The Documents.

The basis of most Christ-Myth theories is an alleged lack of early references to the historical Jesus. However, this "sound of silence" is so loud that it cannot be ignored. Below is a list of each work demonstrating knowledge of an historical Jesus from the first and second centuries, and links to articles detailing whether I think they are authentic and why. They are ordered by estimated date of authorship. Remember: every single one of these documents must be inauthentic for Jesus to be a myth.

Author Date Work Articles Notes
Pilate 32AD "The Acts of Pontius Pilate" Coming soon. See the article for an explanation of this source, which is included for completeness.
Paul 49-57AD Galatians - All commentators (including Doherty) accept Galatians as both early and authentic.
54-57AD 1Corinthians - -
55-57AD 2Corinithains - -
55-58AD Romans - -
58-62AD Ephesians - -
58-62AD Philippians - -
58-63AD Colossians - -
50-52AD 1Thessalonians - -
50-52AD 2Thessalonians - -
60-63AD Philemon - -
60-65AD Titus - Authorship widely questioned
62-62AD 1Timothy - Authorship widely questioned.
62-67AD 2Timothy - Authorship widely questioned.
Unknown 60's AD Hebrews - No, Paul didn't write it. Honest!
"Peter"* 62-68AD 1Peter - -
62-90AD 2Peter - -
"Mark" Before 70AD Gospel According to Mark - My dating of Mark is much earlier than Doherty's. However, I feel rather strongly that such a late date as he (and e.g. Wells) propose is insupportable, and in this case the scholarly consensus agrees with me. This is also true for the other gospels.
"Luke" Gospel According to Luke 60-90AD - -
Acts of the Apostles 60-90AD - -
"Matthew" Gospel According to Matthew 60-80 - -
"John" Gospel According to John 70-90AD -John 2.20 Dated to 28CE (l).
-John fragment from 125CE
-Lightfoot (incomplete, local)
-
Josephus 93AD Antiquities - -
"John" 60-100AD Revelation - -
Clement 95-97 First Epistle to the Corinthians - -
Polycarp - Epistle to the Philippians - -
Barnabas 100AD Epistle of Barnabas - -
Ignatius of Antioch Before 107 Many Epistles - -
Tacitus 109AD Annals -J.P. Holding -
Pliny the Younger 112AD Epistles - -
Papias 125AD? Assorted Fragments - -
Irenaeus Late second century Against Heresies - -
Justin Martyr 153-155AD First Apology - Describes the Jesus of the gospels in exhaustive detail.
153-155AD Second Apology - -

* For the purposes of this site, where there is considerable debate about authorship I have enclosed the name of the traditional author in quotes. This does not necessarily mean I endorse traditional authorship, but simply that I grow tired of writing "the author of Mark" everywhere.

Last updated by Patrick Narkinsky <patrick@extremehope. org> - May 22, 2001.