Further 4 · after the twelve weeks
Jesus outside the Bible
Do non-Christian sources mention Jesus?
Weeks 4–9 work from Christian documents. Hostile and neutral writers still put Jesus in history.
See it
Shorts, slide decks, and infographics that belong with this page.
What the book puts on the table
- Tacitus records Christus executed under Pontius Pilate in Tiberius’s reign.
- Josephus mentions Jesus and James, even after you discount later Christian polish on one paragraph.
- Pliny finds Christians singing to Christ ‘as to a god’ early in the second century.
- Mythicism has to explain why enemies and bureaucrats bother with a man who never lived.
Say this
You do not have to baptize Tacitus to notice he puts Jesus under Pilate. The church did not invent a man the empire already knew it had killed.
If they say…
“Josephus was interpolated by the church.”
One paragraph was touched. The core notice, and the James line, still leave a first-century Jewish historian talking about Jesus.
Scripture
“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea…”
After this week
Tonight · about an hour
Host this session
Open · 5 min
Read the question out loud: “Do non-Christian sources mention Jesus?” No speeches yet.
Look · 15 min
One person reads the thesis and the points. Everyone else watches for the sentence they do not yet believe.
Talk · 25 min
- Tacitus records Christus executed under Pontius Pilate in Tiberius’s reign.
- Josephus mentions Jesus and James, even after you discount later Christian polish on one paragraph.
- Pliny finds Christians singing to Christ ‘as to a god’ early in the second century.
Speak · 10 min
Use the line in “Say this” above. Once as written. Once in your own mouth.
Send · 5 min
Each person names one conversation this week where they will try a question instead of a speech.