RE: Why do atheists even bother about debating Jesus?
February 3, 2013 at 5:38 am
(This post was last modified: February 3, 2013 at 6:04 am by Confused Ape.)
(February 2, 2013 at 10:51 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Pilate was written about by both Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. We did not need the inscription to prove his historicity.
Pontius Pilate
Quote:Pilate and his wife arrived at Caesarea in 26. Almost immediately, troubles started: soldiers had brought statues of the emperor into Jerusalem, and almost the entire population of Jerusalem marched to Caesarea, imploring the new governor to remove the effigies. There are three reports about the incident. The oldest is written by Philo in the forties and is extremely hostile to Pilate, for reasons explained above. Philo was not present, however; he was at Alexandria, and this distance may explain some discrepancies with the other reports. These are both written by Flavius Josephus, whose Jewish War appeared in the seventies and is (partially) based on oral sources.
Jospehus was born in 37 CE. Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judaea from 26 CE to 36 CE. If we're supposed to accept Josephus's history books as proof of Pilate's existence without archaeological backup we'll have to do the same for Jesus and John the Baptist.

Josephus On Jesus
Quote:The extant manuscripts of the writings of the 1st century Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus include references to Jesus and the origins of Christianity.[1][2] Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, written around 93–94 AD, includes two references to Jesus in Books 18 and 20 and a reference to John the Baptist in Book 18.[1][3]
Modern scholarship has almost universally acknowledged the authenticity of the reference in Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 of the Antiquities to "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James" [4] and considers it as having the highest level of authenticity among the references of Josephus to Christianity.[5][1][2][6][7][8] 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.[9][10][11]



