About a dozen contemporary references by Roman historians report various things about what they called the “cult of the Nazarine”, including thir claim
of the Resurrection.
The apostles testified to the truth of the Gospels they wrote, with the signature evidence that they were willing to die as a testimony to their truth. They were not afraid to die because they had witnessed the risen Christ.
The evidence for those Gospels’ authorship, veracity, is in the dozens even hundreds of writings of the early Christian leaders following the apostles that reference them. Polycarp rote of walks with John of Revelation on the isle of Patmos, Irraneus and others wrote of Polycarp, etc.
The Gospels could be rewritten on almost their entirety from those contemporary Christian leaders writings.
The Gospels therefore have better testament to authenticity than the other Roman-era writings about Caesar Augustus, for example.
The Babylonian Talmud, written by the enemies of Christ, also corroborate the Gospels truth by repeating what the Gospels say about their reaction to him, even saying his miracles were witchcraft.
For the communication technology of those days those times, the spread of Christianity was lightning fast, another testament to the 500 witnesses of the resurrected Christ. From the year of his crucifixion, about 30 A.D. to when they were so we’ll known and numerous only about 34 years later that Nero could blame them for the Great Fire of Rome. Remember there were still alive in those days of the 500 Resurrection witnesses constantly sharing what they had seen and heard on Palestine.
There are letters extant today between Roman governors of the time about the Christian problem, called atheists because they rejected all the God’s but for one God.
Another spectacular evidence for honest historians and anthropologists is that the day of worship changed for Christians from the millenia-long Sabbath observance of the Jews, to Sunday meetings, the “day of our Lord”, the day of his resurrection. You will note that to this day the tenacity of Orthodox Jews with the Sabbath.
Also there is plenty of mutual consistency among the four gospels to they reflect the same reality, bit enough differences to show that they are from different individual perspectives. Like you get from a band of men that witness the same event from different angles.
Isaac Asimov showed his ignorance of the Bible when he said the prophecies in the Bible were all too vague or self-fulfilling to be of use. Besides the much repeated 300 plus specific ones of the Messiah that included the year of his crucifixion, the method, and the rejection of the Jews, there are hundreds more on other things. There is precision in Jesus’ own “end time” prophecy of Matthew 24 and in Luke than most preacher’s even miss. A dozen details about the fate of ancient Tyre, partly fulfilled by Alexander. In fact, the priests saved Jerusalem from a asking when they showed Alexander that he was featured in the book of Daniel, written many generations later.
In fact there are descriptions of the effect of a nuclear bomb on persons in both Zechariah and Revelation, a vision of a busy modern interstate at night, a description of DNA in Psalm 139 (apparently clear only in the King James Bible, because the modern translators couldn’t believe it).
And modern medicine also has discovered medical facts in the telling of details of the crucifixion that were not known at the time they corroborate the description itself.
An afterthought about the empty tomb. Any hoax or attempt to clback-fill the stories in the Gospels during those days would never ever have any women discovering the Tomb, much less getting an explanation from angels. Even the virgin birth would have been ridiculous for a made-up story.
The Greek culture dominated the Roman Empire, and they placed women in status between men and slaves. Even among the Jews, who had maybe the best regard for women of those days or would be better regarded and more believable if it were men. Note that even Peter didn’t believe it till he went to see for himself.
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