Did Jesus Really Exist?

You’re in a conversation and someone says, “No one even knows if Jesus even existed."

What would you say?

While some skeptics on the internet often contend that Jesus never existed, no serious scholar does. In fact, virtually every scholar of history, including those who aren’t Christians, believe that Jesus of Nazareth existed and that he lived in the first century.

The next time someone says they don’t think we can be confident that Jesus ever existed, here are 3 things to remember:

First, several non-Christian historians of that period mention Jesus.
Second, the apostle Paul who had persecuted the Christian Church was a contemporary of Jesus and knew Jesus’ brother James.
Third, most contemporary scholars think that at least some of the Gospels are closely rooted in the eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ disciples.

Thank you to Dr. Michael Licona for his contributions to this video.
Sources:
Josephus, Ant. 18:63; 20:200
Tacitus, Annals 15.44
Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 11
Mara bar Serapion, British Museum Syriac MS Additional 14,658

Comment Policy: We encourage civil discussions. Please keep bad language, personal attacks, off-topic comments, and general bad behavior off our site.

[lme]

So jesus was his own dad and sacrificed himself to himself to exploit a loophole he himself created in order to prevent himself from throwing his own creations into eternal hellfire all because a talking snake convinced a clone woman into eating a piece of magic fruit?

[jasonglover]

Please make the music stop when you get into the heart of the video. It’s so distracting

[petercumpson]

I'm pretty sure Jesus ben Ananias existed.
Part of the problem here is that apologists get a range of atheist scholars to say they think *a* Jesus existed even if very different to the one the Christian apologists have in mind. Then the apologists say "Look - even atheists agree *our* Jesus existed!"
Take a look at Jesus ben Ananias as one candidate. He could conceivably be the core of this story, with heavy accretion with earlier stories and myths. So yes, *a* Jesus is at a the core of it all - just a Jesus that most Christians would be horrified to find if they were transported back to the 1st century.

[goor]

I love you Jesus! My Lord and my God. My Savior of which there is no other way to the Father.
That's what I would say.

[nevreadyy]

No scientific basis, I believe something existed doesn't make a difference in reality.

[petercumpson]

Josephus indeed had no reason to invent Jesus. Eusebius did - that's probably the reason he inserted the testimonium flavianum in Josephus' work!

[shellybelle]

Jesus may well have existed. But this says nothing about whether or not he was divine.

[robertal]

While I was looking at utube regarding pharaoh's carvings I realized everyone was bearing a ring and cross, even carved letters, at their bottoms alway cross connected to ring,
How this later developed in Christianity that every one has his cross...

[robertlight]

What physical evidence do you have Jesus rather than copies of copies of lost manuscripts?

[bmoshareholderappleshareho]

I guess Superman existed because there are comic books about him.

[RassBrass]

Jesus did exist this shouldn’t be questionable. The question is who was he?

[willemrm]

The gospel Jesus is clearly fictional, the real "jesus "- who or whatever that might have been, irrelevant.
If Josephus or Philo or Justus, or...would have made a factual account of a Jesus kind of person's 'life, ideas and actions - which they didn't,
or if so got lost or destroyed - chance is very high the gospels would be contradicted on several accounts.
So christians are very lucky nothing is historically known about the backgrounds and nature of that biblical charachter.

[Milanova]

Mark 6:3
Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?"

The problem is, Jesus‘ father was called Joseph, and one of Jesus‘ brothers was called Joseph. ..how?

Secondly, he was a son of carpenter and a carpenter himself ….Not the son of God or Messiah. At least people in his village could have known.

Thirdly, Jesus always called himself, son of man!

Amen!

[Dan]

This is really flimsy. The same arguments could be made about the Easter Bunny with roughly the same credibility.

[midlander]

So lying for Jesus within 0'15". Off to a good start...

[theoskeptomai]

I have never encountered any evidence that suggested that Jesus was a historical figure.

[mikaeljohansson]

That is no eyewittnes. And the rest is wrong becuse It's all on faith...

[manthetower]

It not weather or not Jesus existed, the question is weather or not he preformed miracles in which outside of Christian text there are no records.

[tabasco]

Richard Carrier has tactically debunked these points. How can the non-scholarly know conclusively?

[fred_derf]

"Did jesus really exist". No, next question.