Of Christ and Christians outside the Bible

Of Christ and Christians from outside the Bible.

As Christmas approaches we hear a lot about what the Christian texts say about Jesus. We hear the accounts from the New Testament about his birth, life, death and resurrection. But what did others outside the Bible say about Christ and Christians.
We must when asking this question realize that from that time in history archeologist and historians admit there is little evidence about the various Roman rulers who ruled one of the foremost super powers of history.
Yet of this man from a backwater town in a backwater part of the Roman empire there are a lot of references. So much so that it is possible to use sources external to the Bible to construct some basic Christian beliefs.
Writer number one, Flavius Josephus, born 34AD, a Jewish historian, who became a Pharisee at 19, later commander, of the Jewish forces in Galilee. Captured by Romans and attached to their headquarters.
He wrote,
“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 Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among 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 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.”  
Notice he spoke about Christ being crucified dying and rising from the dead. That he fulfilled what the prophets had said would happen. Not only that but he did “ten thousand other wonderful things”.
                Flavius Josephus
From Pliny the Younger (61-112 AD) a powerful Roman lawyer, senator and intellectual he was also the Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia minor. His job was to put on trial Christians, yet writing to Emperor Trajan wrote,
“They had met regularly before dawn on a determined day, and sung antiphonally a hymn to Christ as if to a god.
 They also took an oath not for any crime, but to keep from theft, robbery and adultery, not to break any promise, and not to withhold a deposit when reclaimed.”
Note Pliny says they sung hymns to Christ as a god and took an oath not to do any crime.
From Pliny’s reference we can see that the evidence showed Christians to be upstanding citizens.
The Roman historian Tacitus is generally accepted as greatest Roman historian he was tasked with transferring the blame for the fire of Rome to Christians he wrote,
“But neither human effort nor the emperor’s generosity nor the placating of the gods ended the scandalous belief that the fire had been ordered. Therefore, to put down the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the most unusual ways those hated for their shameful acts, whom the crowd called “Chrestians.” The founder of this name, Christ, had been executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate.”
Note Tacitus mentions Christ was executed by Pontius Pilate.

Julian the Apostate, Roman Emperor from 361-363 A.D. said to be one of the most gifted ancient adversaries to Christianity. In his work against Christianity wrote,
“Jesus…has now been celebrated about three hundred years having done nothing in his lifetime worthy of fame, unless anyone thinks it is a very great work to heal lame and blind people and exorcise demoniacs in the villages of Bethsaida and Bethany.”
At the end of his life was forced to say: “Thou has conquered, O Galilean!”

Perhaps one of the greatest tributes to Jesus come from Napoleon Bonaparte the French Emperor who wrote,
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel.  Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
Kenneth Scott Latourette, former President of American Historic Society
In A History of Christianity wrote,
“It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had upon history and presumably, of the baffling mystery of His being that no other life ever lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount.”
“As the centuries pass by, the evidence is accumulating that measured by its effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. The influence appears to be mounting.
No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply affected mankind.”
The question then become as Christmas dawns what do you think about Jesus.
Think about it.