Every Wednesday night this summer, my colleague, friend, and possibly amigo (not sure if we're there yet) Robert and I are teaching an apologetics series at church, tag-team style.  (I like to think that I'm The Junkyard Dog to his Jake the Snake Roberts [just feels right].)  The lengthier-than-normal posts that I have published here lately have been my notes from those sessions.  I offered to post Robert's here as well.  He declined, so I had to resort to measures that I'm not proud of to obtain his notes and bring them to you.  His first session, which follows here, was a look at the writings of two prominent secular historians whose writings corroborated Biblical accounts of Jesus. Tacitus

• Cornelius Tacitus (55/56–c. 118 A.D.)—was a Roman senator, orator and ethnographer, and arguably the best of Roman historians.
• Tacitus’s last major work, titled Annals, written c. 116–117 A.D., includes a biography of Nero. Nero notably started a large fire in Rome and pawned it off on the Christians.
• "[N]either human effort nor the emperor’s generosity nor the placating of the gods ended the scandalous belief that the fire had been ordered [by Nero]. Therefore, to put down the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the most unusual ways those hated for their shameful acts … whom the crowd called “Chrestians.” The founder of this name, Christ [Christus in Latin], had been executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate … Suppressed for a time, the deadly superstition erupted again not only in Judea, the origin of this evil, but also in the city [Rome], where all things horrible and shameful from everywhere come together and become popular."

Important Points from Tacitus

1.Referred to him as Christ and not Jesus

2.Pointed Him out as the founder of Christianity

3.Executed in Judea by Pontius Pilate

Josephus

• Jewish priest who grew up as an aristocrat in first-century Palestine before moving to Rome, supported by the patronage of three successive emperors. In the early days of the first Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–70 A.D.), Josephus was a commander in Galilee but soon surrendered and became a prisoner of war.
• From then on Josephus lived in Rome under the protection of the Flavians and there composed his historical and apologetic writings. Actually changed his named to Flavius Josephus to honor his hosts. Most Jews viewed him as a traitor because he assimilated as a Roman.
• Josephus stood in a unique position as a Jew who was secure in Roman imperial patronage and protection, eager to express pride in his Jewish heritage and yet personally independent of the Jewish community at large. Thus, in introducing Romans to Judaism, he felt free to write historical views for Roman consumption that were strongly at variance with rabbinic views.
• In his two great works, The Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities, both written in Greek for an educated readership, Josephus tried to appeal to aristocrats in the Roman world, presenting Judaism as a religion to be admired for its moral and philosophical depth. The Jewish War doesn’t mention Jesus but Jewish Antiquities does mention Jesus—twice.
• "Being therefore this kind of person [i.e., a heartless Sadducee], Ananus, thinking that he had a favorable opportunity because Festus had died and Albinus was still on his way, called a meeting [literally, “sanhedrin”] of judges and brought into it the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah … James by name, and some others. He made the accusation that they had transgressed the law, and he handed them over to be stoned."

Important Points from Josephus

1.So we see here that there is a change of governors. Josephus needed to mention James, but being that James is such a common name listed him as the brother of Jesus.

2.“The Messiah”

• The longer passage in Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities that refers to Jesus is known as the Testimonium Flavianum.
• "Around this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.  For he was one who did surprising deeds, and a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who in the first place came to love him did not give up their affection for him, for on the third day, he appeared to them restored to life. The prophets of God had prophesied this and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, have still to this day not died out."

Important Points

1.Both Tacitus and Josephus were non-Christians in the Roman Empire.

2.They prove he existed as a man.

3.They prove he was called Jesus.

4.In the Greek he was called Christ.

5.His brother was James.

6.Won over Jews and Greeks.

7.Leaders both Roman and Jewish disliked him.

8.Pilate killed Jesus.

9.He was Crucified.

10.Executed in Judea during the reign of Pontus Pilate.

Lucian of Samosata (115-200 A.D.)

• Satirist who was scornful of Christians.
• Wrote The Passing of Peregrinus.
• He doesn’t name Jesus, but refers to him.
• "It was then that he learned the marvelous wisdom of the Christians, by associating with their priests and scribes in Palestine. And— what else?—in short order he made them look like children, for he was a prophet, cult leader, head of the congregation and everything, all by himself. He interpreted and explained some of their books, and wrote many himself. They revered him as a god, used him as a lawgiver, and set him down as a protector—to be sure, after that other whom they still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world."
• "For having convinced themselves that they are going to be immortal and live forever, the poor wretches despise death and most even willingly give themselves up. Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping that crucified sophist himself and living according to his laws."

Important Points from Lucian

• It appears that he used a variety of sources to gather all of his information about Christians and Jesus.
• Lucian hated Christians and thought them stupid for worshiping a “Crucified Sophist" (cheat or money-taker).

Mara Bar-Serapion (70 A.D.)

• Syrian philosopher, mentioned Jesus in a letter to his son.
• “What benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as judgment for their crime. Or, the people of Samos for burning Pythagoras? In one moment their country was covered with sand. Or the Jews by murdering their wise king?…After that their kingdom was abolished. God rightly avenged these men…The wise king…Lived on in the teachings he enacted.”

Phlegon- Historian (140 A.D.)

• “Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth to the ninth hour.” (Africanus, Chronography, 18:1)

Phlegon is also mentioned by Origen

• “Now Phlegon, in the thirteenth or fourteenth book, I think, of his Chronicles, not only ascribed to Jesus a knowledge of future events . . . but also testified that the result corresponded to His predictions.” (Origen Against Celsus, Book 2, Chapter 14)
• “And with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place … ” (Origen Against Celsus, Book 2, Chapter 33)
• “Jesus, while alive, was of no assistance to himself, but that he arose after death, and exhibited the marks of his punishment, and showed how his hands had been pierced by nails.” (Origen Against Celsus, Book 2, Chapter 59)

Pliny the Younger (61-113 A.D.)- Lawyer, Magistrate, and Author of Ancient Rome

• In a letter to the Roman emperor Trajan, describes the lifestyles of early Christians:
• “They (the Christians) 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 deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”

Given all of this historical documentation of Jesus and the early church, we have to make the decision whether or not to believe the Bible as the Word of the one God or not to.