Question
Did Jesus even exist?
Yes. The idea that He is a myth is a fringe view, not a scholarly one. Christian, Jewish, and Roman sources all remember a crucified teacher from Nazareth.
Gary Habermas’s survey of extra-biblical sources still holds: Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny, Lucian, and the Talmud are not evangelists. They give you a Jewish teacher, executed under Pilate, whose followers worshiped Him and would not quit.
Mythicism is popular on the internet because it is simple. It is not how ancient historians read this file.
See it
Shorts, slide decks, and infographics that belong with this page.
Slide deck · 12 slidesThe historical bedrock
Slide deck · 14 slidesThe historical reliability of the biblical record
Slide deck · 15 slidesThe resurrection evidence
Slide deck · 14 slidesThe converging lines of evidence
ShortHow historians verify the New Testament
InfographicNew Testament reliability
InfographicThe historical bedrock
InfographicThe witness of historyTalking points
- Existence is not the same as deity. Granting that He lived is the start of the argument, not the end.
- A movement this early, this Jewish, and this crucified-Messiah-shaped is a poor candidate for ‘never existed.’
Say this
You can deny the miracles. You cannot, with a straight face, deny the man. Even critics who dislike the church will tell you Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea…”