David M. Payne

I can't remember his name, but I know he was talking second hand about Jesus as he was around a fair amount of time after Jesus was susposed to live and die.

David

Didymus

You must be referring to Josephus, if you can call a devout Jew from Jerusalem a Roman. He did become a Roman citizen writing history in the service of the Flavians, but only after fighting against the Romans in Galilee until he was captured in 67.

Two passages referring to Jesus appear in his books, but it is highly doubtful that the words are actually his. He died ca 100.

Didymus

David M. Payne

That sounds about right, were there any other Romans that wrote posthumously about Jesus? It is amusing that so many people believe in a historical Jesus when there is no proof he existed at all.

David

Toto

Tacitus_on_Jesus -- another reference to Jesus which may have been forged.

Atheos

There is no external evidence that Jesus existed as such. All the places where one would expect to find evidence if the canonical "gospel" narratives were true are devoid of any such cooberation. There is no evidence that Herod the Great issued an order to have all male children aged 2 and under summarily executed in any area. No evidence that Augustus ordered people to return to the land of their ancestors to be counted for taxation purposes. No evidence of any magical star that led people to the manger where Jesus was born. No evidence of thousands of people flocking to follow after this worker of miracles. No evidence of his trial, sentencing, death, burial or resurrection. No evidence of the great 6 hour eclipse that allegedly occurred the day he died. No evidence of the people rising from the graves to walk around in the city when Jesus died.

The emporer has no clothes. But that doesn't stop the vast majority from ignoring this simple point.

spamandham

No contemporary sources record Jesus. Paul is claimed to have written around 50 CE, but that claim is based on Acts, which is ludicrously implausible, and was probably written in the late 2nd century when the other 'acts' texts were written. So, that leaves a 'no later than' date of probably around mid 2nd century for the 'genuine' Pauline epistles. I'm not sure how to bound the earliest date for them.

GakuseiDon

Paul refers to Caesar, so that gives an earliest date. Paul also appears to refer to Aretas IV, so that appears to put him around mid-First Century. Arguments pro and con can be found here:
http://www.freeratio.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=193135

Clivedurdle

But it might be a BCE Aretas!

Except Halley's comet, recorded by Josephus, but oops the timeline is wrong!

Clivedurdle

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...53C1A964948260

Clivedurdle

Has anyone proposed that Halley's comet, the destruction of Jerusalem and the wondrous religio political context led to the birth of xianity?