Hostile Witnesses (Non-Christian Sources)
Referenced in: The Hostile Witnesses Who Couldn't Look Away
Ancient non-Christian writers who confirm the basic framework of Jesus’s life, death, and the early Christian movement; often while expressing contempt for Christianity. Tacitus (Roman historian, c. 116 AD) records Nero’s persecution and confirms Christ’s execution under Pontius Pilate during Tiberius’s reign. Josephus (Jewish historian, c. 94 AD) mentions Jesus as a wise man condemned to the cross by Pilate, and separately records the death of James “the brother of Jesus who was called Christ.” Pliny the Younger (Roman governor, c. 112 AD) writes to Trajan about Christians who sing hymns to Christ “as to a god.” Celsus (Greek philosopher, c. 175 AD) wrote the first comprehensive attack on Christianity; and in doing so, inadvertently confirmed that Christians claimed Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead. None of these men were believers. All of them confirm the same outline the Gospels present.