Is There Proof that Jesus Really Lived?

This was a great question that came up last Sunday in confirmation class. What was even better was that some of the other kids helped to answer the question, with things like, "There's more proof that Jesus lived than Julius Caesar." (This was a reference, I believe, to the sheer quantity of ancient manuscripts of the New Testament and their close age to Christ, which does make the number and age of Caesar manuscripts pale in comparison.)

Some people might not accept the New Testament as a source, however, believing it to be biased. In that case, there are the writings of two "hostile witnesses," the Jewish historian Josephus (from about A.D. 70) and the Roman historian Tacitus (just a bit later), both of whom describe Jesus of Nazareth as a historical figure.

What we don't have is a lot of archaeological evidence. In fact, there was no archaeological evidence of the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, causing some scholars to doubt his existence until a stone inscription was found in 1961, corroborating the Biblical account -- once again. Archaeology often confirms what we find in the Bible, but we can't rely on it alone -- not everything has been preserved, so the saying goes, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

So our "evidence" is mainly historical and Biblical. Luke himself proves to be quite the historian when he reports the care with which he checked out the stories he included in his Gospel. Peter also says that he gives eyewitness testimony. They (and others) tell us that we shouldn't expect a lot of remains -- there is no tomb, no ossuary (bone box), no body, for Christ is risen and ascended on high!