Flavius Josephus,
Jewish historian, became a Pharisee at 19, later commander,
of the Jewish forces in
Galilee. Captured by Romans and attached
to their headquarters.
Born: 34AD
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to
call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the
truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many Jews, and many of the
Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men
among 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.”
Pontius Pilate,
Roman
governor of Judea
who ordered Christ's crucifixion, 1st
Cent A.D
Wrote to the Roman emperor Tiberius
Caesar:
"And him, Herod, and Archelaus and Philip, Annas, and Caiphas, with
all the people, delivered to me, making a great uproar against me that I should try Him
(Christ). I, therefore, ordered Him to be crucified, having first scourged Him, and having
found against Him no cause of evil accusations or deeds. At the time he was crucified,
there was darkness over all the world, the sun being darkened at midday, and the stars
appearing, but in them there appeared no luster; and the moon, as if turned into blood,
failed in her light."
Julian the Apostate,
Roman Emperor 361-363 A.D.
One of the most gifted ancient adversaries to Christianity.
In his work against Christianity:
“Jesus…has now been celebrated about three hundred years
having done nothing in his lifetime worthy of fame, unless anyone thinks it is a very
great work to heal lame and blind people and exorcise demoniacs in the villages of
Bethsaida and Bethany.”
But at the end of his life was forced
to say:
“Thou has conquered, O Galilean!”
-
He
also affirms the authenticity of all four gospels.
Thallus,
Samaritan-born historian, wrote A.D. 52. His writings have
disappeared and
we know of them only from fragments cited by other writers.
One such writer is Julian Africanus,
A Christian writer of about 221 A.D. who says:
“Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away this
darkness as an eclipse of the sun – unreasonable as it seems to me (unreasonable of
course, because a solar eclipse could not take place at the time of the full moon, and it
was at the season of the Paschal full moon that Christ died).”
Carnegie Simpson
“Jesus is not one of the group of world’s great. Talk about
Alexander the Great and Charles the Great and Napoleon the Great if you will…Jesus is
apart. He is not the Great – He is the only.”
David Strauss,
German theologian,
applied Hegelian philosophy to study of the Bible.
Toward the end of his life
“This Christ…is historical, not mythical, is an individual, no
mere symbol…”
E. M. Blaiklock
“Luke is a consummate historian, to be ranked in his own right with
the great writers of the Greeks.”
Bruce M. Metzger
“Today no competent scholar denies the historicity of Jesus.”
H. G. Wells,
British writer, 1866-1946
“In the reign of Tiberius Caesar a great teacher arose out of Judea
who was to liberate the intense realization of the righteousness and unchallengeable
oneness of God, and of man’s moral obligation to God…This was Jesus of
Nazareth…Is it any wonder that to this day the Galilean is too much for our small
hearts.”
Napoleon Bonaparte,
Emperor
of France
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the
enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a
dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My
armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot
Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between
him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison.
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest
the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at
this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or
anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor
nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here
everything is extraordinary.”
Ernest Renan,
French historian, religious scholar and linguist
“All history is incomprehensible without Christ.”
“Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be
surpassed.”
William E. Channing,
American
religious leader whose writings and sermons
led to the emergence of Unitarianism, 1780-1842
“The sages and heroes of history are receding from us, and history
contracts the record of their deeds into a narrower and narrower page. But time has no
power over the name and deeds and words of Jesus Christ.”
P. Carnegie Simpson,
Concerning Christianity said:
“Is a fact of history recognizable as any other.”
H. G. Wells,
British writer, 1866-1946
When asked which person left the most
permanent impression on history, he replied that judging a person’s greatness by
historical standards:
“By this test, Jesus stands first.”
“I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a
historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of
history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”
“Christ is the most unique person of history. No man can write a
history of the human race without giving first and foremost place to the penniless teacher
of Nazareth.”
Kenneth Scott Latourette,
former President of American Historic Society
In A History of Christianity:
“It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had
upon history and presumably, of the baffling mystery of His being that no other life ever
lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and
languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount.”
“As the centuries pass by, the evidence is accumulating that
measured by its effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this
planet. The influence appears to be mounting.”
“No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply
affected mankind.”
George Bancroft,
great American historian
“I find the name of Jesus Christ written on the top of every page
of modern history.”
Daniel Webster,
American
politican, 1782-1852
“All that is best in the civilization of today, is the fruit of
Christ’s appearance among men.”
Will Durant,
popular modern historian and philosopher
When asked what he felt the apex of
history was:
“the three years that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth.”
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