Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania - Did Jesus Really Exist?

HE WAS neither rich nor powerful. He did not even have a home that he could call his own. Yet his teachings have influenced millions. Did Jesus Christ really exist? What do both modern and ancient authorities say?

• Michael Grant, a historian and an expert on ancient classical civilization, noted: If we apply to the New Testament, as we should, the same sort of criteria as we should apply to other ancient writings containing historical material, we can no more reject Jesus existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned.

• Rudolf Bultmann, a professor of New Testament studies, stated: The doubt as to whether Jesus really existed is unfounded and not worth refutation. No sane person can doubt that Jesus stands as founder behind the historical movement whose first distinct stage is represented by the oldest Palestinian community [of Christians].

• Will Durant, a historian, writer, and philosopher, wrote: That a few simple men [the Gospel writers] should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels.

• Albert Einstein, a German-born Jewish physicist, asserted: I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. When asked if he viewed Jesus as a historical person, he responded: Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.

  No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus.Albert Einstein

The most detailed record of Jesus life and ministry is recorded in the Bible accounts known as the GospelsMatthew, Mark, Luke, and Johnnamed after the men who wrote them. In addition, a number of early non-Christian sources name him.

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  TACITUS

  (c. 56-120 C.E., or Common Era) Tacitus is considered to be one of the greatest of the ancient Roman historians. His Annals deal with the Roman Empire from 14 C.E. to 68 C.E. (Jesus died in 33 C.E.) Tacitus wrote that when a great fire devastated Rome in 64 C.E., Emperor Nero was considered responsible. But Tacitus wrote that Nero accused the Christians in order to scotch the rumour. Then Tacitus said: Christus, the founder of the name [Christian], had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus.Annals, XV, 44.

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  SUETONIUS

  (c. 69a. 122 C.E.) In his Lives of the Caesars, this Roman historian recorded events during the reigns of the first 11 Roman emperors. The section on Claudius refers to turmoil among the Jews in Rome that was likely caused by disputes over Jesus. () Suetonius wrote: Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christus], he [Claudius] expelled them from Rome. (The Deified Claudius, XXV, 4) Although wrongly accusing Jesus of creating disturbances, Suetonius did not doubt his existence.

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  PLINY THE YOUNGER

  (c. 61-113 C.E.) This Roman author and administrator in Bithynia (modern Turkey) wrote to Roman Emperor Trajan about how to deal with the Christians in that province. Pliny said that he tried to force Christians to recant, executing any who refused to do so. He explained: Those who... repeated after me an invocation to the [pagan] Gods, and offered adoration, with wine and frankincense, to your image... and who finally cursed Christ... , I thought it proper to discharge.PlinyLetters, Book X, XCVI.

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  FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS

  (c. 37-100 C.E.) This Jewish priest and historian states that Annas, a Jewish high priest who continued to wield political influence, convened the judges of the Sanhedrin [the Jewish high court] and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ.Jewish Antiquities, XX, 200.

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  THE TALMUD

  This collection of Jewish rabbinic writings, dating from the third to the sixth centuries C.E., shows that even Jesus enemies affirmed his existence. One passage says that on the Passover Yeshu [Jesus] the Nazarean was hanged, which is historically correct. (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a, Munich Codex; see .

All Scripture is inspired of God.

Luke wrote: In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate