Although it might sound strange, some critics have made the bold claim that Jesus never even existed. They claim that because the New Testament documents are biased and therefore cannot be trusted, and that since there are also no non-Christian sources which mention him, that we cannot reliably conclude that Jesus actually existed. However, aside from whether or not the New Testament documents are trustworthy, did you know that there are actually several non-Christian sources which mention Jesus around the same time period as the New Testament?
Facts
As mentioned above, there are actually several non-Christian (some could even be considered anti-Christian) sources that mention Jesus. From ancient historians (Tacitus, Suetonius, Josephus, Thallus), to government officials (Pliny the Younger, Emperor Trajan, Hadrian), to Jewish sources (Talmud, Toledoth Jesu), gentile Sources (Lucian and Mara Bar-Serapion), gnostic sources (The Gospel of Truth, The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Thomas, The Treatise on Resurrection), and even some lost sources (The Acts of Pontius Pilate and Phlegon), the evidence for Jesus outside of the New Testament is far from nonextant.
Continue reading Quick Fact: “Non-Christian Sources For Jesus”
Quiz: What is the documentary hypothesis, where did it come from, and why is it no longer held by most critical scholars?
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Another great course given by Dr. Phil Fernandes, the founder and president of the Institute of Biblical Defense (IBD), this course walks through the history of Christian thought, addressing the major milestones of thought in Christian heresy and doctrine from the 1st century to the present. The course textbook used was “
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