11. Evidence from Other Documents

• Is there any other documentation that provides evidence for the facts recorded in the Bible?
• Do the historical facts recorded in other documents align with the content of the Bible?
• Is it possible that the Bible was artificially manipulated or recorded historical facts differently?

We have previously confirmed that the Bible has overwhelmingly superior 'archaeological' and 'textual' accuracy and reliability compared to any other ancient document from East or West. Then, we can raise the following question here: 'If the Bible is truly a book that honestly records historical events, is there any other documentation that provides evidence for the facts recorded in the Bible, or does the content recorded in those documents match the content of the Bible?'

The history of Israel and Judah covered in the Bible, excluding the creation of heaven and earth, begins from the time of Abraham around 2100 BC and includes the period around the 1st century when Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected in 33 AD and the apostles were active and martyred.

Although it covers a long history of more than 2,000 years, the most important and controversial part is the history related to Jesus' ministry, death on the cross, and resurrection. This is because the numerous prophecies in the Bible ultimately deal with Jesus' birth, ministry, death, and resurrection, and Jesus' death and resurrection are the core of the gospel and undoubtedly the most important events in the Bible.

Therefore, here we will examine how Jesus' ministry, death on the cross, and subsequent resurrection are described in the Bible and other historical records, and see if those descriptions match each other.

11.1. Non-Christian Writings about Jesus Christ

There are many historical records about Jesus in ancient documents (non-Christian documents unrelated to the Bible) other than the Bible. Let's take a look at just a few representative ones.

Records of Josephus (37 AD - after 100 AD)
Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian who surrendered to Rome and became a Roman writer. In his 'Antiquities of the Jews' written in 93 AD, Josephus mentions Jesus twice.

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared. (Antiquities of the Jews 18:63-64)

Josephus also records that in 62 AD, the Sanhedrin led by the high priest Ananus stoned to death "James the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ." Josephus, who considered the death of James unjust, also describes that Ananus was eventually deprived of his high priesthood. (Antiquities of the Jews 20:200)

Jewish Talmud (bSanh 43a, estimated to have been formed after the 2nd century AD)

On the eve of the Passover Yeshu 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 practised sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. 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 the Passover.

Our rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Netzer, Buni and Todah. When Matthai was brought [before the court] he said to them [the judges], Shall Matthai be executed? Is it not written, 'When (mathai) shall I come and appear before God?' (Psalm 42:2) Thereupon they retorted; Yes, Matthai shall be executed, since it is written, 'When (mathai) he dies his name will perish' (Psalm 41:5).

Letter of Mara Bar-Serapion (estimated to have been written shortly after 73 AD)
Serapion was a Syrian Stoic philosopher from Samosata who wrote a letter to his son from a Roman prison, containing many exhortations and warnings he wanted to leave to his son. Here, the 'wise king' mentioned is widely accepted to refer to Jesus.

What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise king? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion.

Tacitus' Annals (115-117 AD)
Tacitus was a Roman senator and historian from around 55/56 - 120 AD, famous for his 'Annals'. In chapters 13-16 of the Annals, while describing Nero's biography, he mentions the great fire of Rome in 64 AD along with Christ (Jesus).

The name (Christiani) comes from Christ, who was put to death as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. Suppressed for a time, the deadly superstition erupted again, not only in Judea, the origin of this evil, but also in the city [of Rome], where all things horrible and shameful from everywhere come together and become popular. Therefore, first those who confessed were arrested, then on their information a very large multitude was convicted, not so much for the crime of arson as for hatred of the human race.

Records of Suetonius (117-122 AD)
Suetonius was of the equestrian order from around 70-130 AD and held high positions during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. He described the lives of twelve emperors from Caesar to Domitian. In clause 25.4 of his report on Claudius, the following passage appears:

Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (believed to be a misspelling of Christus meaning Messiah), he expelled them from Rome. Punishments were also inflicted on the Christians, a sect professing a new and mischievous religious belief.

Records of Pliny the Younger (112 AD)
Pliny the Younger was a leading figure in persecuting and killing Christians. In 112 AD, when he was the governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, he wrote a lengthy letter to Emperor Trajan. It contained concerns about whether to kill all Christians who confessed or only some, since the number of martyrs was too high. Pliny's description of Christians at the time is as follows:

They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up.

Records of Tertullian (197 AD)
In 197 AD, Tertullian mentioned Pilate's report between Pontius Pilate and Tiberius Caesar as follows:

Tiberius accordingly, in whose days the Christian name made its entry into the world, having himself received intelligence from Palestine of events which had clearly shown the truth of Christ's divinity, brought the matter before the senate, with his own decision in favour of Christ. But the senate, because it had not given the approval itself, rejected his proposal. Caesar held to his opinion, threatening wrath against all accusers of the Christians.

Records of Thallus (52 AD)
A historian named Thallus wrote in Greek, recording a mysterious solar eclipse (if it was an eclipse) that occurred in April 30 AD. This is thought to provide an answer to the strange darkness that lasted about 3 hours at the time of Jesus' death on the cross.

Records of Phlegon
Historian Phlegon mentions that in Nicaea of Bithynia in Asia Minor, there was a great earthquake that caused dust, dirt, and wood debris to rise into the air, and the black cloud flowed south and darkened the skies of Italy, Greece, and Egypt.

Phlegon stated that this event occurred in the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad according to the Greek calendar, which coincides with 33 AD, the time of Jesus' death. Although he does not explain on which day of that year this occurred, it matches the biblical record of the sky darkening when Jesus died on the cross.

Are there any more?

In his book 'The Historical Jesus', historian Gary R. Habermas revealed that there are 45 ancient sources regarding the life of Jesus. In that book, he introduces 19 early doctrinal sources, 4 archaeological sources, 17 non-Christian sources, and 5 early Christian sources excluding the New Testament. After closely analyzing the 17 sources written by non-Christians, Habermas reported the results as follows:

The majority of the 17 sources mention the life of Jesus, and 12 sources record Jesus' death. Among those 12 sources, 6 record Jesus' divinity.

Furthermore, Habermas thoroughly analyzed Jesus' actual life, character, teachings, death, resurrection, and the early message of the disciples among the 45 ancient sources on Jesus' life. As a result, he revealed that there are a total of 129 records of events in ancient history related to Jesus.

After meticulously analyzing the ancient sources in this way, Habermas concluded:

Jesus not only had many historical sources about himself, but he is also one of the historical figures who had a considerable amount of qualitative sources. The sources about him are the most formally mentioned and one of the most proven sources showing his life in antiquity.

In addition, Howard Clark Kee of Boston University said the following after studying sources other than the New Testament:

Despite the diversity of traditions about Jesus being transmitted to this extent, we have evidence that the contents of the life, teachings, and death of this figure, who continued to have such a profound impact on human history, are clearly and surprisingly consistently organized.

As such, the records about Jesus are not only mentioned in the Bible. Even historians who had no Christian interests or rather had anti-Christian tendencies consistently confirm the 'historical existence of Jesus' through their records. Whether Jesus was a real historical figure or not is never a matter of 'religious belief'. This is a matter related to 'archaeological facts', and there is no room for controversy.

11.2. Is Jesus' Resurrection False?

Even if the historical existence of Jesus is acknowledged, there are some who do not recognize Jesus' death on the cross or resurrection. For example, they claim that Jesus did not actually die on the cross. Or they argue that although Jesus died on the cross, he never resurrected, and all these events were fabricated by Jesus' disciples as a 'conspiracy theory'.

Of course, it is not unusual at all to raise such conspiracy theories because the resurrection of a dead person is impossible in common sense. However, the serious problem is that these claims have 'absolutely no' basis. This is like countless speculations and rumors being indiscriminately spread on the Internet as if they were facts when an event with an unknown cause occurs.

The logic they put forth is as follows:

Since a dead person cannot come back to life, Jesus' resurrection must be false. Therefore, the biblical records were fabricated by the disciples, and the person who actually died on the cross was someone other than Jesus.

They make the error of not denying the historical facts recorded in the Bible because there is an 'objective' basis, but simply claiming that it must be wrong because they cannot believe it.

Even if the strong historical reliability of the Bible examined so far is forcibly denied, such claims can be seen as absurd when considering the objectively revealed historical circumstantial evidence. Shall we take a look?

The four Gospels dealing with Jesus' life contain several contents that are unfavorable to Christianity. For example, despite clearly observing Jesus' actions, James, Jesus' own brother, did not believe that Jesus was God, and Peter, one of Jesus' disciples, denied knowing Jesus three times when he saw Jesus being arrested. Moreover, the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, was a person who fiercely persecuted Christianity.

Then how did they change after Jesus died? If, as the conspiracy theorists claim, Jesus did not resurrect after dying on the cross, how would they have reasonably acted?

If the disciples, who had doubts and faith despite witnessing numerous miracles with their own eyes, realized that Jesus' prophecy that he would overcome death and resurrect on the third day after willingly dying on the cross was false, wouldn't they have trembled with a sense of betrayal, thinking that they had been deceived by 'the greatest fraud who performed incredible miracles but could not overcome death as he said', and the organization would have disintegrated?

11.3. Jesus' Disciples Recorded in Non-Christian Writings

Then, shall we examine the subsequent actions of the disciples? I will confirm through other documents to avoid the accusation of finding evidence from 'documents artificially favorable to Christianity' (of course, there is no basis for such a claim). In 'Church History' written by Eusebius, the martyrdom diary of Jesus' 12 disciples is recorded as follows:

Peter
He went to Rome and preached, but while returning after enduring persecution, he met the Lord. Seeing the Lord, Peter asked, "Quo vadis, Domine?" (Lord, where are you going?) I am going to Rome in your place as you have fled. Hearing the Lord's words, Peter went back to Rome. He could not bear to be crucified in the same way as the Lord. He was martyred by being crucified upside down.

Andrew
He went to Greece and preached, and was martyred by being tied to a cross with ropes in the city of Achaea. The cross Andrew was tied to was X-shaped.

James
He was martyred by being beheaded by Herod's persecution in Jerusalem.

John
As the Lord requested on the cross, he took care of his mother (Mary) to the end and preached in Judea. After Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD, he preached in Ephesus. There, despite all kinds of persecution and torture, he miraculously jumped out when thrown into a boiling cauldron. The crowd persecuting him was surprised and exiled him to the island of Patmos. He spent his life alone there and wrote the book of Revelation, which he received as a revelation there. He died of natural causes according to his lifespan.

Philip
He went to Phrygia in Asia Minor and preached, and was martyred by being tied to a pillar and torn apart.

Bartholomew
He went to Armenia and preached, and was arrested. He suffered numerous lashes and was then crucified upside down and martyred.

Thomas
While preaching in India, he was martyred on the spot by being hit by a spear thrown by soldiers.

Matthew
He went to Ethiopia and preached, and was arrested. While being dragged away, he continued to preach. Eventually, he was martyred by being beheaded by their blades.

James son of Alphaeus
The crowd took him, who was almost a corpse, to the top of the temple and pushed him off to be martyred.

Simon
He went to preach in Egypt, returned to Judea and preached there, and was martyred by arrows shot by soldiers.

Jude, brother of James
He was martyred by being hit by an arrow while preaching in Persia.

Matthias
He went to Ethiopia and preached, and was martyred by being hit by countless stones thrown by spectators while proclaiming the gospel.

11.4. The Historicity of the Resurrection Proven by the Martyrdom of the Disciples

The deaths of Jesus' 12 disciples are recorded as clear historical facts in documents other than the Bible. If Jesus' death and resurrection were false, would it have been possible for all 12 disciples, including the unbelieving disciple who did not believe despite directly witnessing numerous miracles, to unanimously give their lives without hesitation and be martyred in this way?

Moreover, immediately after Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection, under Roman rule, organized and cruel persecution of Christianity (burning at the stake, crucifixion, being thrown to lions, etc.) was carried out by Roman emperors.

From 64 AD until Christianity was officially recognized by the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, emperors such as Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximinus, Decius, Valerian, Diocletian, and Galerius continuously persecuted Christianity. Nevertheless, history proves that Christianity spread even more and there was no end to the countless martyrs who did not fear terrible deaths.

If all these facts were false, how could such collective martyrdom be possible?

Some people retort as follows:

Aren't there 'fanatics' who do not hesitate to 'martyr' themselves out of religious zeal in any religion?
How can the mere fact that there were many martyrs prove that it is true?

It's a quite reasonable argument.

However, in the case of the Christian martyrs who spread like wildfire after Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection, there is a clear difference from the 'martyrdom' of other religions. It is that in the case of the martyrdom of the early church in those days, it was not based on a deceptive 'religious doctrine', but on the 'clearly witnessed and confirmed fact of the resurrection'.

Even now, among people who have fallen into Islamic or pseudo-religious groups, it is common for people to give their lives or all their possessions according to doctrines. However, there is a clear difference in that the doctrines these people believe in are 'not the result of faith based on what they have clearly experienced or witnessed directly'.

Jesus' death was shocking enough to completely shatter the disciples' faith in Jesus. However, the fact that the number of people who believed in Jesus at the cost of their lives exploded after Jesus' death is recorded in documents related to the martyrdom of early Christianity. Would this have been possible if Jesus had not been resurrected?

The story would be different if these people were born hundreds or thousands of years after Jesus' death and simply accepted the 'Jesus incident' as a religious belief. However, these people 'clearly lived in the same era as Jesus and were the generations who directly experienced and witnessed his actions and death'. Therefore, the reason they could give their lives was because the event of the resurrection at that time was a clear 'empirical fact', otherwise it would have been impossible.

There are people who lie or commit fraud, but it is not easy to hold on to the belief that a fact that one has 'directly experienced' is clearly false or fraudulent. Enduring extreme suffering and even giving one's life is impossible if it is not the truth. Can you stake your life on a definite lie?

The Bible records that after his resurrection, Jesus appeared not only to his 12 disciples but also to many people (about 500) at that time (1 Corinthians 15). As such, Jesus' resurrection is recorded as a clear 'historical fact' in the four Gospels and the New Testament, which are the most trustworthy documents.

Moreover, even looking at other clear Roman-era documents on the history of Christian persecution and the subsequent revealed historical records and circumstances, it is an undeniable historical fact.

11.5. Gnostic Writings that Deny the Truth of the Bible

Apart from the reliability of the Bible itself, some argue that since ancient gospels that record Jesus' actions and teachings quite differently from the four Gospels of the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) have been discovered, the contents of the Bible cannot be believed.

The documents that fall into this category include the well-known Gospel of Thomas, as well as the Gospel of Peter, the Secret Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, etc. Many of these were republished as a collection called the Nag Hammadi Scriptures in 2007. These documents are called the 'Gnostic writings'.

'Gnosticism' is a thought that salvation is not obtained by believing in Jesus, but by accumulating knowledge about a spiritual world, which is completely contrary to the Bible. If the Gnostic writings have an 'objectively' more reliable basis than the Bible in terms of 'textual criticism', we should boldly abandon the Bible and adopt the Gnostic writings.

11.6. The Truth of the Gnostic Writings

Then, is there any basis for this claim? To conclude, there is no basis for this claim either. There are several reasons for this.

The first reason is that it is less persuasive because the recording period is later than the four Gospels. The recording period of the Gnostic writings is generally estimated to have been recorded in the 2nd to 4th centuries AD, more than 200 years after Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection in 33 AD.

This is at least 100 to 300 years later than the recording period of the four Gospels, which is 60-90 AD. In other words, the four Gospels contain contents that were orally transmitted and recorded in a situation where there were numerous people who lived in the same era as Jesus or one or two generations after his death.

Moreover, all these Gospels have a very consistent flow and unity regarding Jesus' actions and teachings. As mentioned several times before, in an era when generations who clearly witnessed and remembered the actions of the figure Jesus were alive, it would not have been easy to fabricate or manipulate. Moreover, attempting to systematically manipulate not just one or two, but four documents would have been realistically impossible.

Even if manipulation had been done, since too many people knew it was not true, they would not have accepted the false information, and corrections would have been made. Even if it were not so and a small number of intentional groups stubbornly manipulated, the truth and falsehood would have been mixed together, and significant inconsistencies and contradictions would have been found in the contents between the four Gospels.

However, the four Gospels have complete unity and consistency of content between the documents. On the other hand, the Gnostic writings were recorded at least 2 generations after the generations who witnessed Jesus' actions had all died, so their reliability is very low.

The Gnostic writings have a high possibility of distortion due to memory or tradition, and are also easy to manipulate, so they are 'objectively' clearly inferior to the four Gospels in terms of historical reliability.

The second reason is that the content of the Gnostic writings is not only contrary to the content of the four Gospels, but is also full of contents that do not make sense and are not convincing even from a common-sense perspective. The argument of those who say that we should not believe the four Gospels but believe the Gnostic writings is that there are many unbelievable miracles in the four Gospels and Jesus' divine power is emphasized.

However, rather, these attributes appear much more severely in the Gnostic writings. The Gnostic writings depict Jesus much more mystically than the four Gospels that record Jesus' actions in a dry manner, and even incomprehensible phrases appear.

For example, contrary to the Bible, the Gospel of Thomas mentions that

This world is not a place to be restored and redeemed, but will continue to be corrupted and destroyed in despair, and it contains the absurd content that 'Behold, I shall lead her that I may make her male, that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven'.

The Gospel of Peter begins with the scene of Pilate handing Jesus over to the crowd to be crucified, and suddenly an absurd story of the high priest spending the night in the cemetery appears. Then, the stone that blocked Jesus' tomb rolls away, and two angels whose heads stretch long to the clouds enter the tomb and come out helping a third person, whose head also rose above the clouds.

There is also an 'utterly absurd' content that what follows them out of the tomb is the cross, and then a voice is heard from heaven, 'Have you preached to those who sleep?', and the cross, not Jesus, answers 'Yes'.

The third reason is that, ironically, the Gnostic writings were not written by Jesus' disciples or directly related figures such as Thomas, Peter, Mary, and Judas mentioned in the titles. Most of the Gnostic heretical writings also began to appear at least 2 generations after Jesus' death.

In the Gnostic writings, the names of Jesus' twelve disciples or his mother were used as the titles of the documents to attract people's attention, even though they were not actually written by them.

The fourth reason is that some Gnostic writings were even 'completely forged or fabricated'. The 'Secret Gospel of Mark', which was once a big issue as it contained content implying that Jesus engaged in homosexuality, was claimed to have been discovered by Morton Smith in 1958 at the Mar Saba Monastery located in the Judean Desert.

However, in 1991, through handwriting analysis by Steve Carlson, it was revealed that Morton Smith had completely 'forged' it to enhance his own reputation.

The discovery process of an ancient document called 'Jesus Papers', which contains content that Jesus had no intention of claiming to be God and explained to the Sanhedrin that he was an incarnation of God's spirit, is so loose that it is laughable.

The alleged discoverer, Michael Baigent, claims that in 1961, he met someone who discovered two documents written in Aramaic while digging under a house in Jerusalem, and showed them to two famous archaeologists to confirm the period and authenticity of the records. The two archaeologists estimated the recording period of the two documents to be roughly around the time of Jesus' death.

Baigent says he went into that person's safe and saw the papyrus documents, but the safe was so low that he couldn't stretch his waist, so he couldn't take pictures, and neither he nor the collector could read Aramaic. However, he claims that the famous archaeologists Yigael Yadin and Nachman Avigad (both deceased) confirmed the papyrus documents, so rest assured.

Can you believe the contents of this document through such evidence? An author of doubtful credibility, an ancient artifact dealer whose identity cannot even be verified, a document that the author cannot even read and the original cannot be verified or even tested, and dead archaeologists... on what basis can this be believed?

11.7. The Factuality of the Bible Strengthened by the Existence of Derivatives

The fact that a new ancient document with different content has been discovered in the media does not negate the truth of the Bible. This is because there must be 'objective evidence' for that. Even now, you know very well that countless speculations and rumors are rampant on the Internet as if they were facts, even when an objectively proven fact is revealed, right?

As such, the fact that countless derivatives and falsehoods are constantly rampant when verified based on objective criteria ironically strongly supports that the Bible is actually more definite historical truth.

This is because the more genuine and authentic something is, the more imitations there are. Imitations do not even attach to shoddy products that have no value at all. Even at this very moment, countless claims, speculations, and books claiming that new documents contradicting the historicity of the Bible have been discovered are pouring out, but most of the books are constantly being phased out as they are revealed to be fictitious after only a few years.

However, the Bible has not come down from the position of the world's No. 1 bestseller for more than 2,000 years despite such persistent attacks. All these facts strongly prove that the records in the Bible are 'historical facts' and 'truths'.

In the next post, we will look at the countless archaeological evidences of the Bible.