Well, there was Tacitus. And Josephus. And some other guy.
Sure, Tacitus wrote about Jesus and his trial and conviction via Pilate about 80-100 years afterward, so of course he would have never met Jesus in person. But then, he wouldn't have met Tiberius or Pilate in person either, and he wrote about them with the same surety.
Well, there was Tacitus. And Josephus. And some other guy.
Sure, Tacitus wrote about Jesus and his trial and conviction via Pilate about 80-100 years afterward, so of course he would have never met Jesus in person. But then, he wouldn't have met Tiberius or Pilate in person either, and he wrote about them with the same surety.
As for the rest of your comment(s) on the subject, hard to argue. I'd just mention that no one (not one, ever) actually knows what the hell took place in lifetimes lived before us. But it doesn't mean accounts that are passed down are all untrue.
e.g. We had lizards roaming the earth at one time. Hey - the bones keep turning up. But no matter the science put into proving this or that about them, no one actually knows anything about them, how they lived, or when. Carbon dating is as flawed as the Council of Nicaea. And no one today professes to believe in dragons (that's all myth!), but we clearly had ginormous freaking lizards walking and flying at some point. So...in many ways, almost all archeology and history is a guessing game and a puzzle to be sorted by how each of us sees the world and trusts historical accounts, and the tools we have available to us when looking at it.
Letters from Pilate have been discovered, written to Tiberias, discussing his unease with the Jesus phenomenon in Judea. Lucanus, a Greek physician was a biographer of Jesus, along with John Mark. Both never knew or met Jesus, yet wrote biographies of his ministry that closely paralleled Matthew and John. Josephus followed closely behind.
Non-believers refuse to believe in anything bigger than themselves.
Well, there was Tacitus. And Josephus. And some other guy.
Sure, Tacitus wrote about Jesus and his trial and conviction via Pilate about 80-100 years afterward, so of course he would have never met Jesus in person. But then, he wouldn't have met Tiberius or Pilate in person either, and he wrote about them with the same surety.
As for the rest of your comment(s) on the subject, hard to argue. I'd just mention that no one (not one, ever) actually knows what the hell took place in lifetimes lived before us. But it doesn't mean accounts that are passed down are all untrue.
e.g. We had lizards roaming the earth at one time. Hey - the bones keep turning up. But no matter the science put into proving this or that about them, no one actually knows anything about them, how they lived, or when. Carbon dating is as flawed as the Council of Nicaea. And no one today professes to believe in dragons (that's all myth!), but we clearly had ginormous freaking lizards walking and flying at some point. So...in many ways, almost all archeology and history is a guessing game and a puzzle to be sorted by how each of us sees the world and trusts historical accounts, and the tools we have available to us when looking at it.
Letters from Pilate have been discovered, written to Tiberias, discussing his unease with the Jesus phenomenon in Judea. Lucanus, a Greek physician was a biographer of Jesus, along with John Mark. Both never knew or met Jesus, yet wrote biographies of his ministry that closely paralleled Matthew and John. Josephus followed closely behind.
Non-believers refuse to believe in anything bigger than themselves.