Is There Historical Evidence For Jesus Outside of The Bible?
Five Ancient Non-Biblical Accounts of Jesus
Many skeptics of Christianity like to point out that there are no historical accounts of Jesus outside of the Bible. This is erroneous for two reasons. First, there are indeed numerous non-Christian references to Jesus dating from the period directly following his life, death, and resurrection. Second, it seems foolish to throw out a series of texts simply because they share a binding.
The New Testament is not a singular text. The New Testament is comprised of twenty-seven separate books written by sixteen different authors. That is a large body of work that all refers to Jesus. Throwing them out together simply because they were chosen to make up the Christian portion of the Bible is unfair. However, for the point of this argument, we will discount those sources.
Setting the New Testament aside, there are still a number of reputable sources that make reference to Jesus and backs up many of the basic claims about the man that are laid out in the New Testament. Here are five prominent examples to consider.
1. Celsus & Origen (AD 175 / AD 248)
Celsus was a Greek philosopher and Christian skeptic who wrote a treatise called The True Doctrine, which…
