Alive - by Dave Smith

APPENDIX A: HISTORICAL
SOURCES ABOUT JESUS
Let’s briefly consider the historical evidence that we have for Jesus.
First, we have a few non-Christian sources. The Roman historian
Tacitus, writing around AD 115 about the fire of Rome, which took
place 50 years earlier, wrote about the early Christians: ‘Their name
comes from Christ, who, during the reign of Tiberius, had been
executed by Pontius Pilate. Suppressed for the moment, the deadly
superstition broke out again, not only in Judea, the land which
originated this evil, but also in the city of Rome.’ 1 Around the same
time, Pliny the Younger wrote to the emperor Trajan for a ruling on
whether to execute Christians living in Turkey who ‘worshipped Christ
as a god’. 2
A longer description is found in the writings of Josephus. In one of
his books, The Antiquities of the Jews (written around AD 95) he
refers to Jesus: ‘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 surprising works,
a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew
over to him many of the Jews, and many of the Greeks. He was the
Messiah. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men
among 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 and then thousand
other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so
named for him, are not extinct to this day.’ 3
Although frequent questions have been raised as to whether this
passage in its entirety is authentic, many scholars still believe that the
core historical elements concerning Jesus, his character, his works,