Jesus existed

Did any independent historian talk about Jesus?

: “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.”

Josephus was a Roman-Jewish historian who supposedly wrote the Testimonium Flavianum—an ‘early’ reference to Christ. Some however think it is fake. But Josephus’s works also include a much less known passage that is not disputed.

In Book 20 of his Antiquities of the Jews there is a clear reference to the execution of “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James”.

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The Great Fire of Rome was talked about extensively by Tacitus who reported suspicions that the fire was set and then blamed on others who were already not very popular with Romans. He wrote: “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.”

The Ossuary JamesossuaryIf you’re above a certain age, you might remember the 2001 discovery of an ancient bone box inscribed with the words ‘James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.’ For those of you that aren’t—you should know that the world went nuts. Here was undeniable proof of Jesus’s historical existence. Then, in 2004, Israeli police arrested the Tel Aviv collector who found it on suspicion of forgery. So much for that, huh?Not exactly. Last year, an Israeli court threw out the case when it became apparent most of the ‘expert witnesses’ were either lying or just plain wrong. The ‘smoking gun’ was a fake inscription that turned out to be nothing of the sort, and more tests are now being done to figure out (again) if the box is genuine. Now, we still currently don’t know if it’s real—only that it’s not a deliberate, modern fake. But if it turns out to be the real deal, it could yet prove to be the most important religious find of the century. 2 Modern Religion Kim-Jong-Un 2089297BDespite most of the ‘big ones’ having been around for centuries, new religions are always cropping up. Mormonism, Scientology, Rastafarianism, cults like The Manson Family or North Korea’s creepy ‘Kim’ cult… and nearly all of them have one thing in common: they stem from a single, real individual. By contrast, movements with no grounding in reality whatsoever are much rarer. And sociologists have noticed this. By tracing how modern religions grow, they can make assumptions about their older cousins—including the importance of having a living, breathing figurehead. Think about it. It’s a lot easier to get people onboard your new movement if they can see your leader is an actual person and not, y’know, completely made up. But even if you don’t accept the logic of that, it’s worth remembering how utterly alien Jesus’s teachings were compared to any other branch of first century Judaism. Such a great mental leap had to come from someone, somewhere so Paul could get so fired up about it ten years later. For all intents and purposes, you might as well call that ‘someone’ Jesus. 1 The Crucifixion Peter Gertner - Crucifixion - Walters 37246For all his reported ability to kill things with the power of words, Gospels’ Jesus is basically the Aquaman of Biblical figures. Compared to, say, King David, his awesomeness-to-piousness ratio is sadly lacking. And that’s important, because the Messiah was prophesied to be a warrior king who would flush the scum out of Jerusalem and bring about God’s kingdom on Earth. By contrast, Jesus rides around on a donkey and is executed before he can get anything done. Remember the criterion of embarrassment? In the first century, crucifixion was a humiliating way to die. Anyone writing Jesus from the ground up would have had him go out in a one-on-one fistfight with Julius Caesar or something. As scholar Bart Ehrman puts it: “The Christians did not invent Jesus. They invented the idea that the messiah had to be crucified.” Basically, early Christians were so embarrassed by the crucifixion they did everything they could to turn it into a victory. Hell, they probably wished they had just made him up—it would’ve saved them all a lot of trouble.MORRIS M. Morris is a freelance writer and newly-qualified teacher, still naively hoping to make a difference in his students' lives. You can send your helpful and less-than-helpful comments to his email, or visit some of the other websites that inexplicably hire him. Read More: Urban Ghosts

Was there archaeological evidence that Christ existed?

What is the meaning of archaeological evidence?

The archaeological record is the body of physical (i.e. not written) evidence about the past. It is one of the core concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record.

What we usually call archaeological record are usually found in the ground. What would you expect to find as an archaeological record of Jesus?

We know that James was Jesus brother and that he lived and we appear to have found his bone box.

Paul has two brief meetings with Jesus’ brother James. Since James’ existence would have been objectively verifiable to Paul’s readers it is not likely he made him up.

There are discrepancies in the Bible but these do not affect the message of the Gospel. The ancient prophecy saying the messiah would be born in Bethlehem begs why was he from Nazareth in Mark and only later from Bethlehem in Luke and Matthew.

Jesus's Mom having stayed in Bethlehem during the birth may make Jesus a prophetic anchor baby but he would still be from Nazareth. Even Herod Antipas' Mom went to Bethlehem to give birth to little Herod just so he could improve his claim to the throne.