1. Roman historian Tacitus (Annals 15.44), c. 100AD.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome
[Tacitus wrote] at a time when Christians themselves had come to believe that Jesus had suffered under Pilate. There are three reasons for holding that Tacitus is here simply repeating what Christians had told him. First, he gives Pilate a title, procurator [without saying procurator of what! FRZ], which was current only from the second half of the first century. Had he consulted archives which recorded earlier events, he would surely have found Pilate there designated by his correct title, prefect. Second, Tacitus does not name the executed man Jesus, but uses the title Christ (Messiah) as if it were a proper name. But he could hardly have found in archives a statement such as “the Messiah was executed this morning.” Third, hostile to Christianity as he was, he was surely glad to accept from Christians their own view that Christianity was of recent origin, since the Roman authorities were prepared to tolerate only ancient cults. - G.A. Wells The Historical Evidence for Jesus; p.16
2. Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 18.3), c. 90AD.
Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man...a doer of wonderful works—a teacher. 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 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.
- No loyal Pharisee would say Jesus had been the Messiah.
- Josephus did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, i.e., as “the Christ.”
- The text does not appear in earlier manuscripts of Antiquities of the Jews and is believed to be a forgery.
“Enough of the writings of the authors named in the foregoing list remains to form a library. Yet in this mass of Jewish and Pagan literature, aside from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author, and two disputed passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be found no mention of Jesus Christ.” John E. Remsburg, The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence
The writes referred to by Remsburg who lived during or within a century of 30CE -
- Josephus Juvenal
- Lucanus
- Philo-Judæus
- Martial
- Epictetus
- Seneca
- Persius
- Hermogones Silius Italicus
- Pliny Elder
- Plutarch
- Statius
- Arrian
- Pliny Younger
- Ptolemy
- Petronius Tacitus
- Appian
- Dion Pruseus
- Justus of Tiberius
- Phlegon
- Paterculus
- Apollonius
- Phædrus
- Suetonius
- Quintilian Valerius Maximus
- Pausanias
- Dio Chrysostom
- Lysias
- Florus Lucius
- Columella
- Pomponius Mela
- Lucian
- Valerius Flaccus
- Appion of Alexandria
- Quintius Curtius
- Damis
- Theon of Smyrna
- Aulus Gellius
- Favorinus