Extra-Biblical Mentions of Yeshuah the Christ

Extra-Biblical Mentions of Yeshuah the Christ

Introduction The Day the Earth Went Dark The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus Pliny the Younger Tacitus List of Citations

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Introduction
This list is in no way meant to be extensive and although anything is possible, I do not intend to work on this document any further and provide a few Web-Links to some more extensive information regarding this topic below. Like most of the documents actually produced by and or for D.O.T.S.; the primary feature of this document is direct access to relevant information on any particular subject. Meant less to be a document (or book) in of itself, it is intended to be used as a study aid for its particular area of interestin this case, the Extra-Biblical validity of a historical account for the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The absolute controversy that Jesus the Christ elicits let alone the validity of many of these accounts (Josephus especially) have escaped neither D.O.T.S. nor myself. I merely request you, the reader, to remember that much like all the material available through D.O.T.S.; an unbiased abstract point-of-view is required when on a genuine search for Truth. In many ways this document represents a fragment of the personal quest of D.O.T.S. founder, James A. Isaacs Jr. Calling himself a Christian in its Truest Sense understandably explains why he, and others, would have a healthy curiosity in the veracity of the true historical life of Jesus. In many ways, much of the intricate Christian details fail to remain as important to that veracity. The point for us is not if he was the Christ (Messiah), Son of God, God-in-Carnet, or even if he truly rose three days later. Of greater importance, and the only one needed to justify a following of His teachings, is honestly the simplestdid he actually live? Controversy will always surround passion and nothing elates passion in people more than faith, or a lack there of. Fact is that if its this difficult to prove that he even existed, then one has to weigh the validity of everything we think we know about him or his life, if he did live, and admit that we cannot and may never know the True nature of him and his teachings. I personally feel that as long as I can feel that his life cannot be disputed at least, then my choice to follow his teachings (to the best of my understanding*) would seem to have at least some form of validity. In conclusion I would also like to point out that my personal quest to better understand the validity of the life of Jesus, nor my occasional use of Judeo-Christian Biblical verses in no way is an endorsement or promotion of either Judaism, Christianity, or their respective scriptures. As my literary knowledge expands as well as my comfortably in not only recalling them or properly using their quotes in a relevant way; it is my hope that I will soon be able to adequately use a plethora of relevant quotations concerning my research and its discussion.

Extra-Biblical Mentions of Yeshuah the Christ

The Day the Earth Went Dark

Excerpts from Lee Strobels The Case for Christ

Dr. Gary Habermas has written about a historian named Thallus who wrote in 52 A.D. wrote a history of the eastern Mediterranean world since the Trojan War. Although Thalluss work has been lost, it was quoted by Julius Africanus in about 221 A.D. On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in his third book of History, calls (as appears to me without reason) an eclipse of the sun. Scholar Paul Mair spoke about the darkness in a footnote in his 1968 book Pontius Pilate. This phenomenon, evidently, was visible in Rome, Athens, and other Mediterranean cities. According to Tertullianit was a cosmic or world event. Phlegon, a Greek author from Caria writing a chronology soon after 137 A.D., reported that in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e., 33 A.D.) there was the greatest eclipse of the sun and that it became night in the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicea.

The Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus The Antiquities of the Jews (93 A.D.) 18.3.3
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 wonderful worksa teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew to Him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake Him, for He appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him; and the tribe of Christians, so named for Him, are not extinct at this day.

The Antiquities of the Jews (93 A.D.) 20.9.1

Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, has delivered them to be stoned;

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Extra-Biblical Mentions of Yeshuah the Christ

Pliny the Younger Letters (111 A.D.) 10.96

I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and unshakable obstinacy out not to go unpunished They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they called deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshiped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.

Tacitus Annals (115 A.D.) 15.44

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 superstitions, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only Judea, 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.

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List of Citations
Lee Strobel; The Case for Christ; 1998 Zondervan/Harper Collins/Willow Creek Resources. Flavius Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.3 & 20.9.1 (93 A.D.) Pliny the Younger; Letters 10.96 (111 A.D.) Tacitus; Annals 15.44 (115 A.D.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus http://www.westarkchurchofchrist.org/library/extrabiblical.htm http://christianthinktank.com/jesusref.html * Philippians 2:12-13: 12So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (NASB)