Category:Jesus of Nazareth (subject)

Jesus of Nazareth (c.5 BCE - c.30 CE) was a Jewish religious leader, the founder of the Christian movement.

Nativity of Jesus
- Annunciation to Mary / Birth of Jesus / Adoration of the Shepherds / Circumcision of Jesus / Presentation of Jesus at the Temple / Adoration of the Magi / Massacre of the Innocents / Flight into Egypt / Childhood of Jesus / Jesus among the Doctors

Ministry of Jesus
- Baptism of Jesus / Parables of Jesus / Miracles of Jesus

Passion of Jesus
- Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem / Cleansing of the Temple / Last Supper / Agony in the Garden / Arrest of Jesus / Trials of Jesus / Death of Jesus / Burial of Jesus

Resurrection of Jesus
- Risen Christ / Appearances of Jesus / Ascension of Jesus

Overview

Jesus of Nazareth in ancient sources

Earlier Christian sources

Gospel of Mark / Gospel of Matthew / Gospel of Luke / Gospel of Thomas / Gospel of John

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities

Ant 18:63-64 -- About the time (of Pilate) lived Jesus, a wise man [if indeed it be lawful to call him a man]. He was a doer of wonderful things and a teacher of men who delight in accepting the truth. He attracted many Jews and also many from the Greek world. He was called the Christ [He was indeed the Christ]; and when, on the accusation of our leading men. Pilate condemned him to the cross, those who loved him from the first did not cease to do so. [For he appeared to them again alive on the third day, the divine prophets having foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things about him.] The race of Christians named after him has survived to this day

Cf. 20:199-203 -- [The High Priest Ananias] was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who were very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews... He assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some of his companions; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the Law, he delivered them to be stoned

Classical sources

Mara bar Serapion (after 73 CE) -- What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that their Kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good; he lived on in the teaching of Plato. Pythagoras did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise King die for good; He lived on in the teaching which He had given.

Suetonius (ca. 120 CE) -- (Claudius) expelled the Jews from Rome, since they were always making disturbances because of the instigator Chrestus (Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantis Roma expulit).

Tacitus -- Christus, from whom the name (Chrestians) 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 Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.

Lucian of Samosata (ca. 125 – ca 185; late second century CE) -- “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day — the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account… You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws” (Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus 12, 13)

Celsus (late second century CE) -- Jesus was born in a certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country, who gained her subsistence by spinning, and who was turned out of doors by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because she was convicted of adultery. [Jesus’ father was a certain soldier named Panthera]. After being driven away by her husband, and wandering about for a time, she disgracefully gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child. Jesus, having hired himself out as a servant in Egypt on account of his poverty, and having there acquired some miraculous powers, on which the Egyptians greatly pride themselves, returned to his own country, highly elated on account of them, and by means of these proclaimed himself a god.