Is Jesus Christ Cited In History Outside Of The Bible?

The famous testimony of the Jewish historian Josephus (d. after a.d. 103) deserves special consideration. In his Antiquities of the Jews, 1. Xviii. Ch. 3, § 3, he gives the following striking summary of the life of Jesus.[1]

Josephus: Now there rose about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works (παραδόξων ἔργων ποιητής), a teacher of such men as receive the truth with gladness. He carried away with him many of the Jews and also many of the Greeks. He was the Christ (ὁ Χριστὸς οὑ̂τος ἠ̂ν). And after Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, his first adherents did not forsake him. For he appeared to them alive again the third day (ἐφάνη γὰρ αὐτοι̂ς τρίτην ἔχων ἡμέραν πάλιν ζω̂ν); the divine prophets having foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things (ἄλλα μυρία θαυμάσια) concerning him. And the tribe of those called Christians, after him, is not extinct to this day." [2]

Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus [Antiquities of the Jews, 1. XX. Ch. 9, § 1: τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰησου̂ του̂ λεγομένου Χριστου̂, Ἰ̓άκαβος ὄνομα αὐτῳ̂[3]], who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.[4]

Tacitus (commenting on the persecutions conducted by Nero): "But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration. Hence, to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome..." [5] 

Suetonius: "Punishment [by Nero] was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition."[6] 

Pliny: "They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a trust when they should be called on to deliver it up…”[7]

Lucian: "...the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world...Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers one of another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws.”[8]

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[1] A compilation from Schaff’s History of the Christian Church and other noted sources.

[2] Schaff, Philip, (2006)  History of the Christian Church, Peabody: Hendrickson, 1.92

[3] Ibid., 1.92

[4] Josephus, F., & Whiston, W., (1996, c1987) The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, Peabody: Hendrickson, p. 538

[5] Tacitus, "Annals" xv, 44. The Oxford Translation, Revised. (New York Harper & Bros., Publishers, 1858), p. 423. 

[6] Suetonius, "The Lives of the Caesars," Nero xvi. Loeb Classical Library English translation by J. C. Rolfe. (London: William Heinemann; New York G. P. Putnam's Sons), Vol. II, p. 111. 

[7] Pliny, "Letters" X, xcvi. Loeb Classical Library. English translation by William Melmoth, revised by W. M. L. Hutchinson. (London: William Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935), Vol. II, p. 103 

[8] Lucian, "The Passing of Peregrinus" 12, 13. Loeb Classical Library. English translation by A. M. Harmon (London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936), pp. 13, 15. 

 © David M. Rossi 2022