Who was Jesus Christ?

Literature from a little later, however, is of interest. Particularly that of two Roman senators and writers, Tacitus and Pliny.

Cornelius Tacitus was born about 55 AD. In his Annales , concerning the great fire of Rome he says:

“But neither the aid of men, nor the emperor’s bounty, nor propitiatory offerings to the gods, could remove the grim suspicion that the fire had been started by Nero’s order. To put an end to this rumour, he shifted the charge on to others, and inflicted the most cruel tortures upon a group of people detested for their abominations, and popularly known as ‘Christians.’ This name came from one Christus, who was put to death in the principate of Tiberius by the Procurator Pontius Pilate. Though checked for a time, the destructive superstition broke out again, not in Judea only, where its mischief began, but even in Rome …”

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (Pliny, the Younger) was born about 61 AD, and died around 110 AD. When he was the governor of Bithynia in 111 AD, he became aware of the tension in his province and wrote concerning this to the emperor Trajan. The extract referring to the group of people called Christians and their leader, called Christ. A short extract should be sufficient to show the nature of the writing.

“In the meantime, the method I have observed towards those who have been denounced to me as Christians is this: I interrogated them whether in fact they were Christians; if they confessed it, I repeated the question twice, adding the threat of capital punishment; if they still persevered, I ordered them to be executed.”

Joseph ben Matthias was born in Jerusalem in AD 37, and died after AD 100. He is better known to us, perhaps, under his self-assumed Roman name of Flavius Josephus, or plain Josephus. His works included:

History of the Jewish War (7 volumes),
Jewish Antiquities,
an Apology of the Jews against Apion,
and an Autobiography

It is in the Jewish Antiquities that he, on two occasions, makes reference to Jesus.

“Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, {if it be lawful to call him a man}, for he was a doer of wonderful works, — a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. {He was [the] Christ}; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those who loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the
third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” 18.3.3

“Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of the judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned …” 20.9.1

In the first quotation from Josephus, there are two phrases (indicated in brackets) that are often disputed as being authentic. But those aside, the testimony of Josephus is otherwise authentic, and the question-able phrases (perhaps added by a Christian follower sometime prior to AD 300) are an unnecessary supplement.

The above citings of Jesus Christ in the literature in the days following Jesus were not challenged by their contemporaries, nor by writers of the century that followed; rather were they endorsed.

But of course there were other writings current, or even preceding those of Tacitus, Pliny and Josephus: for there was the New Testament portion of the Bible, though not then existing in the bound form familiar with us today. This remains our chief source of knowledge regarding Jesus Christ.
One of the earliest books of the New Testament was the Gospel according to Mark. The traditionally accepted date for this Gospel is about 64 AD, which would be a little over thirty years from the death of Jesus.

However, in 1955 some fragments of documents were found in Cave 7 at Qumran, on the western coast of the Dead Sea, that subsequently were found to be relevant, though many years were to elapse before this was to become significant. The fragments were found to be no older than 50 AD: one was from Exodus, one from the apocryphal Letter of Jeremiah, and the third was unidentified. In 1972 the grouping of the Greek letters for “nnes” were noted, and the examining person
realised that they might be from the word “Gennesaret”. It was then compared to Mark 6:52-53, and found to fit exactly. It was checked and confirmed by other experts.