Band:
I am fairly certain there are references to Christianity in contemporary writers of the first century. Jesus followers may not have called themselves Christians at first. Paul, even tho he disagrees with James and Peter, acknowledges their legitimacy to decide church matters. Perhaps other preachers were influential but Paul is a very powerful writer.
mP-> Band
That simply is not true. There are 4 texts from non gospel sources that talk about Jesus. They are Flavius Jospehus, Tacitus, Pliny and the last escapes my thought. If you read them you will realise they again know very little about Jesus. You can easily find them on wiki and read their texts. No miracles, no 12 apostles, no bethlehem, no mary, no virgin, no resurrection and just about everything we are told by the Bible. The texts only say Chrestus was crucified and had followers. You might want to also check that there were many rebel leaders in Judea called Jesus. The name or title "Jesus" means saviour a very appropriate name from any leader wanting to save the Jews from the Romans. A simple reading of the text will show the text could be about any leader who was executed for treason. There is no identifying item in any of the texts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testimonium_Flavianum
The overwhelming majority of modern scholars consider the reference in Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 of the Antiquities to "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James" to be authentic and to have the highest level of authenticity among the references of Josephus to Christianity. [4] [1] [2] [5] [6] [7] Almost all modern scholars consider the reference in Book 18, Chapter 5, 2 of the Antiquities to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist to also be authentic. [8] [9] [10]
...
And now Caesar, upon hearing the death of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of the high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on the son of Ananus, who was also himself called Ananus... Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned. [20]
...
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ . And when Pilate , at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross , those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. [47]
Skipping the commentary, lets take a look at the actual quotes in Jospehus hand. The best non gospel evidence of Jesus only says Jesus had a brother called James, and was accused of breaking the law. He was also executed.Thats it!!! Is that real evidence of anything or anyone ? Is that really a quality witness that would stand up in a court of law ?
The next question to how many Jesus were there. We all know Pilate ruled a long time so its unreasonable to think that there was only ever one Jesus executed.
You mgiht want to also check what Islam says abotu Jesus. They paint quite a different picture, no resurrection and lots of other details are different. Im not saying to believe, im just highlighting that they have quite a diferent story, which goes to show just how in flux or easy it is to corrupt such legend.
