There is no historical reference to Jesus’ life, death or the crucifixion―nothing at all. John E. Remsburg, in his classic book The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence1 lists the following contemporary historians/writers who lived during the time, or within a century after the time, that Jesus was supposed to have lived:
Arrian Phaedrus Aulus Gellius Philo-Judaeus
Columella Phlegon Damis Pliny the Elder
Dio Chrysostom Pliny the Younger Dion Pruseus Plutarch
Epictetus Pompon Mela Favorinus Ptolemy
Florus Lucius Quintilian Hermogones Quintius Curtius
Josephus Seneca Justus of Tiberius Silius Italicus
Juvenal Statius Lucanus Suetonius
Lucian Tacitus Lysias Theon of Smyran
Martial Valerius Flaccus Paterculus Valerius Maximus
According to Remsburg,
“Enough of the writings of the authors named in the foregoing list remains to form a library. Yet in this mass of Jewish and Pagan literature, aside from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author, and two disputed passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be found no mention of Jesus Christ.”
Nor, we may add, do any of these authors make note of the disciples or apostles; increasing the embarrassment from the silence of history concerning the foundation of Christianity. In other words, the only information of the life of Jesus comes from Christian believers.
Reason would dictate that if all the miracles which Jesus supposedly performed or surrounded him:
1. Being born of a virgin mother;
2. Three Magi following the brightest star forever to see the demigod;
3. The slaying of the innocent babies;
4. Raising the dead, healing the blind and lame;
4. Having the sky turn to blackness when Jesus died;
5. Earthquakes in the region;
6. The zombie saints coming out of their graves going to Jerusalem; and
7. The Resurrection.
that at least one of these world headline news events would have at least a small mention by at least one of the foregoing historian and writers. But, NO, they are totally silent!
Only Christian writers wrote about this. Do you think they were biased? Were the stories true or did these writers just continue the myth? Were they trying to promote a new religion, based upon Paul using the Jesus’ myth? And so the fiction continues to this day.
Pastors today, often when they talk to a disbelieves in Jesus, often ask; ― not expecting an answer, but designed to throw the missionary 'target' off balance ― “Was Jesus a fraud, a liar, a lunatic?” Isn’t it strange that they never mention that the Christian bible records that even Jesus’ direct family thought he was mad? And Mary, his mother never thought of him as “divine.”
ABC News, and Peter Jennings could not go far enough in their presentation a few years ago of the Historical Jesus. Jennings presentation did not convince his audience without any benefit of doubt that Jesus existed, other than in mythical form. Dr. James Kennedy, of Orlando, Fla. (The famous Presbyterian minister with several Doctorate degrees in Theology and former aid to Billy Graham) also, could not come up with any real evidence on his TV show to refute Peter Jennings or others from Oxford University on the lack of historical evidence.
Evangelical Christians will not accept real proof, for they feel the professors at Oxford and anywhere else who claim Jesus did not exist are liberals or atheist of sorts.
Christians have said to Jews who reject Jesus, ‘OK...let’s see you provide historical evidence for the existence of characters in the Hebrew bible. i.e. Moses or Noah. However, in this line of reasoning, Christians forget that they have already accepted the Hebrew bible; that the episodes told therein actually happened. That is why a version of the Old Testament is located at the front of the Christian bible for reference and authority.
Those 21 great writers of the Greco-Roman world, whose combined work would fill a library did not write or allude to any thesis that god became man, walked the earth, died, was resurrected, and is now the Invisible Man in the Sky. There is not a single third party historical witness for confirmation, and not one single mention of a god walking the earth in any of the volumes of the combined work from the great writers of the period.
Again, I restate the obvious, yet in this mass of literature, “aside
from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author, and two disputed
passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be found no mention of
Jesus Christ.” Nor, do any of these authors make note of the disciples
or apostles; increasing the embarrassment from the silence of history
concerning the foundation of Christianity. In other words, the only information
on the life of Jesus comes from Christian believers.
This alone should make anyone think twice before swallowing―hook, line and sinker―the Christian dead man-god myth ― or, for that matter, any Abrahamic Derivative Religion (ADR), for they are all F3 ― False, Fictitious and Foolish.
The Hebrew bible, like the Christian New Testament, is fictitious; from a 6-day creation of the universe; a cunning, walking, talking snake; big fish tales; world flood and an "Invisible Man in the Sky" ― it is all fiction, a bold sham perpetrated on mankind.
"You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe." -Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
1. The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence, John E. Remsburg, The Truth Seeker Company, NY, pp. 24-25),