4 Compelling Historical Documents That Prove Jesus Existed

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Dating back to the time of Jesus, the Dead Sea Scrolls are the most important archaeological discovery of our time. A collection of animal skin, forged copper and papyrus were unearthed in in a cave in Israel in the 1940’s. The scrolls contain a collection of hymns, prayers, formulas, documentations and even the earliest version of the Ten Commandments. Historians believe they were written sometime between 150 B.C. and A.D. 70 and they provide a deeper understanding of the Bible and more enlightenment on the histories of Christianity and Judaism. Within these texts, is a figure referred to as the "Teacher of Righteousness." While not implicated by named, this teacher was described as being the one God chose to reveal to the people "the hidden things in which all Israel had gone astray" (The Qumran, pg 34). Additional text elabroates further, "He (God) raised for them a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart." (The Dead Sea Scrolls). This account offers one of the first evidences of historical account of Jesus.

The Jewish Antiquities: Book 18

The Jewish Antiquities were written by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, during the thirteenth year of Roman emperor Flavius Domitian around A.D. 93/94. Providing an eye-witness account of the history of the Jewish people, Josephus documents the lengthy events of the Hebrew Bible consisting of the beginning of Adam and Eve, up to the Jewish War. These texts provide valuable information to historians to better understand the early Christian-Judaism period. Within these texts Jesus is referred to twice. In the first instance, Jesus is mentioned in the period in which the Jews of Judea were governed by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate: "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 Messiah. 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, Book 18).

Tacitus - The Annals

A senator and historian of the Roman Empire, Publius Cornelius Tacitus, referred to Christ in a work he penned called the Annals in A.D. 116. On one page, he described the execution of "Christus" (Christ) by Pontius Pilate and provides one of the earliest non-Biblical accounts of Christians, "Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. 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 Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind" (Annals, Book 15). Contrary to other mentions of Christ in historical documents outside the Bible, the reference here in the Annals is regarded by most modern scholars to be authentic.

In addition to the consistency and extraordinary account of the four Gospels in the New Testament and the 13 books written by Paul, these valuable historical documents can offer further evidence of the existence of the greatest man to ever walk this planet, Jesus Christ.