“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”[1] This quote, adapted from a speech given by Winston Churchill, displays the complicated nature of history itself. Textbooks teach the facts of history usually leaving us with little thought to its complex nature. So, what does history have to say regarding the person of Jesus Christ? Is there any trail of him outside of Scripture? Let’s examine a couple non-biblical sources to find out.

Roman Source: Tacitus

A chief extra-biblical source to highlight is the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus. Tacitus, in his precision and disregard for rumor or scandal, is thought to be the greatest of all Roman historians and our best source of information about this time.[2] In part of his work, Annals, book 15, chapter 44, Tacitus recounts the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD that destroyed much of the city.[3] In this account he also makes an important reference to 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, 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…Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty: then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.[4]

It’s true that Tacitus is not aiming to directly verify Jesus with these remarks. However, he does offer a historic observation that a man, Christus, not only lived, but also suffered under Pontius Pilate which certainly supports the Biblical account.

Jewish Sources

Additionally, Jesus is also referenced in several Jewish sources. The first is the testimony of the Jewish historian, Josephus, called Testimonium Flavianum, which is found in Antiquities 18. 63-64:[5]

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonders, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew many after him both of the Jews and the Gentiles. He was the Christ. When Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them foretold alive again the third day, as the divine prophet had foretold these and then thousand other wonderful things about him, and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

In this section, Josephus offers a clear reference to Christ, but most scholars are agreed that there are interpolations, or insertions, which were added later.[6] If the interpolations were removed the text would most likely read:

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, for he was a doer of wonders. He drew many after him. When Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”[7]

So, it seems reasonable to maintain the legitimacy of the remaining text. The account of Josephus presents an unmistakable accounting of a man named Jesus who really did live.

Jesus is also mentioned in other Jewish works as well. One expert explains it this way: “The Jewish traditional literature supports the gospel claim that he was a healer and miracle-worker, even though it ascribes these activities to sorcery.”[8] While truth of the gospel claim is not our current concern, the fact that Jewish literature references a man named Jesus, is a weighty argument in favor of his actual historical existence.

Conclusion

Understanding that Jesus was a real person leaves another very real question: Was he who he claimed to be? Perhaps the words of C.S. Lewis are a fitting end for this question: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”[9]

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[1] Speech in the House of Commons (January 23, 1948); Cited in The Yale Book of Quotations (2006), ed. Fred R. Shapiro, Yale University Press, p. 154
[2] Robert Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence.
(Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2000), 39.
[3] Lee Strobel, The Case For Christ. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 82.
[4] Tacitus: Annals. Book 15[44], http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/a15040.htm (accessed May 13, 2012).
[5] Josephus. Jewish Antiquities. Book 18 [63-64] In The New Complete Works of Josephus, eds. [William Whiston, Paul L. Maier], 590. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1999.
[6] Strobel, The Case For Christ, 79-80.
[7] “Ancient Judaism: Josephus on Jesus.” http://religiousstudies.uncc.edu/people/jtabor/josephus-jesus.html (accessed March 23, 2012).
[8] M. Wilcox, “Jesus in the Light of His Jewish Environment,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt 2, no25.1 (1982), 133 as quoted in Strobel, The Case For Christ, 86.
[9] Mere Christianity