Corroboration via Non-Christian Writings

Let's look at some early non-Christian writings to see if they confirm claims made within the New Testament. One can assume that if the New Testament writings were legendary or false, that you would not find confirmation of them within other historical documents written by non-Christian and/or hostile authors. However, there are references in external, non-Christian sources that confirm several things mentioned in the New Testament.

Josephus

Josephus (37AD – c. 100AD) was a first-century Jew who became a historian and Roman citizen. He wrote “Antiquities of the Jews”, completing it in about 93 AD. Within this tome, he wrote two passages of significance. In one (Book 18, Chapter 3, Section 3) he describes a man named Jesus who was crucified by Pilate. Josephus further writes that Jesus' followers claimed Jesus had appeared to them after his crucifixion and they continued in Jesus' discipleship. It should be noted that some portions of this section have been doubted as authentic, but it is generally agreed upon that most of the text in this section is authentic. Read this interesting examination for more information.

In a second Josephus passage (Book 20, Chapter 9, Section 1), he describes how James, the brother of Jesus, was conspired against and condemned to death.

As a side note, a third Josephus passage should also be mentioned - Book 18, Chapter 5, Section 2. While this section does not mention Jesus or the Christian movement, it does mention John the Baptist and his execution at the hands of Herod. Thus, this too provides corroboration of the Gospel texts.

Tacitus

Tacitus (56AD – 117AD) was a senator and a Roman historian. “Annals” was his final work, completed sometime in the very early second century. Many parts of this work have been lost; however, what does still exist include a passage (15.44) that talks about “Christus” (i.e. referring to Jesus) who suffered the “extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate”. This passage goes on to describe the movement that expanded since the execution of “Christus” and the persecution of the followers of that movement.

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger (61AD – c. 112AD) was a Roman magistrate. He is known for his many letters which provide a great source of historical information for the period. One of his letters (see XCVII) is essentially a question he asks of Emperor Trajan as to how he should deal with Christians who refused to worship the Roman gods and the Emperor, but instead insisted on worshipping “Christ”.

Conclusion

Here we have at least three authors roughly contemporary to the time of the New Testament writings that are not only non-Christian but may even be considered “anti-Christian” (Pliny the Younger was persecuting the Christians). Yet their writings clearly indicate that, during the late first century and early second century, a Christian movement had sprouted and begun growing, even in the face of enormous persecution of its followers. What else can be gleaned from these writings? The following can be said, based on non-Christian writings of this early period:

• Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius
• He had a brother named James
• He was acclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah (aka “Christ”)
• He was crucified by Pontius Pilate
• His disciples believed he rose from the dead
• His followers died for their belief
• His followers worshipped Jesus as God (and denied the Roman gods)

All of these statements confirm what can also be found in many places within the New Testament, both in the gospels and the epistles.

While none of this can prove the claims of the New Testament as being “the Word of God”, it can provide parts of a very clear and convincing case that the New Testament writings were not falsified or legendary in nature.


References:
Strobel, Lee, "The Case for Christ"
Geisler, Norman L., "I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist"

Why Matthew, Mark, Luke?

Let's take a look at the claimed authorship of the three Synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Now, one must remember that these three books had an enormous impact within the early Christian movement in the late first and early second centuries. Papias and Irenaeus in the early and late second century wrote of their testimony that the authors are who we think they are today. Currently, the vast majority of scholars agree that there are no known credible competitors to the authorship of those three books. But let's examine who these authors were.

Two of the three weren't even members of the original twelve apostles (Mark and Luke). The one author that was an apostle (Matthew) was probably one of the most despised persons among the Jews of his day since, before becoming a follower of Jesus, Matthew was a tax collector. Tax collectors were loathed and were generally outcasts from Jewish society.

If we are to believe these three books of the New Testament were “made up” and not historically accurate, why would the fabricator attach names like these to those books? If the gospels were fabricated but still wanted to be as authoritative as possible, surely other names would have been more appropriate, like Peter for example. In fact, to prove the point, we do find writings that appear generations later attached with just the names you would guess would be used to add more gravitas and respectability - Peter, Mary, James, and Philip (i.e. the Nag Hammadi library which is dated probably in the 200s AD and which many scholars consider false writings). Among the Christian community, these names carried more weight than non-disciples such as Mark and Luke.

One can conclude that these books were attributed to people like Matthew, Mark and Luke because that is who truly wrote them, and because the quest for truth and accuracy was of paramount concern.

References:
Strobel, Lee, "The Case for Christ"
Geisler, Norman L., "I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist"