Isn’t Jesus’ Life Historically Documented?

 

John E. Remsburg's The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence, lists the following writers who lived during the time, or within a century after the time, that Jesus is supposed to have lived:

 

  • Josephus
  • Philo-Judææus
  • Seneca
  • Pliny Elder
  • Arrian
  • Petronius
  • Dion Pruseus
  • Paterculus
  • Suetonius
  • Juvenal
  • Martial
  • Persius
  • Plutarch
  • Pliny Younger
  • Tacitus
  • Justus of Tiberius
  • Apollonius
  • Quintilian
  • Lucanus
  • Epictetus
  • Hermogones Silius Italicus
  • Statius
  • Ptolemy
  • Appian
  • Phlegon
  • Phæædrus
  • Valerius Maximus
  • Lucian
  • Pausanias
  • Florus Lucius
  • Quintius Curtius
  • Aulus Gellius
  • Dio Chrysostom
  • Columella
  • Valerius Flaccus
  • Damis
  • Favorinus
  • Lysias
  • Pomponius Mela
  • Appion of Alexandria
  • Theon of Smyrna

Enough of the writings of the authors named in the foregoing list remains to form a library. Yet in this mass of Jewish and Pagan literature, according to Remsburg, "aside from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author, and two disputed passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be found no mention of Jesus Christ." Nor, do any of these authors make note of the Disciples or Apostles -- increasing the embarrassment from the silence of history concerning the foundation of Christianity.

 

So how accurate are the New Testament records?

 

Of the 5,487 Greek manuscripts, no two, apart from the very tiniest fragments, are identical. The New Testament, as it exists today, is non-existant as late as the 7th century. What is today called the New Testament(containing the 4 gospels) appears at that time, but even this document is not identical. . .

The Codex Sinaiticus comes close, but it also contains the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, which are clearly not part of the New Testament.

2,811 of these manuscripts are in the minuscule writing. This tiny writing was only used from the 9th century onwards. 2,279 manuscripts are lectionaries and only about 30 (thirty) lectionaries date from before the 9th century. Considering the foregoing, it is almost unthinkable to seriously consider the veracity of the Gospel accounts.