約瑟夫斯的《猶太古史》寫於公元93-94年左右,它在第18和20篇中提到聖經中的耶穌。一般學者的看法是,雖然那個較長的、稱為Testimonium Flavianum的段落總體上很可能是不是真實的,但人們普遍認為它最初由一個真實的核心構成,然後才遭到基督教的篡改或偽造。[34][35]在約瑟夫斯另一處提到耶穌的地方,研究約瑟夫斯的學者Louis H. Feldman認為,「很少有人質疑約瑟夫斯」在《猶太古史》的第20篇,9.1章中提到耶穌的段落的「真實性」,而且只有少數學者有爭議。[36][37]
羅馬歷史學家塔西佗在《編年史》(大約寫於公元116年)的第15篇44章提到一個名為 「Christus」的人以及他被彼拉多處決的事件。[38]羅伯特·凡·沃斯特(Robert E. Van Voorst)指出,塔西佗對基督徒評價的極端消極語氣說明這段經文基本上不可能是一個基督徒文士偽造的,[39]而博伊德和埃迪(Boyd and Eddys)則認為塔西佗的這些文字現在被廣泛接受為確認基督被釘十字架的獨立文獻來源,[40]雖然有些學者以各種理由質疑這段經文的真實性。
約翰·梅爾將耶穌被釘十字架視為歷史事實,並指出,基於「尷尬標準」,基督徒不會虛構自己的領袖痛苦死亡的事件。梅爾指出,許多其他標準——多重見證的標準(即多於一個來源確認),一致性標準(即它與其他歷史要素相符)和拒絕標準(即沒有爭議的古代來源) ——有助於確立耶穌被釘十字是一個歷史事件。[43]艾迪和博伊德(Eddy and Boyd )說,目前非常確定的是,歷史中有非基督徒的對耶穌被釘十字架的歷史確認——指的是弗拉維奧·約瑟夫斯和塔西佗的作品。[40]
大多學者在第三次探索歷史中的耶穌中認為,十字架事件是毫無疑問的,[10][43][44]巴特·葉爾曼,[45]約翰·克羅森[10]和詹姆斯·鄧恩也認同這個觀點。[8]雖然學者同意十字架事件的歷史性,但對它的原因和背景有不同的解釋。例如, E. P. Sanders和Paula Fredriksen都支持十字架事件的歷史性,但認為耶穌沒有預言他將被釘十字架,他預言自己將被釘十字架是基督教發明的故事。Geza Vermes同樣認為十字架事件是一個歷史事件,但認為這是由於耶穌挑戰了羅馬權威而導致的。[46]
另一方面,羅伯特·福克(Robert W. Funk)和同事寫道,從20世紀70年代開始,一些學者拒絕了耶穌持有末世論觀點,指出他拒絕了施洗約翰的苦行及其末世論信息。根據這種看法,神的國不是一個未來的國度,而是現時的、神秘的當下。 約翰·克羅森認為,耶穌的末世論是建立一種新的、聖潔的生活方式,而不是上帝對歷史的干預和救贖。
——Fredriksen, Paula. (2000) From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Christ. Second Edition. Yale University Press. p. 122 ISBN 0300084579
學者們關於耶穌是否被埋葬有分歧。克雷格·埃文斯( Craig A. Evans)認為,「文獻中的、歷史學的和考古學的證據都指向一個方向:根據猶太習俗,耶穌的屍體被放置在墓中。」[114]約翰·克羅森有一個獨特的立場,他認為彼得福音是關於耶穌的最古老的主要資料來源。根據這一立場,他認為關於耶穌埋葬的記載變得越來越過分,因此,他認為,在歷史上敵人不會放出屍體,並認為耶穌的追隨者沒有辦法知道耶穌的屍體在哪裏。克羅森基於彼得福音的立場沒有得到其它學者的支持,[115]例如,Meyer認為這種說法是「偏頗的、不可信的」,[116]Koester批評它是「嚴重有缺陷的」。[117]Habermas反對克羅森的說法,他認為,猶太當局在回應基督徒要求耶穌復活的說法而發明了埋葬和空墳墓的事件。[118]他注意到Yohanan Ben Ha'galgol屍體的發現,認為這個發現說明了一世紀在巴勒斯坦釘十字架後被埋葬是歷史事實。(Yohanan Ben Ha'galgol在一世紀被釘十字架,被發現埋在古耶路撒冷外的埋葬地,一個藏有古代遺骨的房子裏)[119]其他學者認為,在馬可福音第25章中,亞利馬太的約瑟埋葬了耶穌在歷史上是可能的,有些學者進而認為,這個墳墓有可能在後來發現是空的。馬克·沃特曼(Mark Waterman)更為肯定地維持空墳墓比耶穌復活後的顯現更為重要的。[120] 米高·格蘭特(Michael Grant)寫道:
In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship, Bart Ehrman (a secular agnostic) wrote: "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees" B. Ehrman, 2011 Forged : writing in the name of GodISBN 978-0-06-207863-6]. page 285
Robert M. Price (an atheist who denies the existence of Jesus) agrees that this perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars: Robert M. Price "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" in The Historical Jesus: Five Views edited by James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy, 2009 InterVarsity, ISBN 028106329X page 61
Michael Grant (a classicist) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." in Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels by Michael Grant 2004 ISBN 1898799881 page 200
Jesus Remembered by James D. G. Dunn 2003 ISBN 0-8028-3931-2 page 339 states of baptism and crucifixion that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent".
Crossan, John Dominic. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne. 1995: 145. ISBN 0-06-061662-8. That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus ... agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact.
The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 pages 124-125
Jesus Research: An International Perspective (Princeton-Prague Symposia Series on the Historical Jesus) by James H. Charlesworth and Petr Pokorny (Sep 15, 2009) ISBN 0802863531 pages 1-2
Clive Marsh, "Diverse Agendas at Work in the Jesus Quest" in Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus by Tom Holmen and Stanley E. Porter (Jan 12, 2011) ISBN 9004163727 pages 986-1002
John P. Meier "Criteria: How do we decide what comes from Jesus?" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight (Jul 15, 2006) ISBN 1575061007 page 124 "Since in the quest for the historical Jesus almost anything is possible, the function of the criteria is to pass from the merely possible to the really probable, to inspect various probabilities, and to decide which candidate is most probable.
James D. G. Dunn "Paul's understanding of the death of Jesus" in Sacrifice and Redemption edited by S. W. Sykes (Dec 3, 2007) Cambridge University Press ISBN 052104460X pages 35-36 states that the theories of non-existence of Jesus are "a thoroughly dead thesis"
The Gospels and Jesus by Graham Stanton, 1989 ISBN 0192132415 Oxford University Press, p. 145: "Today nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed".
P.E. Easterling, E. J. Kenney (general editors), The Cambridge History of Latin Literature, page 892 (Cambridge University Press, 1982, reprinted 1996).
John P. Meier "How do we decide what comes from Jesus" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight 2006 ISBN 1-57506-100-7 pages 126-128 and 132-136
Paul L. Maier "The Date of the Nativity and Chronology of Jesus" in Chronos, kairos, Christos by Jerry Vardaman, Edwin M. Yamauchi 1989 ISBN 0-931464-50-1 pages 113-129
The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 page 114
In The Historical Jesus in Recent Research edited by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight 2006 ISBN 1-57506-100-7 page 303 Marcus Borg states that the suggestions that an adult Jesus traveled to Egypt or India are "without historical foundation"
InWho Is Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan, Richard G. Watts 1999 ISBN 0664258425 pages 28-29 John Dominic Crossan states that none of the theories presented to fill the 15-18-year gap between the early life of Jesus and the start of his ministry have been supported by modern scholarship.
"[T]here is no reason to think that Jesus was called God in the earliest layers of New Testament tradition." in "Does the New Testament call Jesus God?" in Theological Studies, 26, (1965) p. 545-73
John Hick, The Metaphor of God Incarnate, page 27: "A further point of broad agreement among New Testament scholars ... is that the historical Jesus did not make the claim to deity that later Christian thought was to make for him: he did not understand himself to be God, or God the Son, incarnate. ... such evidence as there is has led the historians of the era to conclude, with an impressive degree of unanimity, that Jesus did not claim to be God incarnate."
Josephus, Antiquities Book XVIII. earlyjewishwritings.com. [2022-08-09]. (原始內容存檔於2020-06-29). Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late.
Jewish Encyclopedia: Essenes (頁面存檔備份,存於互聯網檔案館): "The similarity in many respects between Christianity and Essenism is striking: There were the same communism (Acts iv. 34-35); the same belief in baptism or bathing, and in the power of prophecy; the same aversion to marriage, enhanced by firmer belief in the Messianic advent; the same system of organization, and the same rules for the traveling brethren delegated to charity-work (see Apostle and Apostleship); and, above all, the same love-feasts or brotherly meals (comp.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church reports that "it is possible" that the temple disturbance led to Jesus' arrest, offers no alternative reason, and states more generally that a political rather than religious motivation was likely behind it.
Barrett, CK 'The Gospel According to St. John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes', Westminster John Knox Press, 1978, page 49, 'The alleged contraventions of Jewish law seem to rest upon misunderstandings of Jewish texts'
Barrett, CK 'The Gospel According to St. John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes', Westminster John Knox Press, 1978, pp. 49-50, 'The explanation is that special circumstances were regularly allowed to modify the course of the law.
N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), p. 49; who wrote "[Crossan's hypothesis] has not been accepted yet by any other serious scholar."
G. Habermas, The Historical Jesus, (College Press, 1996) p. 128; he observed that the Jewish polemic is recorded in Matthew 28:11–15 and was employed through the second century, cf.
"Jesus Research and Archaeology: A New Perspective" by James H. Charlesworth in Jesus and archaeology edited by James H. Charlesworth 2006 ISBN 0-8028-4880-X pages 11-15
Soundings in the Religion of Jesus: Perspectives and Methods in Jewish and Christian Scholarship by Bruce Chilton Anthony Le Donne and Jacob Neusner 2012 ISBN 0800698010 page 132
Hendel, Ronald. Knowledge and Power in Biblical Scholarship. June 2010 [2011-01-06]. (原始內容存檔於2020-11-20). ... The problem at hand is how to preserve the critical study of the Bible in a professional society that has lowered its standards to the degree that apologetics passes as scholarship ...
Meier, John. Finding the Historical Jesus: An Interview With John P. Meier. St. Anthony Messenger. [Jan 6, 2011]. (原始內容存檔於2000-12-07). ... I think a lot of the confusion comes from the fact that people claim they are doing a quest for the historical Jesus when de facto they’re doing theology, albeit a theology that is indeed historically informed.
Clive Marsh "Quests of the Historical Jesus in New Historicist Perspective" in Biblical Interpretation Journal Volume 5, Number 4, 1997 , pp. 403-437(35)
McKnight, Scot. The Jesus We'll Never Know. April 9, 2010 [Jan 15, 2011]. (原始內容存檔於2019-05-18). One has to wonder if the driving force behind much historical Jesus scholarship is ... a historian's genuine (and disinterested) interest in what really happened. The theological conclusions of those who pursue the historical Jesus simply correlate too strongly with their own theological predilections to suggest otherwise.
Jesus Remembered Volume 1, by James D. G. Dunn 2003 ISBN 0-8028-3931-2 pp. 125-126: "the historical Jesus is properly speaking a nineteenth- and twentieth-century construction using the data supplied by the Synoptic tradition, not Jesus back then," (the Jesus of Nazareth who walked the hills of Galilee), "and not a figure in history whom we can realistically use to critique the portrayal of Jesus in the Synoptic tradition."
T. Merrigan, The Historical Jesus in the Pluralist Theology of Religions, in The Myriad Christ: Plurality and the Quest for Unity in Contemporary Christology (ed.
Akenson, Donald. Surpassing wonder: the invention of the Bible and the Talmuds. University of Chicago Press. 1998: 539–555 [Jan 8, 2011]. ISBN 978-0-226-01073-1. (原始內容存檔於2019-05-15). ... The point I shall argue below is that, the agreed evidentiary practices of the historians of Yeshua, despite their best efforts, have not been those of sound historical practice ...
The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 pages 117–125
Barnett, Paul W. Jesus and the Logic of History (New Studies in Biblical Theology 3). Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press. 1997. ISBN 0-85111-512-8.
Bauckham, Richard. Jesus: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 2011. ISBN 0-19-957527-4.
Brown, Raymond E. The Death of the Messiah: from Gethsemane to the Grave. New York, NY: Anchor Bible. 1993. ISBN 0-385-49449-1.
Brown, Raymond E. et al.The New Jerome Biblical Commentary Prentice Hall 1990 ISBN 0-13-614934-0
Bock, Darrell L., Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods.. Baker Academic: 2002. ISBN 978-0-8010-2451-1.
Craffert, Pieter F. and Botha, Pieter J. J. "Why Jesus Could Walk On The Sea But He Could Not Read And Write." Neotestamenica. 39.1, 2005.
Vermes, G. Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the Gospels. SCM Classics:2001, ISBN 0-334-02839-6
Theissen, Gerd and Merz, Annette. The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide. Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 1998. ISBN 0-8006-3122-6.
Van Voorst, Robert E., Jesus Outside the New Testament, 2000, Eerdmans, google books(頁面存檔備份,存於互聯網檔案館)
Witherington III, Ben. The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth. InterVarsity Press: 1997. ISBN 0-8308-1544-9.
Wright, N.T. Christian Origins and the Question of God, a projected six volume series of which three have been published under:
v. 1, The New Testament and the People of God. Augsburg Fortress Publishers: 1992.;
v. 2, Jesus and the Victory of God. Augsburg Fortress Publishers: 1997.;
v. 3, The Resurrection of the Son of God. Augsburg Fortress Publishers: 2003.
Wright, N.T. The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering who Jesus was and is. IVP 1996
Yaghjian, Lucretia. "Ancient Reading," in Richard Rohrbaugh, ed., The Social Sciences in New Testament Interpretation. Hendrickson Publishers: 2004. ISBN 1-56563-410-1.
"Jesus Christ"(頁面存檔備份,存於互聯網檔案館). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. The first section, on Jesus' life and ministry