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by callie on October 27th, 2004

callie

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Is there any other historical documentation besides the Bible that mentions Jesus Christ?

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  • by jalex137 on June 30th, 2005

    jalex137

    At the time, Jesus was probably not historically interesting to anyone but the Jews, and there may have been attempts by official Juadaism to ignore, or retroactvely erase, His existence. Contemporary writings, and official records, would have been largely lost in 70 AD when Jerusalem was flattened by the Romans. Biblical manuscripts survived by virtue of being written and/or copied and circulated outside of Jerusalem and Judaism. I don't find it particularly remarkable that He doesn't show up much anywhere else. The Bible, in fact, has more than once been the first source of historical knowledge which was found archeologically only much later. My faith is not affected one way or another by these points. What is remarkable, and faith strengthening, is the supernatural preservation of the Scripture manuscripts. If any other writings of that era were preserved to the extent of those, historians would be ecstatic. Many writings of the Greek philosophers are known to exist only because of a single scrap, let alone with any ability to actually recover the text. When a mostly intact 1000 year old copy of Archimedes' "Method" was found to exist in the last century, it caused a sensation, because all that was known was that he had written such a work, but no one had any idea what it contained (this fascinating story is told in the PBS Nova episode "Infinite Secrets"). By comparison, manuscript evidence for the Bible, if anything, suffers from an emabarassment of riches.

    Comments

    • doesn't exactly answer the question, but explains the apparent lack of lots of historical documentation

      Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog

      by Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog on October 20th, 2005

    • He led a revolt against the political and religous establishment during a time of turmoil and conflict.

      cwalton

      by cwalton on December 8th, 2005

    • cwalton is in error. Jesus led no revolt against political, government or civil authorities.

      Thom64

      by Thom64 on December 21st, 2005

    • The New Testament, 1st in this area, has 24,000 manuscripts in existence. Iliad, 2nd, has 650. Romans wrote about him.

      lilly42

      by lilly42 on December 30th, 2005

    • Yep, NT has 20,000 + manuscripts, Iliad is 2nd in manuscript authority with 643.

      Joshua Zambrano

      by Joshua Zambrano on January 28th, 2006

    • Good point about "Contemporary writings, and official records, would have been largely lost in 70 AD when Jerusalem was flattened by the Romans"
      In line with Jesus statements recorded at Lk 21:20-22,41-44 and the parallel account recorded at Mr 13:14-23, Jewish Christians who heeded Jesus words left jerusalem in 66 when Cestius Gallus undermined the northern wall protecting the Temple and escaped the total destruction in 70 when the Roman legions returned under General Titus. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/ -
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cestius_Gallus
      http://www.bibarch.com/ArchaeologicalSites/Pella.htm
      http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70 ) [May have to manually add ")" at the end to your browser]
      The Jewish Christians recognized the Roman Legions under Cestius Gallus at the Temple wall as the Disgusting thing where it should not be and fled from Jerusalem. (dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11)

      Texasescimo

      by Texasescimo on September 23rd, 2009

    • If you take the links provided under [Lady Alathia of Vulcan74 on Mar 25, 2008 at 10:07 am], provided by [iwnit Jul, 05 2008 at 05:31 AM] as legetimate, that might be a contemporary account from opposers. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/331323

      Texasescimo

      by Texasescimo on October 5th, 2009

    • Two of the links don't work now. Jewish Encyclopedia doesn't work now and here is the other:

      Siege of Jerusalem 70CE

      Texasescimo

      by Texasescimo on October 27th, 2011

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