It is often claimed by skeptics that there is no historical evidence for the life of Jesus of Nazareth outside of the Gospels or the New Testament. A thorough comparison of the Gospels to archaeological and additional historical sources demonstrates that the Gospel narratives as a whole are corroborated on hundreds of points, including people, places, events, politics, religion, and culture. However, if focusing only on Jesus and key events of His life recorded in the Gospels, it is possible to reconstruct major information about Jesus using only ancient Roman sources and archaeological artifacts.
At the beginning of the life of Jesus, the Gospels make reference to Jesus being born in Bethlehem, a small village in Judea. Further, the Gospels record that Jesus was born of a virgin who lived in a rural area, Nazareth, and was married to a carpenter or craftsman, Joseph (Matthew 1:20-2:1, 13:55; Luke 2:3-7; John 7:42). According to an outspoken Roman philosopher and critic of Christianity living in Alexandria in about 177 AD, this was widely known and accepted information. Although Celsus disputes the virgin birth claim and says that Jesus “invented” that story, Celsus acknowledges the existence of Jesus and His birth in a Judean village to a woman from a rural area of Judaea Province who was married to a carpenter (Celsus, The True Word). After King Herod ordered that this baby and future king be found and executed, the family fled to Egypt to keep Jesus safe until Herod died (Matthew 2:13-23). Celsus also acknowledged that Jesus had lived in Egypt as a child before returning to home (Celsus, The True Word). Early in the ministry of Jesus, when He was relatively unknown and had a small following, people were astonished at what He was saying and doing, since they only knew of Him as the son of Joseph and Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). According to the 1st century writings of Josephus, Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the brother of this James who became a leader of the Church in Jerusalem (Josephus, Antiquities). Further, an ossuary from before 70 AD in Jerusalem, scrutinized in regard to its authenticity but shown to be genuine, names James as the son of Joseph and the brother of Jesus.
Once Jesus began to travel around the region, teaching and performing miracles, His fame spread. Rather than deny or ignore the claims about the wisdom of Jesus and the miracles that He performed, four sources from the Roman world in the 1st and 2nd centuries acknowledge that Jesus was a wise teacher and a miracle worker who had many disciples (Serapion, A Letter of Mara; Josephus, Antiquities; Acts of Pontius Pilate in Justin Martyr, Letter to Antoninus Pius; Celsus, The True Word). Due to His teachings and miracles, the religious leadership of Judaism saw Jesus as a threat and a blasphemer, and sought to arrest and eliminate Him (John 11:57). According to the Mishnah, which may possibly only relate reactions to Jesus after the spread of Christianity rather than 1st century records, the religious leaders claimed that Jesus practiced sorcery and led the people into apostasy, and therefore should be arrested and executed by stoning (Sanhedrin 43a). Eventually, Jesus was arrested and taken to trial before Pontius Pilatus, the Roman prefect of Judaea Province, who consented to the request for Jesus to be crucified. The trial before Pilate and the death of Jesus by crucifixion is all corroborated by several Roman sources of the 1st and 2nd centuries (Josephus, Antiquities; Serapion, A Letter of Mara; Tacitus, Annals; Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus; Justin Martyr, Letter to Antoninus Pius). Additionally, artwork found in Rome which may date to as early as the end of the 1st century depicts Jesus on the cross with a man looking up to Him, being mocked for worshipping a god who was crucified (Alexamenos Grraffito).
After the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, claims of resurrection and removing the body form the tomb emerged (Matthew 28:11-15). The Romans seem to have responded to this with an edict, which commanded the death penalty for stealing a body from a stone sealed tomb (The Nazareth Inscription). However, the story of the resurrection of Jesus continued to spread, and it was reported by two Roman historians (Josephus, Antiquities; Tacitus, Annals). Christianity continued to grow, adding new disciples, establishing the Church, and becoming known to the Roman authorities, who never denied the existence of Jesus or major events of His life (Pliny the Younger, Letter to Trajan). Many of the locations associated with Jesus were also marked by the locals, built over with pagan shrines in a suppression attempt, but eventually became the site of commemorative churches. Therefore, from only Roman writings and archaeological inscriptions, it can be established that Jesus was born in a village of Judea (Bethlehem) to a woman (Mary) from a rural area (Nazareth) that claimed to be a virgin at the time of birth, that Jesus and His family briefly lived in Egypt while He was young, that He had a brother named James who became a leader in the Church, that Jesus was a great and wise teacher, that He performed miracles, that many disciples followed Him, that Pontius Pilatus conducted a trial of Jesus and allowed Him to be crucified, that the body of Jesus disappeared from the tomb and many claimed He had resurrected, and that the disciples of Jesus worshipped Him as God and continued to spread the message throughout the Roman Empire. Rather than a mythical character found only in the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth is actually one of the most widely attested personalities in antiquity.
Dr. Titus Kennedy is a field archaeologist working primarily with sites and materials related to the Bible. He works with ColdWater Media and Drive Thru History® to maintain historical accuracy throughout their scripts and locations. Many of the archaeology blog posts are based on his publications, including Unearthing the Bible, Excavating the Evidence for Jesus, and The Essential Archaeological Guide to Bible Lands.
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