spacejunkie

I recently showed “Asimov’s Guide to the Bible” to a Christian friend of mine who is also a history buff. She read the cover flap and singled out this sentence, “Why is Jesus mentioned in the Bible, but not in any other books or records written during the same time period?” She said that this was not true. However, when pressed, she could not come up with a single source. So my question for you learned scholars of anti-religion is this:

Are there any other books or records, aside form the Bible, written between say 100BCE and 100CE that mention Jesus of Nazareth?

Diogenes the Cynic

No.

Amaleq13

The long answer: See this thread: Extra Biblical Evidence For Jesus

The short answer is "No". There are no extrabiblical references to "Jesus of Nazareth".

Roger Pearse

The standard mentions are in Tacitus, Annals 15:44; a possible in Suetonius referring to an otherwise inscrutable 'Chrestus'; and two passages in Josephus, Antiquities, the first in book 18 (which most people believe is damaged and perhaps unreliable) and a second in book 20. All these references are brief. Since Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio are the main historical sources for our knowledge of the reign of Tiberius, the snippets we have are fairly reasonable as attestation of a frankly minor figure.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Nice Squirrel

And why would anyone expect there to be? He wasn't a Roman bigshot so no contemporary official history would have noticed him. Also, I'm sure there were other Jews out there with a bigger reputation.

countjulian

Hi, Roger. Did you like my debate with the Muslims on Ummah? You should go there. Recently, they posted up celebratory threads about (premature) reports of the death of Jyland-Posten's editor in a fire. If I recall correctly, one said something along the lines of "nothing like the smell of Danish bacon." For those guys, that took a lotof their wit .

Anyway, I've heard you mention that Dio talks about Jesus. Where is this? His works are avaliable at LacusCurtius, here http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/..._Dio/home.html
I’m assuming it’s somewhere in books 53-58, correct?

And also, these guys seem to be pointing out that none of the early non-Biblical references call him "Jesus of Nazareth."

Diogenes the Cynic

The OP asked for 1st Century references. Tactitus and Suetonius are 2nd Century and Suetonius' "Chrestus" cannot be taken seriously as a reference to Jesus anyway.

Spanky

It doesn't take a genius to realize that if we took the gospels at face value there would without a doubt be others who would have written of Jesus(contemporary, secular writers). The whole earth darkening, people rising from the dead and walking in the streets, a man who did miracles whose fame spread throughout the country. These things cannot be done in secret! These things would have inspired others surely to write of this amazing man! Doesn't this make you the slightest bit skeptical? You don't find it amazing that no one wrote of him? I do. Not one contemporary.



Things that make ya go hmmmmmm ? ? ?

S.C.Carlson

That's true -- and it exposes a serious problem with the arbitrary cut-off in the OP's question, which excludes two of the most important sources we have for the reign of Tiberius, the emperor Pontius Pilate served under. If Josephus is in (just barely), but Tacitus and Suetonius are out (just barely), then our knowledge for this period of Roman history would be greatly impoverished.

Stephen Carlson

steph s.

no mentions. perhaps because:

"during his lifetime he accomplished nothing worth hearing of, unless anyone thinks that to heal crooked and blind men and to exorcise those who were possessed by evil demons in the villages of bethsaida and bethany can be classed as a mighty achievement"
- julian the apostate
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ju...ans_1_text.htm