*Exploring the Historical Evidence*
by Moses Oludele Idowu
In the previous essay I examined the controversy about and the conspiracy against Jesus even in the secular world and also in the world of scholarship. He is always the issue – the only one scholar is trying frantically to prove does not exist. His words are usually the most twisted. His Virgin birth attracts the most curiousity, scorn and ridicule, His Crucifixion another subject of controversy; and His Resurrection regarded by some in the school of Higher Criticism as foolishness and nonsense.
So we want to begin at the beginning. How does a nonsense captures the soul of the world? How does a man who never existed – if truly He never did – captures and converted a whole Empire, through His followers, the strongest Empire of the world, the one and only Roman Empire without carrying swords?
We shall proceed in this methodically.
First we shall examine and begin with primary sources. A primary source of information refers to “original, first-hand evidence or direct testimony created during the period under study, or later by eyewitnesses (e.g., memoirs). They include documents, artifacts, recordings, and data _created at the time of an event without interpretation_ . They are raw materials used to analyze, interpret, or build arguments.” (Google:
University of Illinois, Library, My emphasis)
A very good and key examples of Primary Sources of information include: documents & manuscripts: diaries, letters, journals, speeches, interviews, oral histories, and meeting minutes,
birth certificates, census data, maps, government reports etc, artifacts, object, clothing etc.
Take note of my emphasis above: the evidence must be taken at “the time of the event without any interpretation.” Whatever meets all these or some of these conditions qualify as a primary source of information.
Jesus Christ lived or was believed to have lived during the era of Augustus Caesar and during the Proconsulship of Herod and Pontus Pilate. These are names known in the Roman Era and their periodization is clearly stated in Roman History. So for any material to qualify as a primary source of the Jesus story it must come within this period. Although many documents have been lost there still are enough for a man of that era to make a honest assessment and an intelligent decision without bias.
All the Epistles of Paul and even the Gospels were already out within the generation that Jesus died and the generation had not died out. We see enough evidence in the secular world of Rome and even in the governing Empire that also corroborated the Gospels and the Epistles showing the veracity and the reliability of the documents.
For instance, Luke in his letter to Theophilus known as Acts of the Apostles notes that there was a couple called Aquilla and Priscilla who fled Rome that Paul met at Corinth because “Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome ” ( Acts18:1) This incident was also confirmed by Suetonius in his own account where he said that in 49 AD emperor Claudius had to expell all Jews ( including Christians because it was largely a Jewish Church then and Christianity was largely a sect of Judaism) from Rome due to disturbance about one Christ.
Now the events both are describing are the same and the same people by different authors.
Another example was the census for taxation that happened during the birth of Jesus that forced Mary and Joseph to go to Bethlehem to be taxed based on the Decree of Augustus Caesar. Luke tells us that this taxing was first carried out under Cyrenian, governor of Syrian. Here is the wonders. Roman records have established indeed the reign of Augustus Caesar between 27 BCE – 14 CE and the said tax around 4/3 BC; and even the governorship of Cyrenian in Syria.
This shows that the writer of the Gospel of Luke addressed to a notable figure in Roman Empire and a physician himself took extreme care and details to cross check his facts with even public records. This shows authenticity.
There are several of such parallelism in both Roman public records and Gospels and Epistles.
We shall come to this.
In this investigation I want to begin with the records and data from the Rome confirming and attesting to the validity of Jesus Story and the actuality of the Historical Jesus as a Person, a figure who actually lived during their Era. In this case I will be bringing several witnesses and we shall later examine their stories.
1 *. Pontus Pilate*
The first witness I want to bring not directly is Pontus Pilate under whom Jesus was tried and condemned to be executed. ( In the next part of these essays we shall examine the Crucifixion in details). All the Creeds of Christianity mentioned Pilate.
Did Pilate say anything about Jesus directly? As a prefect and Roman governor of Judea he must definitely have furnished Rome with the account of the Trial of Jesus. We know this from the culture and practice of Rome. They are well documented and Pilate must definitely send a report of the trial for such a popular Rabbi as Jesus was believed to be.
Does this report exist today? No, just like many others. But we have an evidence that it once existed and it is credible. Justin Martyr in 150 AD wrote a letter, an apologia to the Emperor Antoninus Pius urging him to verify and check the acta ( i.e., official records) of Pilate term of office. Here is his words:
” …That these things happened you may learn from the ‘Acts’ which were recorded under Pontius Pilate.” [ See Justin, _First Apology_ 35, 7-9.]
Is it likely that a common man would be addressing a whole Emperor and talking with boldness asking him to check the records of Pontius Pilate about the said Christ. This means that such a record existed till 150 AD for this writer to have referred to it. Justin was a scholar so he would know that the record existed and directing the Emperor to check it.
Later he said about the same Christ:
“That he performed these miracles you may easily satisfy yourself from the ‘Acts’ of Pontius Pilate.” ( 48.3)
This Acts of Pontius Pilate was an original source and document not an apocryphal version that surfaced in the Third Century by the same name called _Acts of Pontius Pilate_ product of forgery. But then a forgery presupposes an originality. There cannot be a counterfeit if an original does not exist.
2 *. Cornelius Tacitus (60-120)*
We now turn to the most famous of Roman historians of the First and Second Centuries, a politician and public figure. If anyone is unbiased he would see that Tacitus told the truth as he saw it because he was even hostile to Christianity calling it “a mischievous superstition.” Obviously, if the copyists were trying to doctor or edit his works they would evidently have removed that offending reference to Christianity and even Christ but they did not. This shows that this qualifies as primary source of information. Why our “scholars”, the eagle -eyed slaves of religious prejudices cannot accept Tacitus is a mystery to me.
In the course of his _Roman Annals_ written between 115 and 117 AD he wrote about Christianity and how it originated and therefore confirmed the existence of a historical figure called Christ.
At chapter 15 page 44 on the “Fire of Rome” he wrote this:
“They got their name from Christ, who was executed by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. That checked the pernicious superstition for a short time, but it broke out afresh – not only in Judea, where the plague first arose, but in Rome itself, where all the horrible and shameful things in the world collect and find a home.”
Notice the terrible and scurrilous language he used to describe Christianity – “plague”, “pernicious superstition” which ran through the book. Why would the copyists not remove that since they were Christians?
This in itself is a proof that this was what Tacitus wrote. The outbreak of Christianity caught Rome unawares as we shall see in another document.
The views of F.F Bruce, Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester is relevant here:
“Pilate’s execution of Christ, and any report that he may have sent to Rome about it, would never have been heard of again, if in fact that execution had put an end to the movement which Christ began. But when that movement, far from being crushed, advanced to Rome and attracted imperial attention there, there was some reason for investigating its origins. This Tacitus appears to have done.” ( _Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament,_ London: Hodder and Stoughton,1974:23)
This is logical and exactly this is how advanced society are run. How many of us for instance knew of the existence of Boko Haram until their leader was killed and the group went haywire. It was then our scholars began to study the movement and our universities began to take note of it. This is exactly what Tacitus did.
Then notice the tone of Tacitus, it means he didn’t get his information from Christians but possibly from government records being a government official, most likely the Acts of Pontius Pilate referred to. Again I quote Professor Bruce:
“From the contemptuous and hostile tone which he adopts towards the Christians, we may gather that he did not seek his information from them. But if he did not seek it from them, where did he go for it? To some official record, perhaps – possibly to Pilate’s report; who knows? Tacitus had an official standing which would give him access to such archives, if indeed they survived to his day.” [Ibid]
3. *Suetonius*
Suetonius was a Roman author who lived not long from Tacitus. About 120 AD he compiled the biographies of the first twelve emperors of Rome beginning with Julius Caesar onward. In his _Life of Claudius_ he wrote of the emperor’s expulsion of Jews/ Christians from Rome in 49 AD:
“He expelled the Jews from Rome, on account of the riots in which they were constantly indulging, at the instigation of Chrestus” [ _Life of Claudius_ 25, 4 ]
This was the very incident Luke was referring to in Acts 18:1 that drove the couple Priscilla and Aquila to Corinth from Rome.
The riots described here refers to the clash of Jews and the new Christians who were mostly Jews at this time and who worshipped together in the same synagogue. Till 70 AD Christianity operated as a sect of Judaism being a largely Jewish Church.
The reference to “Chrestus” is a popular misspelling of the name of Christ and refers to Christ. It is like writing Muammer Gaddafi in Arabic it spells differently from when it is anglicized in the popular note.
This was 49 AD and the Christian story wasn’t still widespread and Christians weren’t even distinguished from Jews.
Again this is another reference to Christ from earliest records.
4 *. Pliny the Younger*
Then there was the documents and letters of Pliny the Younger, imperial legate of the Roman province of Bithynia, a man of letters. 10 books of this man of letters have been preserved for posterity written in clear and flowing narrative. In his correspondence with Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD) we see long narratives at official and higher level by a governor asking for advice from his Emperor about how to deal with the Christians who had become so numerous in the region. A whole passages describing Christian beliefs, behavior and what kind of punishment to deal with them. It would be tedious of me to quote that here running into several pages. This shows the Reality of Christianity even in the first decades after Christ’s death. If then Christ did not exist we must account for this reality elsewhere. But where specifically?
This shows then that Christianity had become so widespread by the end of the First Century to the beginning of the second as to warrant a letter from a governor to his Emperor asking for advice.
In 49 AD just in the same generation that Christ died they had become so many in Rome that an imperial decree had to be issued to contain them.
So if Christ did not exist we are forced to agree, as Professor Will Durant suggested that Christianity was the product of a myth – a myth created in one generation. So if it is a Myth who created the Myth?
Slaves, illiterate fishermen, publicans etc who were the first followers of Jesus? Could slaves, illiterate fishermen have created such a myth to conquer a whole empire? Is this sound reasoning?
And to think that scholars, people who teach our young children would believe this crap, this nonsense in the name of Higher Criticism beggars belief? This is not delusion or madness, it is worse. I agree with Professor Durant that for fishermen to have created such a Myth would be a greater miracle than even the Resurrection. Then too we may believe that an elephant could write the poetry of Homer or Wordsworth; a hyena the verses of Milton or a chimpanzee the sonnets of Shakespeare. That is how poorly some of your scholars think.
*5. Thallus 52 AD*
There is even a source earlier than Tacitus or Suetonius. In the British Museum today there is a document titled Syriac MS, Additional 14,658 dated 7th century but the letter itself is some centuries earlier. It was written by man named Thallus, a freed slave who wrote the history of Eastern Mediterranean world from the Trojan War to his day. Although the history is lost it was known to a Chrisitan writer on chronology Julius Africanus. Julius described the earthquake and eclipse that happened during the Crucifixion of Christ. Now he claimed that Thallus corroborated that indeed there was an earthquake and darkness over all the Earth exactly as it was described by Luke in his records.
Edward Gibbon, the greatest historian of English realm of the 19th century considered the story credible and the sources unimpeachable to have included this story in his masterpiece _The Decline and Fall of Roman Empire_.
So far we have examined only Roman sources.
In the next part we shall examine Jewish sources and other extant sources.
It is a sad thing that I have to use the words of Rome to prove the existence of Christ. But I have to do so following the way of scholarship. I am not using New Testament records because the scholars would claim they were written by his followers and biased. So let us see what the outsiders, who were hostile about Christ said of him before going to the New Testament records.
One fact is clear from all these: the people of his First Century and even Second Century knew there was a historical personage called Jesus Christ who was tried under Pilate and crucified and He rose on the third day.
Tomorrow we shall examine other documents and see whether He was actually crucified or not.
Jesus is an historical reality. His existence is a fact confirmed by History. He is therefore an historical inevitability.
Happy Easter to all my readers.
©️ Moses Oludele Idowu
April 3, 2026
All Rights Reserved
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