There are relatively few references to Jesus in non-Christian sources over the first two centuries A.D. One historian explains this reality in these words: "Jesus was a marginal Jew leading a marginal movement in a marginal province of the vast Roman empire."

   Fortunately however, both Jewish and pagan literature does contain significant references that bear upon the veracity of the biblical record of Jesus' existence. And this record was not just a figment of the imagination of overly zealous followers.

   Among Jewish sources the writings of the historian, Josephus, who lived from A.D. 37 to 100 are among the best known and historically reliable.

   In discussing the rule of the Jewish high priest, Ananus, Josephus mentions in Book 20 of his "Jewish Antiquities" that to an assembly of the Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, "He (Ananus) assembled the Sanhedrin of the judges, and brought before them James, the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, and some others, and when he had formed an accusation against them as law breakers, he delivered them to be stoned."

   Josephus was not writing about Jesus or Christians; he was merely setting the stage for the story of the deposition of Ananus. James was a common Jewish name. Some identification was needed; thus Josephus designated James as the brrother of Jesus, who was also called Christ.

   The mention of Jesus is incidental but its mention is intact in all Greek sources of Josephus' history and is accepted by virtually all scholars as being authentic.

   In his Antiquities, Book 18, in writing about Pontius Pilate, the Procurator of Judea, Josephus makes further mention of Jesus. "Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man for he was the doer of wonderful works, and a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the gentiles. And 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; and the tribe of Christians, so named after him are not extinct at this day."

  An analysis of these two passages from Josephus' Antiquities indicates that they were not later interpolations, that he did actually mention Jesus and even though they were "in passing" references, Josephus clearly acknowledged the historicity of Jesus.

Non-Jewish sources--Mara bar Sarapion

   An original letter dated A.D. 73 and written by a Syrian Stoic held in a Roman prison is one of the earliest non-Christian references to Jesus. Written to his son to extol the virtue of wisdom, the writer, Mara Bar Sarapion, states as follows:

   "What good did it do to the Athenians to kill Socrates, for which deed they were punished with famine and pestilence? What did it avail the Samians to burn Pythagorus, since their country was entirely buried under sand in one moment? Or what did it avail the Jews to kill their wise king, since their kingdom was taken from them from that time on?

   "God justly avenged these three wise men. The Athenians died of famine, the Samians were flooded by the sea, the Jews were slaughtered and driven from their kingdom, everywhere living in the dispersion. (Jerusalem was sacked by Rome in A.D. 70)

   "Socrates is not dead, thanks to Plato; nor Pythagoras, because of Hera's statue. Nor is the wise king, because of the new law he has given."

   Although Mara does not mention Jesus by name, there is little doubt that he had him in mind. It would also seem that his information came from Christian sources such as the synoptic Gospels.