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Short answer:

If Jesus had really existed, there would be some reliable evidence. We have significant history of the area at the time, from several historians of the time. None of them mentioned Jesus.

The writings of Josephus (see the 1st link) that supposedly refered to Jesus (a paragraph in 18.3.3 and a sentence in 20.9.1) are later insertions.

The sentence is far too brief to mean much. The phrase "who was called Christ" is awkward and was likely inserted by a transcriber. Plus, a few lines later Josephus refers to Jesus, the son of Damneus. This is likely the Jesus referred to in the sentence. The paragraph looks like just about everything a Christian could hope for, to prove that Jesus actually existed. Unfortunately, it's an obvious latter insertion — almost certainly created by “church historian” Eusebius, who first referred to it shortly before Emperor Constantine's Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. We know this for several reasons:

* Despite the fact that Josephus' writings were widely read, no Christian or scholar before Eusebius refers to it, especially not the Christian scholar Origen, whose library Eusebius used.

* Origen even wrote that Josephus did not believe in Jesus Christ.

* If the pious Jew Josephus had truly thought that Jesus was the Messiah, he would have become a Christian.

* It's unlikely that Josephus would have referred to the accusing Jews as “the principal men among us.”

* There never was a “tribe of Christians.”

* Copies of Josephus' works existed, that lacked either reference to Jesus.

* The style of the text is radically different from the rest of his writings.

* The text is completely out of context with the paragraphs around it, and interrupts their story line. * * The next paragraph begins, "About the same time also another sad calamity put the Jews into disorder..." This refers to the previous paragraph, where Pilate had his soldiers massacre a large crowd of Jews in Jerusalem.

Josephus wrote extensively about many minor people of the time. A single paragraph and sentence for the Messiah is impossible.

With these two references removed from Josephus' writings, he becomes strong negative evidence for Jesus. If Jesus had existed, Josephus would have written extensively about him.

There are some supposed second century references to Christians or Christ - by several men. Pliny the Younger, in about 100 CE, referred to Christians in Asia Minor, but he didn't refer to Jesus. The most used Christian reference from that century is by Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 CE). He purportedly wrote around 117 CE about Christos being executed by Pontius Pilate. However, Tacitus would have used Jesus' name not his religious title “Christos.” Also, Tacitus' reference was not noted by Eusebius or Origen or Clement of Alexandria in the third century. It was probably added in the 1400's (likely in 1468 by Johannes de Spire of Venice), because no mention is made of it in any known text prior to then, but there are many later references. Another writer, Suetonius, in about 120 CE referred to a man named Chrestus and his Jewish followers. However, “Chrestus” is the correct Latin form of an actual Greek name, and is not a misspelling of “Christos.”

For much more evidence, see the links.

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