Jesus in non-biblical sources
In video rental stores around the world, the film under the telling title: “The Greatest Story Ever Told” has long been available. This is, of course, the story of the life and activity of Jesus of Nazareth. But I wonder, what the author of this video would say if he heard that the greatest historical figure of all time, whom he undoubtedly believes Jesus to be, was almost unknown to the historians and chroniclers of his time (1st century AD).
Moreover, there is a solid evidence that even in the 2nd and 3rd centuries the figure of Jesus was not popular in the Roman empire. Nevertheless, it is not the twentieth century, but that period that should provide us with evidence of the greatness of the Nazarene. The first century of our era was not an age of ignorance and backwardness, nor were the next two centuries. In the Greco-Roman world, to which Palestine belonged at that time, there were writers and chroniclers known to this day, who certainly would not have missed the great things described in the New Testament if they had actually heard about them – such as, for example, the two cases of miraculous feeding several thousand people with a few loaves of bread. After all, these were great public events. Judea was part of the great Roman empire and everything that happened there was easy to check.
So it is not true – as some theologians try to convince us – that the reason that few people heard about Christ at that time and the lack of information about these events in secular sources was that Judea was then a province isolated from the world.
Here are the facts and quotes that I had selected from dozens of sources before starting to write this article.
Plutarch (46-120 CE), the author of “Parallel Lives”, or 46 biographies of the great figures of his time, has nothing to say about Jesus.
Pliny the Elder (22–79 CE) was a contemporary of Christ, but makes no mention of him.
Pliny the Younger (62-110 CE) speaks of Christians in Pontus and Bithynia, but limits himself to mentioning that Christ was the object of their worship.
Tacitus (c. 55-120), a moralist and historian, lived and wrote at the same time as the authors of the New Testament texts, but like Pliny the Younger, he mentions Jesus only in the context of his opinion about Christianity, without focusing on Jesus himself.
In short, these people wrote (and mostly critically) only about the young Christian religion, but about its central figure, Jesus, they said nothing.
It is puzzling that there is no mention of Jesus in the texts of the Jewish historian Philo of Akexandria. Philo was born before our era and lived long after the death of Jesus. He was a passionate chronicler, and he described the history of the Jews including the entire period of Jesus’ earthly life – but didn’t say anything about him. He lived in or near Jerusalem at the time when events such as the miraculous birth of Jesus and the “the slaughter of the innocents” ordered by king Herod are said to have taken place. So he would also have to witness Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, followed by his crucifixion, during which the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
Why does Philo have nothing to say about all these events?! John E. Remsburg, in his book: “The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence”, writes: “All these events which must have amazed the world were completely unknown to Philo. Philo, who was the creator of the doctrine of “Logos” (Word incarnate), somehow did not see this Word, although he lived in the land where it was revealed to thousands of people in teachings and miraculous signs.”
Another important chronicler of the period was Justus of Tiberias (c. 50–80 C.E.), a rival of Josephus. He came from Galilee, Jesus’ homeland, and he described in detail everything that was happening in his country at that time. Justus’s writings were mysteriously lost, as were many other important writings of the period. Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who lived in the 9th century, writes: “I have read the chronicles of Justus of Tiberias, entitled “The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.” Justus describes them all, from Moses down to the time of King Agrippa, the seventh ruler of the line of Herod, but he makes no mention of Christ’s appearance, his death, and the miracles he performed in Judea.”
There is no mention of Jesus of Nazareth in the oldest rabbinical sources. In later texts, when such references finally appear, they are probably the first reactions of the Jews to the written and oral teachings of the Christians. They do not deny that Jesus existed and was crucified, or even that he performed miracles, but they label them as charlatan tricks. The Babylonian Sanhedrin says: “The rabbi said: Jesus of Nazareth practiced magic and deceived Israel.” The Talmud mentions Jesus in several places, but as Jesus Ben Pander, i.e. the son of Pander or Panther (the interpretation of this name is ambiguous).
Celsus, the first critic of Christianity and a second-century philosopher, probably on the basis on the accounts of his Jewish contemporaries, accused Jesus of lying when he said that he was born of a virgin. According to him, Jesus was the son of a peasant woman, a weaver by profession. Her husband, a carpenter, left her because she was unfaithful to him. Abandoned and disgraced woman – according to these accounts – secretly gave birth to Jesus, whose father was a Roman legionnaire named Panther. Jesus spent his youth in Galilee and then went to Egypt where he worked as a hired laborer. In Egypt, he learned the art of magic, popular among the Egyptians. He then returned to Palestine with the hope that this will make him great, and began to call himself a god.
Suetonius, a Roman historian and biographer in the book ” The Lives of the Twelve Caesars” wrote in 120 CE that “Emperor Claudius expelled from Rome the Jews who were constantly causing unrest in that city at the instigation of a certain Chrestus, a rebel and agitator.” It would mean, however, that this Chrestus lived several or several dozen years after the death of the biblical Jesus.
Hardly anyone today denies that the two references to Jesus made by Josephus Flavius in his book “Jewish Antiquities” (the so-called Testimonium Flavianum) and the short phrase “Jacob, the brother of Jesus, called Christ” were wholly or largely forged and thus lost their credibility.
In secular literature of the first century, therefore, there is no mention of Christ as a divine or human being.
Professor Gunter Borkam writes: “If we were to critically evaluate what tradition says, i.e. if we would limit ourselves to what is absolutely certain about Jesus from a historical point of view, we would be left with only a few and scanty records that would have almost nothing to do with the history described in the gospels.”
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, speaks about Jesus in a similar way. In his book: “The Quest for Historical Jesus”, he writes, “The Christian world should always be prepared to reject the authenticity of Jesus.”
Rudolf Bultmann, one of the most popular biblical commentators of the twentieth century, expressed himself in this way: “Now I know that we know almost nothing about the character and life of Jesus, because the authors of the oldest Christian texts are not generally interested in Jesus; moreover, the things that those sources say about him, are fragmentary and often legendary.
However, thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Palestine, Jesus has become a much less mysterious figure, at least in terms of the theological origins of his teachings.
But despite everything, I believe that in the light of the above given examples, we can only deplore the fact that in the world we live in, such a strong cult has been kindled – worship of a man, about whom we can learn so little from those important sources.
Jerzy Sędziak, 2002
© Copyright by Jerzy Sędziak