Jesus Outside the Bible-The Top Ten Historical References: Digging for Truth Episode 222

Hello, and welcome to Digging for Truth brought to you by Associates for Biblical Research. I'm your host, Henry Smith, today. I am pleased to have Brian Wendle with us to walk through the top 10

historical

references

to Jesus outside of the Bible. Well, Brian, welcome back to the show, it's great to see you again my friend, hey, it's great to be back, thank you very much for having me, so we're going to talk about evidence for Jesus outside of the Bible, so, strictly speaking, not the New Testament, tell us about. uh why are we going to take that kind of angle on the evidence, uh, looking at the evidence and jumping right to number 10 when you're ready, so the reason I made this particular top 10 list is because I received The reviews on my list of top 10 discoveries related to Jesus and the reviews I got from some people were: well, none of this proves that Jesus existed, so leaving aside the idea that proof is subjective and really isn't the purpose of archaeology, these people simply misunderstood my intention with that top 10 list.

He was only demonstrating discoveries that illuminated the life of Jesus or elements of the Gospel. They were not intended to prove that he existed. That's what he said. I think there's a lot of

historical

evidence that he did exist now, so stop this. list I decided to make the top 10 historical

references

to Jesus outside of the Bible. Now I want to make it clear that I believe the New Testament gospels are the most reliable documents we have for information about Jesus. They are certainly the first that were written by eyewitnesses. or people who heard directly from eyewitnesses, so I think those are the most important, but for this list I'm only going to look at additional Bible references and I have two criteria that I use.

The first was that the sources must be from the 1st or 2nd century and not later, so sometimes people use the talmid from the 5th to the 8th century, or the 5th to the 7th century, and I don't think that adds much to the discussion. , so let's continue with um writings from the 1st and 2nd century and secondly, they have to be references to Jesus, not references to Christians, so those were my criteria and, based on that, my part number 10 um uh on the list were the first Christian writers, this is something a lot. of people overlook when they look at additional biblical references to Jesus, you see, it is difficult to explain the explosive growth of Christianity in the first hundred years of Christ's life if it did not exist, as some Christ myths suggest.

And um, what we have during those first 100 150 years is a lot of Christian Christian writers, some of whom heard directly from people who had been with Jesus and this is really important, so we have Clement, for example, from first century. leader of Rome who wrote a letter in Corinth and in it speaks of the teachings of the death of Jesus, his resurrection from the dead, we have Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote a letter to the smans in which he states that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch and whom he cites suffered all these things for us and suffered them really and not only in appearance, even when he really rose from the dead.

Polycarp wrote a letter to the Philippians that stated that Jesus lived and died and that Polycarp was one of the people. who was said to have learned directly from the apostles Justin Martyr argued that Jesus was a teacher who was crucified who was resurrected Papius wrote that he learned about the teachings of Jesus from those who had heard him on purpose in person and Quadratus was a Christian Apologist primitive, many people may not know it. He wrote a letter to Emperor Hadrian and said this, but the works of our savior were always present because they were genuine, those who were healed and those who were resurrected. dead who were seen not only when they were healed and when they were resurrected but also always present and not only while the Savior was on Earth but also after his death they were alive for quite a long time so that some of them lived to this day .

And then we have this early Christian writer, some of whom heard directly from eyewitnesses themselves and are an important extra-biblical testimony to the historicity of Jesus. Yeah, he's really good, Brian. You know, it seems historically incoherent. These early Christian sources might even exist and be willing to commit their lives to following Jesus if somehow very little before he ever existed just doesn't make much sense just from a historical analysis perspective, which is what he means. okay, but we can't stop there, we have to move on to number nine, Brian, so let's do it safely so that the rest of the historical references to Jesus are from non-Christian writers, so although I started with the Christian writers and they give a basic summary of all the elements of the life of Jesus, such as his birth, the teachings, the miracles he did and his death and his resurrection at one point in history, what we are going to see is that the same elements The same facts are affirmed by non-Christian writers and number nine is Fon who, um Fon de trus, wrote this history book in the middle of the second century, around the year 140 AD.

C., so his work no longer exists, but it was cited by other writers and uh and the origin was one of them, he quotes several passages that he quotes directly that refer to Jesus and he says this um now Fon in his book 13 or 14. I believe that in his Chronicles he not only attributes knowledge to Jesus. of future events but he also testified that the result corresponded to his predictions that he wrote about the eclipse at the time of Tiberius Caesar in whose Reign Jesus seems to have been crucified and the great earthquakes that took place writes about um the testimony of Fon that who relates The events that happened when our savior suffered goes on to say and quote directly here that Jesus, who was very much alive, did not help him but was resurrected after death and exhibited the marks of his punishment and showed that his hands had been pierced by nails, according to this ancient historian Flein, who was writing Circle 140 U, ​​Jesus accurately predicted the events of the future.

He was crucified in the days of Tiberius Caesar. He was believed to have been resurrected showing his hands that had been pierced. Pretty impressive list of facts from an ancient historian, certainly okay, now you've got another one that's from the mid-1st century, Brian, who is it and tell us about it, yeah, this is a really important one, this is falus and falus. was a non-Christian writer who refers to Jesus around the year 55, so this is before some of the New Testament documents were written and, although Phs's work is lost, it was cited by Julius africanis um, who also was cited, that work was later summarized. quoted by a Byzantine historian also and Julius africanis while speaking of the darkness that accompanied the crucifixion of Jesus writes about the whole world uh about the whole world are pressed by a most terrible darkness and the rocks were torn apart by an earthquake and many places in Judea and other districts were cast this phallus of darkness in his third book of his stories he calls it um uh as it seems to me without reason an eclipse of the sun now at first glance um Jesus is not mentioned in this particular quote however um Scholars I have argued that it is probable, almost certain, that Phalus was referring to Jesus in the original work.

Robert Vanv explains that Phalus could have mentioned the eclipse without any reference to Jesus, but it is more likely that Julius, who had access to the context of this quote in Phalus and who was generally a careful user of his Source. was right to read it as a hostile reference to the death of Jesus, so this is an important reference to the death of Jesus and the darkness that happened in the earthquake at the time of his death that is also recorded in the gospels, very well, great job Brian, thanks for that, we have seven more to go, but we have to take a break and we will be right back after this message in a culture of intense Bible-denying skepticism Biblical research partners exist to strengthen the followers of Jesus by affirming the authority of the Bible our archaeological field work and original research form a solid basis for defending the reliability of the Scriptures for students or anyone who questions whether they can really trust the Bible visit our website and Please partner with us by joining our prayer team or financially supporting this ministry and thank you for being with us.

Watch Lighthouse TV wherever you go, available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV, find Lighthouse TV online on your streaming device, or go. to our website lighthous tv.org for more information welcome back to

digging

for the

truth

. I'm Henry Smith, your host. I'm here with Brian Wendell. We're counting down the top 10 historical references to Jesus outside of the Bible. Okay, Brian, number seven. seven is Celsus, he was a 2nd century Greek philosopher who wrote treatises A attacking Christianity and then, about 75 years later, Origen wrote a refutation. He called out Celsus and summarized his arguments, pointing out that this Greek philosopher had used this literary device. and imagining a Jew talking to Jesus and um and so he writes the origin, he says that it represents him arguing with Jesus and confusing him while he thinks on many points first of all he accused him of having invented his virgin birth and reprimands him for being quote born in a certain Jewish village of a poor country woman who earned her substantial subsistence by spinning and who was thrown out of the house by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because he was convinced, uh, convinced of her adultery, um, and she talks about Jesus. then going to Egypt and having acquired some miraculous powers and using these miraculous powers to proclaim that he was God and these are the arguments that this imaginary Jewish Jewish person is using in this work of celsus and then um so it's interesting because we see even in the day of celsus but one 75 ad um the belief that Jesus was born of a virgin who was known for performing miracles and who claimed to be divine and then um then those There are very important things that are being witnessed in this work, yes, and it is seen even in a couple of confrontations with the Pharisees where there's the implication about the dubious nature of the circumstances of Jesus' birth, little hints from the Pharisees that come through, so look, that plays out in this apology speech, good stuff, Brian, okay, let's go to number six now.

Lucien de Sasada, tell us about this guy. Yes, Lucian is a famous Greek saurian and refers to Jesus in his work The Death of Peragine. which was written sometime around 165 AD. C. and he is making fun of Christians by saying that the Christians you know worship a man to this day, the distinguished personage who introduced his novel rights and was crucified for that reason and um, so you have here a number of facts historical the lucians recognize that Jesus was the founder of a religion who was crucified um that his converted followers considered themselves spiritual brothers and sisters if you continue reading the quote you will discover it um and that they worshiped this man, he says like God and those are important things that we see again uh what we would consider a hostile witness yeah, hostile witnesses are our friends, right Brian? because uh no, they don't have skin to start the game to authenticate the existence of Jesus, they are responding to the realities on the ground here in this case in the mid-2nd century.

Well, now let's get into the top five. Brian, what is number five or who is number five? I must say yes, so number five we go back to the first century, around the year 73 AD, a man named marabar sarapion uh was taken captive by the Romans from his city, they destroyed his city and from prison he wrote him a message of He returned to Syria to his son encouraging him to seek wisdom and he writes this, what else? Can we say that when the wise are forcibly dragged away by tyrants, their wisdom is captured by insults and their minds are oppressed without defense what advantage did the Athenians gain by murdering Socrates because they were rewarded with famine and pestilence or the people of Samos with the burning? of Pythagoras because his country was completely covered with sand in just one hour or the Jews killing their wise King because their Kingdom was taken from them at that very moment God justly repaid the wisdom of these three men the Athenians died of hunger the Samans were completely overwhelmed by the sea and the Jews desolate and expelled from their own kingdom are scattered throughout all nations Socrates is not dead because of Plato nor Pythagoras because of the statue of Juno nor the wise king because of the new laws he imposed and so on.

The name Jesus is not used specifically, it is clear that he is who is being referred to in this passage. He is the wise King that the Jews killed. Remember that Jesus, the titled King of the Jews, was used by Pilate. For Jesus, he was used by the Romans. The soldiers, even some of the Jews themselves used that same phrase, so it seems that is how they knew Jesus. JayWarner Wallace summarizes the meaning of this reference. He says that from this account we can add to our understanding of Jesus that he was a wise and influential man. man who died for his belief, the Jewish leadership was somehow responsible for Jesus' death and Jesus' followers adopted his belief and lived their lives accordingly.

It's a great summary again, a hostile non-Christian witness. Yes, he fits me like a glove. I also thought about the The new laws that established probably one of the most radical is to forgive your enemies, which would have been radically antithetical to anything that people believed in ancient times in the world, that's sure fine, but we have to get through to number four here, huh?, you say. a lot I say plyy uh tell us about theThe next on our list, yes, the youngest, writing about 8112, he was the Roman governor of Bethia and he wrote a letter to Emperor Tran asking for advice on how to deal with the Christians he was prosecuting and, In letter 96, the EP describes the process it takes and describes the testimony of the Christians and writes that they declared that the sum of their guilt or their error amounted only to this fact that on a certain day they had the custom of meeting before the dawn to recite a hymn between They gave themselves to Christ as if he were a God and that, far from being bound by oath to commit any crime, their oath was to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery and abuse of faith, and not to deny trust in the money deposited in their possession when they were asked to do so. hand it over and then Ply's letter reveals that Jesus was a Christ was a real figure, a historical figure that the Roman magistrates were trying to and if you read the full quote, they are trying to get Christians to curse Jesus so that 'We will only worship the Roman gods and it is interesting to note that Traan responds by saying that you should not hunt Christians, but if they do not curse Christ, then they will continue to worship him as a God. so you need to pursue them at that time, yes, I think the amazing thing about these Witnesses are the extraordinary little details found in their descriptions, like they met on a certain day of the week, they worshiped him as God.

You know those things just speak to so much authenticity, Brian, you know that's one of the things that stands out apart from the explicit mentions of Jesus or the indirect mentions, so it's really interesting, but we have to take a break, Brian, because we have ABR is pleased to announce the publication of volume two of our excavations at Kerbel Motter. The volume details archaeological remains from approximately 350 BC. C. until the 8th century. This includes a New Testament village that Jesus may have visited over 400 pages of photographs and analysis maps. You can get a copy today by visiting Bible archeology.org.

Digging for the Truth is produced and recorded in the Lighthouse TV studios, a positively different television. Hello, welcome back to Digging for the Truth. We're looking at the top 10 historical references to Jesus found outside of Scripture Brian, we're here for the countdown, okay Brian, now we're in the top three, you know, scorecard, scorecard, it's always a challenge to do a great job with it. this, but let's go to number three, well to three, we are already on the really important ones, now number three is satus tonius was a Roman historian and his most famous work, the lives of Caesar, tells a brief history of the first 12 Caesars. from Julius Caesar to Demian and in his chapter on the life of Claudius he writes this since the Jews constantly rioted at the instigation of cresus uh which we believe is a reference to Christ expelled them from Rome now this is explained in the book Of Acts We see the same thing in the book of Acts, where it is noted that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome due to unrest with the Christians, so there is almost unanimous consensus among scholars of all religious persuasions, Christian or not.

Christian, that cresus is probably a phonetic misspelling of the Latin chtis uh and it is Jesus Christ, the name cresus or cros, interestingly, was a term that even Christ had used and it is a term that we actually see in a couple of the early fathers of the church, etc. pointing out so consistently that this is Jesus and showing that within a hundred years of Jesus' life he was known to exist, that he was this popular and controversial figure who was causing unrest during Claudius's reign, to the point where Claudius had to expel the Jews from Rome, yeah, well, you know, it just occurred to me that we are addressing the historicity of Jesus in the studies, this is not a problem, eh, it is a problem on the Internet and on Facebook and YouTube, which It's one of the reasons we brought it up because it's a very popular idea among atheists, but we have to move on to number two now.

One of our favorite historians is Flavius ​​Josephus. He had something to say about it. Jesus and if so, what is Brian? Yes, and this is a bit of a controversial passage. Well, one of them is, Joseph, actually mentions Jesus twice in his work, the Antiquities of the Jews, and in his writings from the late first century. he is describing um he describes Jesus uh in particular now um there is a controversial passage um that is called testimonium flavinium and um almost all Christian and non-Christian scholars believe that it was um it was edited by a later Christian scribe to make Jesus look very good , but a copy was found that did not have those editions, probably what was originally written by Josephus was discovered in 1970, it is an Arabic version and it is the kind of thing that a Jew like Josephus could write.

About Jesus it says this. At that time there was a wise man called Jesus. His conduct was good and he was known for being virtuous and many people from among the Jews and other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and they died. but those who had become his disciples did not abandon their discipleship, they reported that he had appeared to them uh 3 days after his crucifixion and that therefore he was alive, perhaps he was the Messiah about whom the prophets have told wonders. Notes by historian Paul Meyer uh Clearly, this version of the passage is expressed in a way appropriate for a non-Christian Jew and corresponds almost precisely to earlier scholarly projections of what Josephus actually wrote, so this is important, but Josephus actually He referred to Jesus for the second time when he speaks. about the death of James he quotes the brother of Jesus who was called Christ and from these references we know that Josephus accepted the existence of Jesus historically who was called Christ his behavior was good he was crucified by Pilate many people came as disciples and reported that he was alive after his death, yes, yes, powerful evidence, not only for everything you exposed, but for the fact that it is only two decades after the destruction of the temple and until Rome, okay, we know that the Roman Church had been established.

Already and Paul had written a letter there, but clearly this fits in the context of what is happening already in the first century Brian, well, okay, time for discovery number one related to Jesus outside the Bible and drum roll , so to speak. Brian here we go, okay, it's unspoken unspoken was a Roman historian, he left us a couple of works, histories and annals, and in his annals he writes about the suspicions that Nero, the emperor, was responsible for the great fire of Rome and that He tried to put the blame on the Christians and wrote this accordingly to get rid of this report that he was the one who started the fire.

Nero laid the blame and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class called Christians for their abominations. Pilate, and a very malicious superstition thus controlled for the moment broke out again not only in Judea, the first source of evil, but even in Rome, where all the horrible and shameful things from all parts of the world find their center and become Popular now, this passage is of great historical importance for several reasons, firstly, there is no doubt of its authenticity, this is what Tacitus wrote. secondly, Tacitus is seen by scholars as an independent source not related in any way to the New Testament gospels and thirdly, he simply states more details about how Jesus was called Christus, his historicity, his death under the pontiff pilate and, interestingly, describes a mischievous superstition that broke out and I believe. which refers to the belief that the early Jews said that Jesus rose from the dead that was the naughty superstition yes, yes again another hostile witness eh, you mentioned about Josephus, Christian interpolation exalts Jesus, these are all negative connotations really, so you know it again. just an extraordinary piece of evidence and the entirety of it is astonishing, well Brian, uh, I hate to do this to you, you only have about 30 seconds to give us a condensed summary of the importance of all this, go ahead, sure, even if I didn't have the New Testament This is what we would know historically about Jesus from extra-biblical historical sources It was reported that he was born of a poor virgin His father was a carpenter He was a teacher His disciples passed on his teachings to others He prophesied He performed miracles He was known for his wisdom and life virtuous claimed to be God was crucified under Pontius during the reign of Tiberius Caesar earthquakes and darkness accompanied his death his followers report that he had risen from the dead he appeared to them and showed them his wounds in his hands, his followers They worshiped as God and the belief in Jesus caused great disturbances with the Jews, such that Claudius had to evict the Jews from Drome.

Listen, that's a great summary of the life of Jesus that affirms what we have. in the New Testament gospels and I believe that the historicity of Jesus is not in doubt at all, it is certainly historically well established. Amen to all that Brian, who might be the fastest I've ever heard of. You should do CER, my friend. That was great, thanks again for all your hard work on these things. We hope the audience is satisfied. I appreciate all you do Brian, we love you. Hey thanks a lot. Henry. It's great to be with you again. Thank you for joining us.

In seeking the

truth

, the New Testament is adequate in its testimony about Jesus, but we can also look to these external historical sources that confirm what the New Testament already tells us and hope that these facts of history will edify and lift it up. the work Jesus has done to forgive sinners thank you for looking

digging

for the truth