Historian
Tacitus
c. 56 – c. 120 AD · Rome
Roman senator and historian. His Annals 15.44 records Nero’s persecution of Christians and independently confirms the execution of Christ under Pontius Pilate.
Annals 15.44
Roman official
Pliny the Younger
c. 61 – c. 113 AD
Governor of Bithynia-Pontus. Around 112 AD he wrote to Trajan asking how to handle Christians. His letter describes their worship and their refusal to curse Christ.
Letters 10.96–97
Historian
Flavius Josephus
c. 37 – c. 100 AD
Jewish historian and former rebel commander. Wrote in Greek for a Roman audience. His Antiquities mentions Jesus, John the Baptist, and James the brother of Jesus.
Antiquities 18.63–64, 18.116–119, 20.200
Primary source
1 Corinthians 15:3–7
The earliest Christian creed. Paul quotes a formula he received and passed on. Most scholars — including sceptics such as Lüdemann and Ehrman — date it to AD 31–36, within 3–5 years of the crucifixion.
1 Cor. 15:3–7; Gal. 1:18
Scholar
Gary R. Habermas
b. 1950
American philosopher and historian. Catalogued more than 1,400 scholarly publications affirming the early date of the 1 Corinthians 15 creed.
Habermas & Licona, The Case for the Resurrection (2004)
Scholar
Bart D. Ehrman
b. 1955
James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at UNC Chapel Hill. Sceptical New Testament scholar. Author of Misquoting Jesus, How Jesus Became God, and Jesus Before the Gospels.
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction
Scholar
Gerd Lüdemann
1946–2021
German New Testament scholar and outspoken sceptic. Argued that Peter’s vision of the risen Jesus was a grief hallucination. Conceded, however, that a single hallucination cannot account for the group appearances.
The Resurrection of Christ (2002)
Scholar
E. P. Sanders
1937–2022
American New Testament scholar, Duke University. Author of Jesus and Judaism and The Historical Figure of Jesus. Generally regarded as one of the most important Jesus scholars of the twentieth century.
The Historical Figure of Jesus (1993)
Scholar
James D. G. Dunn
1939–2020
British New Testament scholar, Durham University. Author of Jesus Remembered and Beginning from Jerusalem. Argued that the Gospels preserve genuine eyewitness tradition.
Jesus Remembered (2003)
Scholar
John P. Meier
b. 1942
Catholic priest and New Testament scholar, University of Notre Dame. Author of the multi-volume A Marginal Jew, the definitive critical treatment of the historical Jesus.
A Marginal Jew, 5 vols.
Text criticism
The Testimonium Flavianum
Josephus, Antiquities 18.63–64. Most scholars accept the core as authentic; a few phrases are widely considered Christian interpolations.
Meier, A Marginal Jew, vol. 1
Method
The minimal facts approach
A method used by Christian and sceptical historians alike: identify the facts that (1) have multiple independent attestation and (2) are accepted by the majority of critical scholars, including sceptics. Then ask what best explains them.
Habermas & Licona (2004)
Method
The criterion of embarrassment
A criterion used by historians: details that are embarrassing to the author’s case are unlikely to have been invented, and are therefore more likely to be historically accurate.
See Meier, A Marginal Jew, vol. 1, ch. 6
Method
Multiple independent attestation
A claim corroborated by multiple independent sources is more likely to be historical than one found in only one source.
Standard historical method
Evidence
The women as first witnesses
All four Gospels name women as the first to find the empty tomb. In first-century Jewish and Roman courts, women’s testimony was not accepted as legal evidence. If the writers were inventing the story, this is the last detail they would have included.
Matt. 28:1–10; Mark 16:1–8; Luke 24:1–11; John 20:1–18
Jewish law
Women’s testimony
The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 1:8) rules women ineligible as witnesses in certain cases. The Mishnah was compiled c. 200 AD, but the underlying customs likely go back to the first century.
m. Rosh Hashanah 1:8; m. Shevuot 4:1
Apostle
Peter
Executed c. 64–68 AD
Fisherman from Bethsaida, chief of the Twelve. Denied Christ three times, then preached him to thousands at Pentecost. Tradition places his death in Rome under Nero, by crucifixion.
1 Clement 5:4; John 21:18–19
Apostle
John
Died c. 100 AD at Ephesus
Brother of James, son of Zebedee. Traditional author of the Fourth Gospel, three epistles, and Revelation. Died of old age at Ephesus, the only apostle traditionally said not to have died a martyr.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1.1
Martyr
Polycarp of Smyrna
Executed 155–166 AD
Bishop of Smyrna. Had known the apostle John. At eighty-six years old he refused to say “Caesar is Lord” and was burned alive.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 9
Bishop
Irenaeus of Lyon
c. 130 – c. 202 AD
Bishop of Lyon. Had heard Polycarp speak of John. Wrote Against Heresies around 180 AD, documenting the chain of tradition from the apostles to his own day.
Against Heresies 3.3
Bishop
Papias of Hierapolis
c. 60 – c. 130 AD
Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor. Collected oral traditions from the apostles and their disciples. His five-volume work survives only in quotations by Eusebius.
Eusebius, Church History 3.39
Bishop
Clement of Rome
fl. c. 96 AD
Bishop of Rome, traditionally the third after Peter. Author of 1 Clement, the earliest Christian document outside the New Testament, dated to around 96 AD.
1 Clement
Evangelist
John Mark
1st century AD
Companion of Peter and Paul. Traditionally the author of the Gospel of Mark and the founder of the church in Alexandria. Papias records that Mark wrote down Peter’s preaching.
Papias, in Eusebius, Church History 3.39
Evangelist
Luke
1st century AD
Physician and companion of Paul. Traditionally the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. The “we” passages in Acts suggest he was an eyewitness to some events.
Colossians 4:14; Acts 16:10–17
Historical tradition
Peter as source
Papias (c. 100 AD) records that Mark wrote down the preaching of Peter, and that Peter was the source of the material in the Second Gospel.
Papias, in Eusebius, Church History 3.39
Text criticism
The “we” passages
Four sections in Acts (16:10–17; 20:5–15; 21:1–18; 27:1–28:16) shift from third person to first person plural. This suggests the author was present at those events.
Acts 16:10–17; 20:5–15; 21:1–18; 27:1–28:16
Method
The synoptic problem
Matthew, Mark, and Luke share so much material, in such similar wording, that they must be literarily related. The dominant view is that Mark was written first, and that Matthew and Luke used Mark and a lost collection of Jesus’ sayings (called “Q”).
See standard introductions to the New Testament
Method
Independence of witnesses
Two witnesses who agree are more credible when they are independent. Matthew and Luke both used Mark, so agreements between them are not independent corroboration. But their differences — especially the details they preserve uniquely — are where historians look for early material.
Standard historical method
