Historical Proof that Jesus Lived

Historical Proof that Jesus Lived

Feb. 15th, 2024

by Jeffrey A. Weakley

We Christians do not question the existence of Christ.  The Bible tells us that God took on human flesh, lived as a perfect man, and shed His blood on the cross for our sins.  And then He rose again and ascended into heaven.  This is the basic Gospel message that has been preached for 2000 years.

But not everyone is a Christian … and many people reject the Bible for various reasons.  And many of these people claim that there is no historical proof that Jesus existed outside of the Bible.  Of course these claims are false.  And those making these claims have not done careful research into this topic.  They are just parroting the claims of someone else.

The best historical witnesses for the existence of Jesus outside of the Scriptures are found in the Letters of Herod and Pilate.  Pilate met Jesus face to face and Herod was constantly getting reports about Jesus.  The Letters of Herod and Pilate are what we call “primary source records“.  That is, these are records from someone who lived at the time and witnessed the events.

The Letters of Herod and Pilate are published in The Archko Volume (get the unabridged edition) Keats Publishing (1975), pages 128 – 160.  They are also found in The Lost Books of the Bible – Letters of Herod and Pilate , pages 269-281 (World Bible Publishers – 1926).  And the Letters of Pilate (Not the Letters of Herod) are found in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, pages 459-467 (Hendrickson Publishers – 1994).  I must note that the Archko Volume record has a longer version of Pilates Letters which provides much useful insight.  The shorter version of these “Letters” can be read free on-line here: Letters of Herod and Pilate.

Letters of Herod and Pilate

We see that these records are available in a number of sources, so there is no excuse for anyone saying that there are no records outside of the Bible for the existence of Jesus.  Real scholars never make such a claim.  But unbelieving scholars will attack these records and make excuses for rejecting them.  However, in most cases where people claim that there is no historical proof that Jesus lived, we are dealing with people who fancy themselves to be learned, when in fact, they are ignorant.

Keep in mind that when you present this evidence to a non-believer, it will not cause him to believe.  But it will take away one of the excuses that he is relying on to ease his conscience.  Faith in Christ is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8).  So we do not present evidence such as the Letters of Herod and Pilate to win people to Christ.  But we do use evidence like this to open the door to share the Scriptures with people.  The Holy Spirit uses the Scriptures either to convict people of their sins and show them their need of our Savior, and give them the gift of faith, … or, the Holy spirit uses the Scriptures to harden their hearts to the Gospel.  Our job is to share the Scriptures and let the Holy Spirit do His work.