How do we know Jesus existed?

I know this question has probably been posted here at some point, but precisely what is the information that proves Jesus existed? I'm looking for that information and would like help. I don't want to be ignorant of the information if it is out there. I am obviously not a scholar or expert on the subject and have only read the bible in partial. I would genuinely like some help in finding strong evidence of his existence, and preferably evidence of his existence as the man he is portrayed as being in the bible. I just don't know what to think about it yet. Thanks in advance for the help

I understand your point as I too questioned even the existence of Jesus Christ. However, when it comes down to it and you note the historical scene set around 2000 years ago there were MANY messiahs. Jesus Christ merely being the most famous and successful messiah out of all of them. He supposedly claimed to be the true son of god by his own resurrection.

There is no scientific proof, but 2000 years ago really isn't that long ago. The Bible wouldn't have ever been written by an anonymous figure because many would want the fame, as did many of the messiahs of that time.

However, Jesus Christ paid the true penalty at crucifixion on a cross. Many were sent to die this way because Jesus Christ defied the religion of the government. He was how do you say,. a revolutionary.

There really isn't any that he existed or didn't.
It really comes down to personal belief.
People have been debating this for a couple of thousand years and are still at the same point they were.
There is much physical archeological evidence that has been found to prove he existed physically.
But its still not 100%.
And of course that doesn't prove any of the spiritual significance.

Originally posted by spacemanjupiter
I know this question has probably been posted here at some point, but precisely what is the information that proves Jesus existed? I'm looking for that information and would like help. I don't want to be ignorant of the information if it is out there. I am obviously not a scholar or expert on the subject and have only read the bible in partial. I would genuinely like some help in finding strong evidence of his existence, and preferably evidence of his existence as the man he is portrayed as being in the bible. I just don't know what to think about it yet. Thanks in advance for the help

There is actually very little evidence he did. But like an ancient game of "telephone" some one repeated a story, some one embellished, people lied, and hey if remotely true, its kind of cool. He preached according to the new testament for only a few years. What he did before is not well recorded. In those, every one who wanted to make a name for them selves was "doing miracles", essentially magic tricks.

The Buddha on the other hand has a well documented history for the most part from birth, before he became a living God. Buddhism does not view a God or god in the same vain as the three main monotheistic/paternalistic religions (the main ones being in order; Jews, Christians, Islam) much of the Jewish and MOST of the Christian faiths are based on Zorasterisim, which I misspelled, but preceded the other three. In fact study Zoraster, and its like a guide book for Christians. Just as Christians celebrate Christs birth on the winter soltace in the north so, thats when we celebrate Christmas.

Its based on Celtic and other beliefs of fertility, etc. That gang, is pagen, and I heard they really could party. You also had the council of Nicea in the 300's CE, and they got rid of reference's to the sacredness of women. They burned those gospels, and later would burn people, usually women. But I believe if we follow those words of Christ and try to be decent. That gift is transcendent. And it works for me.

reply to post by blowfishdl

Scientific Proof? Can you give me scientific proof Christopher Columbus stepped onto the shores of the new world? Any footprints cast in plaster? any eye witnesses? any Photos or video to prove he really existed? how about the men who signed the declaration of independance? do you have any PROOf they were real? yet most in this country blindly take these 2 events for fact and truth..... so why is it so hard for people to believe Jesus Existed? there is just as much historical proof to show Jesus lived than the other 2 events i just mentioned...

Spacemanjupiter,
Didn't you know why you should relise there was a Jesus?

"Because the bible told you soooo!" (Suppose to be lyrics man!!)

Heck, there was a lot of Jesus's of that time, it was a common name, Look at Mexico, Jesus's everywhere you look!!

Can anyone prove to me Christopher Colubus Existed? hmmm here's any easier one. prove to me the men who signed our constitution existed?
any PROOF ? Scientific? Photographs? Video? eyewitnesses? ANYTHING??
hmmmm..... seems all you have is exactly the same proof that shows jesus existed.... yet i am sure you all blindly accept as fact that these two historical events are real.... so why is it so hard to accept that jesus existed???

The Gospels

The most detailed accounts of the life of Jesus in the Bible are the four canonical Gospels: the Gospel of Matthew; the Gospel of Mark; the Gospel of Luke; and the Gospel of John. These Gospels are narrative accounts of part of the life of Jesus. They concentrate on his ministry, and conclude with his death and resurrection. The extent to which these sources are interrelated, or used related source material, is known as the synoptic problem. The date, authorship, access to eyewitnesses, and other essential questions of historicity depend on the various solutions to this problem.

The four canonical Gospels are anonymous. The introduction to Luke mentions accounts of what was handed down by eyewitnesses, and claims to have "diligently investigated all things from the beginning". The epilogue to John states that "these things" are testified to by the beloved disciple, whose "testimony we know ... is true". The authors in antiquity who discussed the authorship of the Gospels generally asserted the following Matthew was written by Matthew, one of the Twelve apostles of Jesus; Mark was written by Mark, a disciple of Simon Peter, who was one of the Twelve; Luke was written by Luke, who was a disciple of Paul, who was the Apostle to the Gentiles; John was written by John, who was one of the Twelve. In addition, the book of the Acts of the Apostles has traditionally been attributed to Luke.

Pauline Epistles

Jesus is also the subject of the writings of Paul of Tarsus, a Jew, who was Jesus' post-Resurrection disciple and who dictated letters to various churches and individuals from c. 48-68. There are traditionally fourteen letters attributed to Paul, thirteen of which claim to be written by Paul, with one anonymous letter. Current scholarship is in a general consensus in considering at least seven of the letters to be authored by Paul, with views varying concerning the remaining works. Paul seems to nowhere report his own eyewitness account of Jesus' life, but did claim knowledge of Jesus through visions (Gal 1:11-12 and 1 Cor 11:23). He met some of those described as Apostles of Jesus in the Gospels referring to them as Apostles (Gal 1:18–20, and 1 Cor 9:5). In his letters, Paul often refers to commands of Jesus or events in his life that seem consistent with the Gospel accounts. Paul in many places and in a combative way relates other preachers' differing view of Jesus, suggesting that even as early as 20 years after his crucifixion Jesus was a very strong interest of Jewish moral teachers preaching to Gentiles.

The Acts of the Apostles
The book of the Acts of the Apostles, written at least twenty but probably thirty or forty years after Galatians, gives a more detailed account of the Council of Jerusalem in chapter 15. Acts also claims Jesus' family , including his mother, were members of the early church

Early Church Fathers

Perhaps the most significant Patristic sources are the early references of Papias and Quadratus (d. 124), mostly reported by Eusebius in the fourth century, which both mention eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry and healings who were still alive in their own time (the late first century). Papias, in giving his sources for the information contained in his (largely lost) commentaries, stated (according to Eusebius):

…if by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders should come my way, I inquired about the words of the elders — that is, what according to the elders Andrew or Peter said, or Philip, or Thomas or James, or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and the elder John, the Lord’s disciples, were saying.
Thus, while Papias was collecting his information (c. 90), Aristion and the elder John (who were Jesus’ disciples) were still alive and teaching in Asia minor, and Papias gathered information from people who had known them. Another Father, Quadratus, who wrote an apology to the emperor Hadrian, was reported by Eusebius to have stated:

The words of our Savior were always present, for they were true: those who were healed, those who rose from the dead, those who were not only seen in the act of being healed or raised, but were also always present, not merely when the Savior was living on earth, but also for a considerable time after his departure, so that some of them survived even to our own times

Non Christian sources

Flavius Josephus (c. 37–c. 100), a Jew and Roman citizen who worked under the patronage of the Flavians, wrote the Antiquities of the Jews in 93 C.E.. In these works, Jesus is mentioned twice. The one directly concerning Jesus has come to be known as the Testimonium Flavianum.

About this time came Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it is appropriate to call him a man. For he was a performer of paradoxical feats, a teacher of people who accept the unusual with pleasure, and he won over many of the Jews and also many Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, upon the accusation of the first men amongst us, condemned him to be crucified, those who had formerly loved him did not cease to follow him, for he appeared to them on the third day, living again, as the divine prophets foretold, along with a myriad of other marvellous things concerning him. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day

Pliny the Younger, the provincial governor of Pontus and Bithynia, wrote to Emperor Trajan c. 112 concerning how to deal with Christians, who refused to worship the emperor, and instead worshiped "Christus".

Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ — none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do — these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshiped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ

cont....

Tacitus (c. 56–c. 117), writing c. 116, included in his Annals a mention of Christianity and "Christus", the Latinized Greek translation of the Hebrew word "Messiah". In describing Nero's persecution of Christians following the Great Fire of Rome c. 64, he wrote:

Nero fastened the guilt of starting the blaze and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius 14-37 at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.


Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (c. 69–140) wrote the following in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars about riots which broke out in the Jewish community in Rome under the emperor Claudius:

"As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he (Claudius) expelled them from Rome".

The event was noted in Acts 18:2. The term Chrestus also appears in some later texts applied to Jesus, and Robert Graves, among others, consider it a variant spelling of Christ, or at least a reasonable spelling error. On the other hand, Chrestus was itself a common name, particularly for slaves, meaning good or useful. In regards to Jewish persecution around the time to which this passage refers, the Jewish Encyclopedia states: "... in 49-50, in consequence of dissensions among them regarding the advent of the Messiah, they were forbidden to hold religious services. The leaders in the controversy, and many others of the Jewish citizens, left the city


Thallus, of whom very little is known, wrote a history from the Trojan War to, according to Eusebius, 109 BC. No work of Thallus survives. There is one reference to Thallus having written about events beyond 109 BC. Julius Africanus, writing c. 221, while writing about the crucifixion of Jesus, mentioned Thallus. Thus:

On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in his third book of History, calls (as appears to me without reason) an eclipse of the sun.

Lucian, a second century Romano-Syrian satirist, who wrote in Greek, wrote:

The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day — the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account… You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.

Celsus wrote, about 180CE, a book against the Christians, which is now only known through Origen's refutation of it. Celsus apparently accused Jesus of being a child and a sorcerer and is quoted as saying that Jesus was a "mere man".

The Acts of Pilate is purportedly an official document from Pilate reporting events in Judea to the Emperor Tiberius (thus, it would have been among the commentaii principis). It was mentioned by Justin Martyr, in his First Apology (c. 150) to Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus, who said that his claims concerning Jesus' crucifixion, and some miracles, could be verified by referencing the official record, the "Acts of Pontius Pilate". With the exception of Tertullian, no other writer is known to have mentioned the work, and Tertullian's reference says that Tiberius debated the details of Jesus' life before the Roman Senate, an event that is almost universally considered absurd. There is a later apocryphal text, undoubtedly fanciful, by the same name, and though it is generally thought to have been inspired by Justin's reference (and thus to post-date his Apology), it is possible that Justin actually mentioned this text, though that would give the work an unusually early date and therefore is not a straightforward identification

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