Extra-Biblical Writings Characterize Jesus as Divine(Mainstream Apologetics)

Extra-Biblical Writings Characterize Jesus as Divine

Claim ID: HIS-IS24

Claim: Extra-Biblical Writings Characterize Jesus as Divine

Summary: Extra-biblical writers provide us with an accurate and compelling profile of Jesus. This profile is corroborated among the individual writers, and congruent with the biblical accounts. Further, many of the statements presented characterize Jesus as messianic (divine). These statements include Jesus' miracles, Jesus' fulfillment of messianic prophecies, natural phenomenon accompanying Jesus' death, the mysteriousness surrounding Christian's beliefs and finally Jesus being worshiped as a god.

Description: Extra-biblical writers chronicle historical events of antiquity specifically during the first and second centuries. The events they chronicle include political events, military events, cultural events, religious events and more. In the case of the early Christian church, they chronicle events that shaped the religious culture of their time.

Based on the sheer volume and trustworthiness of these historical writings, we are able to build a compelling profile of Jesus as an historic person. Specifically, we conclude from these writings that Jesus was not a mythological person but fully human.

The table below summarizes the key facts regarding Jesus life based on both extra-biblical and biblical writings. Taken together, these facts form a cohesive profile of Jesus.

Fact	Tacitus	Suetonius	Pliny the Younger	Lucian of Samosata	Thallus	Josephus	Talmud	Jesus' Disciples
Jesus Lived During the Reign of Tiberius	✔							✔
Jesus was Good & Virtuous						✔		✔
James was the Brother of Jesus						✔		✔
Jesus Performed Miracles						✔		✔
Jesus Fulfilled Messianic Prophesies						✔		✔
Jesus was Crucified on the Eve of the Passover							✔	✔
Jesus was Crucified under Pontius Pilate	✔			✔		✔	✔	✔
Darkness and Earthquake at Time of Jesus' Death					✔			✔
Jesus Appeared after His Resurrection						✔		✔
Christians had "Mischievous Superstition" Beliefs	✔	✔	✔	✔
Christians Followed the Teachings of Jesus	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔		✔
Christians Worshiped Jesus as a God			✔	✔				✔
Christianity Spread to Rome		✔						✔

Table 1: Comprehensive Profile of Jesus from Biblical and Extra-Biblical Sources

The followings observations are made of these extra-biblical writers and writings:

The fact that these early church events were recorded speaks loudly of the noteworthiness of the events. This is evidenced by the widespread expansion of the early Christian church in Asia Minor and the Roman empire, and the radical nature of Jesus' teachings.
These writers had no vested interest in Jesus and the early Christian church. In many cases, these historians were antagonistic toward Christians because of their disruptive and unlawful religious practices. Their writings were tainted with inflammatory language to discredit or indict Christians.
In many cases these writers were eyewitnesses to the events (Pliny the Younger) or were close to the sources of the events they were writing about.
These writings were written close to the time of the actual events. The span of time between the actual events and the writings ranged from 0 years (Pliny the Younger) to 100 years (Suetonius and Hadrian).
Many of these ancient writings are attested by original manuscripts, not copies.
These ancient writings are corroborated by each other.
These ancient writings are congruent with biblical accounts of the same events.

Other extra-biblical texts were written by these authors that chronicle the early Christian church. While these texts do not explicitly mention Jesus, the mere fact that they reference "Christians" implies that the movement originated with Jesus or "Christ". This is indirect proof of the personhood of Jesus.

This leads to the conclusion that these ancient writings build an accurate profile of Jesus that are authentic and trustworthy. This profile is congruent with the biblical account of Jesus' life and ministry.

Further, these ancient writings characterize Jesus as divine. This is best illustrated by the messianic statements such as Jesus' miracles, Jesus' fulfillment of messianic prophecies, natural phenomenon accompanying Jesus' death, the mysteriousness surrounding Christian's beliefs and finally Jesus being worshiped as a god. These statements clearly characterize Jesus as "no ordinary man".

Resources:

Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus (REF-HAB01)

Finding the Historical Christ (REF-PBT01)

Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historic Jesus (REF-JPM01)