common belief among Marxists (Van Voorst 8-9).
In our own lifetime, a professor of German at the University of London named George Wells has claimed that Jesus never existed (Van Voorst 13). Wells has written a number of books arguing that claim, including his 1982 book The Historical Evidence for Jesus and his 1996 book The Jesus Legend. A lot of atheist writers and atheist web sites on the internet cite George Wells as having proved that Jesus never really existed.
Now before we dive in to look at the evidence about this ourselves, you need to know that the vast majority of New Testament scholars in the world believe Jesus existed. N.T. Wright, who is widely regarded as the leading Jesus historian in all of England, says, "It would be easier, frankly, to believe that Tiberius Caesar, Jesus’ contemporary, was a figment of the imagination than to believe that there was never such a person as Jesus" (Wright 1996 xvi). Robert Van Voorst, who’s written a recent book on the evidence for Jesus outside of the New Testament says, "Contemporary New Testament scholars have typically viewed their arguments [against the existence of Jesus] as so weak or bizarre that they relegate them to footnotes, or often ignore them completely" (Van Voorst 6). But you and I both know that the majority is often wrong, so today we’re going to look at the evidence for ourselves.
Today we start a new series called Common Questions About Jesus. In this series we’re going to try to honestly face some of the most basic questions people have about Jesus. It makes sense to begin this series by facing the question of whether Jesus ever existed. Obviously I believe Jesus did exist or I wouldn’t be here. We as a church believe Jesus not only existed but that he’s also alive today, as you’ve heard us sing our praises to him and about him in our worship. But let’s not be afraid to face this question honestly and openly, asking exactly just what evidence there is for his existence.
Today we’re going to hear four historical non-Christian testimonies about Jesus. These are not the only sources we could look at, but I think they are four of the strongest. Now if you brought a Bible with you today, go ahead and set it aside because we’re not going to look at anything in the Bible today. I never thought I’d say that in a sermon, and I can just hear the phone ringing off the hook this next week! But today I want to investigate what we can learn about Jesus outside of the Bible.
Before we meet these four guys and hear their testimony, let me mention something about ancient history. Studying ancient history is a very challenging task because the vast majority of writings from the ancient world have been destroyed by time. When I took a class in New Testament background back in graduate school I learned that the texts that historians currently possess from the ancient world represents only about 5% of the writings that were written. That means about 95% of the historical writings from the ancient world have been destroyed.
Now let’s meet our four non-Christian sources about Jesus. First we’ll meet Suetonius. Suetonius was born about forty years after Jesus’ death, and he was a Roman lawyer who served as a secretary to the Roman Emperor Hadrian. His primary work is a multivolume history called Lives of the Caesars. Next we’ll meet Pliny the Younger. Pliny the Younger was the nephew of Pliny the Elder, who was a famous Roman scientist. Pliny the Younger was born about 30 years after the death of Jesus, and he was a Roman senator who served as a governor in Asia Minor, which is in modern day Turkey. Third we’ll be meeting Tacitus. Tacitus was born about 25 years after the death of Jesus, and his unifinished Annals of the Roman Empire are our most detailed source of Roman history for this time period. Finally, we’ll be meeting a Jewish historian named Flavius Josephus. Josephus was born just a few years after the death of Jesus. Josephus was the Roman government’s resident Jewish historian. Josephus is the only non-Roman author among the four we’ll be looking at.
Now none of these four guys were Christians. Some, like Josephus, were neutral about the Christian faith, and others, like Tacitus and Pliny, were outright hostile to Christianity. And although none of these four sources were eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus, they all lived within the generation as those who were eyewitnesses to the life and death of Jesus. Now let’s see what we can know about Jesus apart from the New Testament by looking at these four sources.
1. The Testimony of Suetonius
Let’s begin with Suetonius. When I took a course in Roman history class back in college, my professor told us that Suetonius and Tacitus were the most important and reliable sources for Roman history during this time period (Yamauchi 215). In Suetonius’ multivolume work Lives of the Caesars, he has a section devoted to the emperor Claudius. It’s there that we find our first mention of Jesus:
"[Claudius] expelled the Jews from Rome, since they were always making disturbances because of the instigator Chrestus" (The Twelve Caesars, The Deified Claudius 25.3-5).
There’s broad agreement among historians that "Chrestus" is a Latinized misspelling of the Greek word for "Christ" (Van Voorst 32-39). Suetonius calls Jesus an "instigator," which is a Latin term for a political troublemaker, someone who’s a treat to the Roman government. The edict of Claudius to kick all the Jewish people out of the city of Rome is historically verified, and it’s also mentioned in the New Testament book of Acts. Most historians believe this edict to kick all the Jews out of Rome occurred in 49 AD (Van Voorst 32).
Suetonius seems to be saying that these disturbances were caused by disagreement between Jewish people about Jesus. It seems most likely that the disturbances described here were between Jewish people who believed that Jesus was the Messiah and Jewish people who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. The debate between these two groups grew so impassioned that it came to the attention of the Roman emperor Claudius. So Claudius simply kicked them all out of the city for a few years.
Now what can we conclude from the testimony of Suetonius? Jesus was identified as the Messiah and viewed as a threat to the Roman Empire.
The early church was composed almost exclusively of Jewish people who believed Jesus to be the promised Messiah, the Christ. We also find that the official Roman position on Jesus was that he was a troublemaker, a threat to the Empire, which is consistent with him being crucified. It’s interesting to note that if Jesus died just outside Jerusalem in about 33 AD that a sizeable Christian church had developed in the capital city of Rome by 49 AD.
So that’s the testimony of Suetonius.
2. The Testimony of Pliny the Younger
Now let’s look at what Pliny the Younger has to say. Pliny’s testimony comes from a letter he wrote. Let me give you the context of Pliny’s letter. Pliny is currently the governor of Asia Minor--which is in modern day Turkey--and he’s writing to the Roman Emperor Trajian for guidance on what to do with Christians. The official Roman policy is that Christianity is an illegal religion, and Christians should be punished. But how should he punish Christians?
Let’s look at what he says to the Emperor:
"I decided to dismiss any who decided that they are or ever have been Christians when they repeated after me a formula invoking the gods and made offerings of wine and incense to your image…I understand that no one who is really a Christian can be made to do these things. Other people, whose names were given to me by an informer, first said that they were Christians and then denied it. They said that they had stopped being Christians two or more years ago, and some more than twenty. They all venerated your image and the images of the gods as the others did, and reviled Christ. They also maintained that the sum total of their guilt or error was no more than the following. They had met regularly before dawn on a determined day, and sung antiphonally a hymn to Christ as if to a god. They also took an oath not for any crime, but to keep from theft, robbery and adultery, not to break any promise, and not to withhold a deposit when reclaimed" (Letters 10.96).
There’s a lot we could say about this letter. We find here a window into early Christian worship as well. In fact, this is the earliest non-Christian description of how Christians worship.
So how does this add to our knowledge about Jesus? Early Christians worshipped Jesus and viewed allegiance to other gods as a betrayal of Jesus.
What makes this letter fascinating is that it demonstrates how soon Christians were worshipping Jesus as God. It’s sometimes asserted by skeptics of the Christian faith that Jesus never claimed to be God and that it was only after myths about Jesus developed that Christians began to think of Jesus as divine. Now that certainly wouldn’t be the first time for that to happen, because throughout ancient history we can find ordinary people eventually worshipped as gods long after their death. But according to Dr. A. N. Sherwin-White, the eminent Roman historian from Oxford, it usually takes at least three generations for such myth making to develop in the ancient world (Sherwin White 190). If a generation is about forty years, then three generations would mean that we wouldn’t find people worshipping Jesus as God until the mid second century at the earliest. Yet here we find Roman confirmation of Christians worshipping Jesus as early as the late first century, far too early for myths about Jesus being God to develop. As N. T. Wright says, "Myths…characteristically take a long time to develop…But the first generation of Christianity is simply too short a time to allow for such a process" (1992 426).
We also see that the worship of the early Christians was exclusive, that they couldn’t stay loyal to Jesus and worship the Roman gods or the Emperor. Pliny seems to view Christians as foolish fanatics (Van Voorst 26).
3. The Testimony of Tacitus
Now let’s look at the testimony of Tacitus. As I mentioned earlier, Tacitus is considered the greatest Roman historian of this time period. The context to the part we’re going to look at is his account of the great fire that burned much of the city of Rome in July of 64 AD. The emperor at the time was Nero. It was widely believed by the Romans that Nero himself lit the fire that burned Rome, so Nero had to find a scapegoat, someone to divert blame away from himself. So Nero chose the Christians to blame the fire on because they were widely distrusted by the Roman people.
In that context, look at what Tacitus says:
"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 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], when all things horrible and shameful from everywhere come together and become popular. Therefore, first those who admitted to it were arrested, then on their information a very large multitude was convicted, not so much for the crime of arson as for hatred for the human race" (The Annals of Imperial Rome 15.45.2-4).
Tacitus is primarily concerned with introducing Roman readers to Christians as Nero’s scapegoat for the fire. However, he also gives us some interesting information about Jesus, who he considers the founder of the Christian movement. Of all the Roman authors who mention Jesus, Tacitus gives us the most precise information about Jesus’ life (Van Voorst 45). He mentions that Jesus was executed by the Roman procurator Pilate during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. This is consistent with what we read from the New Testament. We also learn here that the Christian movement began in Judea, but after the death of Jesus it spread to the city of Rome. This too is consistent with what we read in the New Testament. Finally, we learn that some kind of "deadly superstition" erupted after the execution of Jesus. The Latin word Tacitus uses here is a negative, derogatory word, roughly parallel to our English word "cult" (Van Voorst 72). Now it’s possible that this "superstition" was simply the Christian faith in general, but it’s also possible that this is a veiled reference to the Christian church’s belief that Jesus had risen from the grave.
What can we conclude from the testimony of Tacitus?
Jesus was from Judea, crucified by Pontius Pilate, and a "deadly superstition" circulated after his death.
Tacitus provides us with is a basic outline of the life and death of Jesus that is consistent with what we find recorded in the New Testament.
4. The Testimony of Josephus
That brings us to Josephus, who is the only non-Roman witness we’re going to look at today. Unlike the three Roman authors, Josephus writes in Greek, not in Latin. His work Jewish Antiquities is an account of the history of the Jewish people. Josephus was widely regarded among Jews as a traitor since he was on the Roman emperor’s payroll, but his works are valuable helping us understand first century Judaism.
Let’s look at what Josephus says:
"Around this same time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it is right to call him a man. For he was a worker of amazing deeds and was a teacher of people who accept the truth with pleasure. He won over many Jews and many Greeks. He was the Messiah. Pilate, when he heard him accused by leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, but those who first loved him did not cease. For on the third day he appeared to them alive again, because the divine prophets had prophesied these and a myriad of other things about him. To this day the tribe of Christians named after him has not disappeared" (Jewish Antiquities 18.3.3 paragraphs 63-64).
Now you need to know that this paragraph is highly controversial. A lot of people believe Josephus never wrote these words but that this paragraph was a later addition to by a Christian (see Van Voorst 84-102). But this paragraph is found in every single ancient Greek manuscript of Josephus that historians currently possess. So to claim this wasn’t written by Josephus is pure speculation because every ancient Greek manuscript of Josephus contains it.
So going with the text as we have it, from this paragraph we learn a bit about Jesus’ life. We learn that he did amazing deeds, which is probably a reference to his miracles. We also learn that he was recognized as a captivating teacher. This is consistent with what we learn about Jesus in the New Testament. Josephus isn’t confessing his own belief in Jesus as the Christ here, but probably remarking that many believed him to be the Messiah. Remember Josephus is not a Christian, and there is nothing to indicate that he ever became a Christian.
We also learn here that Jesus was crucified by the Roman governor Pilate, but that his arrest was instigated by the Jewish religious rulers. So Josephus doesn’t pin the death of Jesus only on the Romans or only on the Jewish religious rulers, but he recognizes that there was a complex sequence of events involving both the Jewish leaders and the Romans leading to the death of Jesus. This again is consistent with what we read about Jesus in the New Testament.
We also learn here that Jesus’ followers claimed to have seen Jesus alive again on the third day. From Josephus we learn that the story of Jesus’ resurrection didn’t evolve like a myth over several hundred years, but that it was linked directly to the events surrounding his death. Again, if Josephus is correct here, there’s simply not enough time for mythology to develop.
So what can we conclude from the testimony of Josephus? Jesus was a miracle worker and teacher, was believed to be the Messiah, was crucified by Pilate, and was seen alive by his followers three days after his death.
This section from Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities confirms the basic outline of what we read about Jesus in the four New Testament biographies of Jesus. Despite the controversy surrounding this section of Josephus, any claim that it was a later addition is pure speculation since every Greek text of Josephus contains this testimony.
Conclusion
Now what are we to make of this historical data outside of the New Testament? Like I said, there are more historical sources, but in my opinion these four are the strongest. From these four sources we can conclude that belief in the historical existence of Jesus rests on solid ground. We can be confident that Jesus really existed, that he lived in Judea, that he was a popular teacher and believed to do miracles, that he was considered a troublemaker by the Roman empire, and in conjunction with the Jewish religious authorities, he was crucified by the Roman government. We also learn that Jesus was believed to be alive again three days after his death, and that within just a few years Christians were worshipping Jesus as God.
Now from an ancient history perspective, this is very strong evidence. The evidence for the existence of Jesus is stronger than the evidence for the existence of Socrates. I find it ironic that those who reject the historical existence of Jesus don’t apply their same skepticism to other historical figures like Socrates, Alexander the Great, and so forth. Virtually every ancient historian believes that Socrates is a historical figure, even though Socrates never wrote anything himself and we only know him through the writings of others.
Edwin Yamauchi, professor of history at Miami University says that the evidence for the existence of Jesus is stronger than the evidence for the existence of every other world religion founder (Yamauchi 229). Dr. Yamauchi claims that there’s more evidence for the existence of Jesus than for the existence of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Muhammad. Yet these three figures are widely accepted as actual historical figures by the vast majority of ancient historians.
Finally, let me share one more conclusion before we end our time together today. If you look at a timeline with the death of Jesus as occurring in about 33 AD, you can see where Josephus, Pliny, Tacitus, and Suetonius fit on the timeline.
Now from the perspective of modern history, these guys seem a bit too far away from the events of Jesus’ life to have much credibility. But from the perspective of the ancient historian, this is great testimony since the vast majority of history written during this time period has been lost. So if you compare these four testimonies to those of other ancient historical figures--like Socrates, or Buddha, or Muhammad--this is incredible evidence.
But there’s the kicker: With the exception of Josephus, all the books of the New Testament were written earlier than these other writers. Paul’s letters were written roughly between 49 and 62 AD, which is within just a few decades of Jesus’ life and death. Scholars debate exactly when the four gospels were written, so on the timeline I simply gave as broad a possible window for them to be written as possible. Even if they were written as late as 80 or 90 AD, which I find very unlikely, that still places them closer to the events than Pliny, Tacitus, and Suetonius and contemporary with Josephus. The later letters and the book of Revelation in the New Testament are placed between 85 and 90 AD, and still they are closer than the three Roman historians.
It’s widely held by historians that the sources closest to the events are the most promising sources for historical bedrock (Wright and Borg 20). Now the four sources we’ve looked at today were not Christian sources, and three were hostile to the Christian faith, which perhaps gives them greater credibility in the eyes of some people. But the 27 books of the New Testament are closer to the events of Jesus’ life than all but one source.
Robert Van Voorst’s book Jesus Outside the New Testament analyzes all the possible historical sources of Jesus outside the New Testament. In fact, Van Voorst looks at 18 possible historical sources about Jesus outside of the Bible, including the four we’ve discussed today. After his study, Van Voorst concludes, "Our study of Jesus outside the New Testament points at the end of the day to Jesus inside the New Testament" (217). In the end, the New Testament documents are the strongest source for historical information about Jesus.
Now as interesting and fascinating as all this is, the task of the Christian church is not to simply persuade people that Jesus existed. You see, it’s one thing to know facts about a person, but it’s quite another thing to actually know a person. When you come to know a person personally, suddenly facts and evidence seem less important, because now you suddenly know the person personally. As a church, we believe we’ve come to know Jesus personally. Not some mythological Jesus of later Christian creed, but the Jesus of history, the Jesus who walked the streets of Galilee, the Jesus who was crucified by the Romans, and the Jesus who we believe rose again on the third day. As the British historian N. T. Wright says, "The Jesus I know in prayer…is the [same] Jesus I meet in the historical evidence" (Wright and Borg 26). That’s why we meet for worship, that’s why we seek to serve God in our community, and that’s why we’re here today. And as compelling and strong as the evidence for the existence of Jesus is, our prayer and aim is to introduce you to Jesus the person, a relationship with the Jesus of history who conquered death and who can change your life.
Sources
"Who Was Jesus?" LIFE December, 1994.
Wright, N. T. and Marcus Borg. 1999. The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions. Harper San Francisco.
Wright, N. T. 1992. The New Testament and the People of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God Vol. 1. Fortress Press.
Wright, N. T. 1996. Jesus and the Victory of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God Vol. 2. Fortress Press.
Yamauchi, Edwin. 1995. "Jesus Outside the New Testament: What is the Evidence?" Jesus Under Fire. eds. Michael Wilkins and J. P. Moreland. Zondervan Publishing.
Sherwin-White, A.N. 1963. Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament. Oxford University Press.
Van Voorst, Robert. 2000. Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. Eerdmans Publishing.
