Not using your bible can you show evidence of the historical reality of Jesus? Any evidence you use cannot be referenced to the bible in any way.
Hi there!
:D
Well, being specific... historical evidences are the written word, aka manuscripts, letters, ostraca, codexes, engravings, inscriptions, etc. Archaeological evidences are the relics and artifacts that relate to a previous society.
I have found that the best evidences of Jesus of Nazareth being the Christ, the Son of God, and also being the Lord God Almighty are the inscriptions at the location known as Peter's house in Capernaum. The plaster in the walls where the inscriptions were found can be dated by the chips of pottery that were used in the plaster, making them some of the oldest archaeological evidences.
A second, excellent location of inscriptions that are verifiable are the inscriptions under the Vatican on the "red wall" of Peter's tomb. Now, I am not an advocate that the bones found in the repository were those of the apostle Peter, but I don't question that the tomb (location) did belong to Peter... The inscriptions are a good source of historical evidence for Jesus as the Lord God Almighty.
And, maybe the biggest evidence, by historical standard is the sign of the cross... and making the sign of the cross as an exchange between believers... and, of course, the written records of such activities (historical evidences), the mosaics containing the cross (archaeological evidence), the early reliefs (archaeological evidence), the early jewelry that is found in Christian tombs (archaeological evidences). (BTW Jews aren't buried with jewelry)
The eyewitness accounts of Peter and Paul. Both Peter and Paul have been proven to have existed by historical evidences and archaeological evidences outside the Bible...,. look for Peter at the Vatican.... look for Paul in Cyprus archaeology.
I would add there are ossuary boxes which date to a very limited time frame of first century jerusalem which carry the symbol of the cross for Christians being buried in the boxes. There are probably 100+ of such ossuary boxes with crosses dating from 35 AD to 70 AD.
That kind of dispells the "myth" part of Jesus, don't you think?
http://home.pe.net/~mjagee/procon977.html
"In 1945, many more found with crosses, 2 inscribed with name of Jesus, and one had a coin minted in A.D. 41 for King Herod Agrippa I, indicating it was sealed by A.D. 42."
"The text reads: "After the name 'Jesus,' the exclamation or dedication read "y'ho," meaning "Jehova" or "the Lord". The full inscription on the ossuary reads, "[To] Jesus, "the Lord," In light of the A.D.42 date for the sealing of this tomb, the presence of this dedication to "Jesus, the Lord" attests to the Christians' acceptance of Jesus Christ as God within ten years of the death and resurrection of Jesus in A.D."
"One of the first-century coffins found on the Mt. of Olives contains a commemorative dedication to: "Yeshua" = "Jesus"....
It's necessary to remember that ossuary boxes were only used for a limited time and in a limited area. The stonemasons who were building the Second Temple were also using their talents to make ossuary boxes for funerals.
I like the sealed ossuary box from 41-42 AD... that had some appeal to it and it dated the box... that means that within 8-10 years of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that there were believers who were alive when Jesus walked this earth... and that they considered the cross to be related to Christ.
And the sign of the cross began in the first century.
And... then there are the "old standbys"
http://www.jewsforjesus.org/library/iss ... noreal.htm
"...there is no real evidence that jesus ever existed"
We disagree with Jane Kathryn Conrad's letter in view of the following: (Adapted from Appendix 6 of the book, Y'shua, the Jewish Way to Say Jesus.)
Josephus Jewish Antiquities (c.93 C.E.)
(later interpolations in brackets)
"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 Messiah.] And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him [for he appeared to them alive again at 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 date.1
Pliny the Younger Letter to Trajan (c.111-117 C.E.)
"...they maintained that their fault or error amounted to nothing more than this: they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before sunrise and reciting an antiphonal hymn to Christ as God, and binding themselves with an oath not to commit any crime, but to abstain from all acts of theft, robbery and adultery, from breaches of faith, from repudiating a trust when called upon to honour it."2
Tacitus Roman Annals (c.115-117 C.E.)
"They got their name from Christ, who was executed by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. That checked the pernicious superstition for a short time, but it broke out afresh--not only in Judea, where the plague first arose, but in Rome itself, where all the horrible and shameful things in the world collect and find a home."3
Sanhedrin 43a (200-500 C.E.)
"On the eve of the Passover Yeshu4 was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, 'He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostacy. Any one who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf. But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of Passover!"5
Endnotes
1Antiquities xviii. 33 (early second century) from F.F. Bruce, Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 37.
2Pliny, Epistles x.96, from Bruce, p.26.
3Tacitus, Annals xv, 44, from Bruce, p. 22.
4Talmudic designation of Jesus.
5"Sanhedrin," vol 3 of Nezikin, Babylonian Talmud, edited by Isidore Epstein, reprint (London: Soncino, 1938), 281.
