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To: fortheDeclaration
There are MULTIPLE, credible, contemporary non-Christian references to Jesus at or near the time He first lived.

The sources include:

Cornelius Tacitus (c. A.D. 55-120), the greatest historian of ancient Rome, who wrote during the reign of Nero about Jesus and his death by Pilate.

Suetonius, historian in the court of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who wrote of Claudius' expulsion of Christians from Rome in A.D. 49. Luke refers to this event in Acts 18:2.

Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor (A.D. 112), who wrote to Roman Emperor Trajan for instructions on which Christians to kill (he had executed all he could find, but wondered whether he should lighten up). He was killing these people because they wouldn't worship the emperor.

Thallus, who around A.D. 52 wrote a naturalistic explanation for the afternoon darkness which enveloped the land when Jesus was executed. He did not doubt that Jesus had been crucified or that an unusual event had occurred which needed an explanation.

Mara Bar-Serapion, a Syrian philosopher, who sometime after A.D. 70 wrote a letter to his son, encouraging him to pursue wisdom and comparing the philosophy of Jesus to Socrates and Pythagoras.

Finally, ancient Jewish sources, such as the Babylonian Talmud, attest to the historicity of Jesus and his death while deriding his claims and those of his disciples. These sources are particularly credible because they were openly opposed to and mocked Jesus' teachings. Why try to discredit someone who never existed?

The "Jesus never existed" argument is an old canard which pops up every generation or so. It is absolutely devoid of any true scholarly support, but it must be dealt with because, sadly, some people will believe just about anything (regardless of the facts).

We will each need to decide, hopefully after study, whether Jesus is deity. But as history shows, the man surely lived, taught, and died on a cross.

254 posted on 10/12/2004 10:04:39 AM PDT by dukeman
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To: dukeman
Agreed.

I posted some of the names of the historians you cited.

269 posted on 10/12/2004 1:11:16 PM PDT by fortheDeclaration
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