Is there any non-biblical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus?

Answer 1

Yes. Both Josephus' 'Antiquities' and the Roman historian, Tacitus, mention Jesus:

Jesus, Wise Man and Teacher: Antiquities 18.3.3 "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 to this day."

Concerning the darknest scene mentioned above, Julius Africanus,

writing c. 221, while writing about the crucifixion of Jesus, mentioned Thallus. Thus:

On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in his third book of History, calls (as appears to me without reason) an eclipse of the sun.

Answer 2

No. There is no independent historical or archaeological evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. One would expect that at least one of the scribes would have reported the darkness that fell over the whole land at noon, or the earthquake that only Matthew reports, with the dead rising up out of their graves and walking into Jerusalem where they were seen by many. Nothing of this was reported outside Matthew's Gospel.

No independent reports exist of the many appearances of the risen Jesus during the forty days after the resurrection (Acts 1:3). Even the gospels themselves are so unreliable as evidence for the resurrection as to raise serious doubts whether Jesus really rose from the dead. Mark's Gospel, in its original form, ended at verse 16:8, with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and they told no one. The "Long Ending" (verses 16:9-20) was added to Mark long afterwards to provide the necessary resurrection appearances. Matthew, Luke and John all have different and contradictory accounts of how the women found the tomb empty and different and contradictory accounts of the appearances of the risen Jesus.

The New Testament is the only first-century record of the resurrection of Jesus, but can not be regarded as independent records. In spite of their discrepancies on the resurrection accounts, biblical scholars have demonstrated that, in the main, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were actually based on the Gospel of Mark; furthermore the Gospel of John was loosely based on the Gospel of Luke. If Mark's author could not report anything about the resurrection other than the young man telling the women that he had risen, that is all there is. If indeed Flavius Josephus wrote the Testimonium Flavium, he could only have been relying on the testimony of Christians who were not even alive at the time of Jesus.

Answer 3

If you are looking for external writings that note the life of Jesus then there are ten known non-Christian sources and about four times as many Christian sources which include the Gospels. The 10 are: Josephus, the Jewish historian for the Roman Government; Tacitus, the Roman historian; Pliny the Younger a Roman politician; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Thallus, a first century historian; Seutonius, a Roman historian; Lucian of Samosata, a Greek satirist; Celsus, a Roman philosopher; Mara Bar-Serapion, a private citizen who wrote to his son; and lastly, the Jewish Talmud. All of these writings are within a 150 year timeframe of the life and times of Jesus.

Interestingly, compare these 10 writings to only the 9 non-Christian writings (during same 150 year timeframe) for Tiberius Caesar, the Roman emperor at the time of Jesus' ministry. Strange how few doubt his existence or writings.

Modern writers Norman Geisler and Frank Turek in their 2004 book "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist', summarizes the 10 non-Christian writers noted above (some very anti-Christian) as follows: 'They attest that Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar, lived a virtuous life, was a wonder-worker, had a brother named James, was acclaimed to be the Messiah and was crucified under Pontius Pilate on the eve of the Jewish Passover, accompanied by darkness and earthquake...The further affirm that His disciples believed He rose from the dead, were willing to die for their belief, spread Christianity rapidly as far as Rome and denied the Roman gods, instead worshipping Jesus as God ' (p. 223).

The above sounds like it could be a summary of the Gospels, Acts and some of the other books in the New Testament.

Answer 4

I just resurrected a boner in my pants and your mom said "Jesus! Just before she sucked me clean" :D