Excerpts from “THE CHRIST: A Critical Review and Analysis of
the Evidences of His Existence”
by John E. Remsburg
Published 1909 by The Truth Seeker Company, New York.
Chapter 2: Silence of Contemporary Writers.
Note from Apetivist: There is just one contention I have
with Remsburg. The title of this chapter
should have been Contemporary Writers During and Shortly After the Time
of Jesus and Some Additional Writers that have Nothing Whatsoever To Do With the Subject. Nonetheless, Remsburg's points
are quite on spot and the fact remains; zero contemporary writers during the
time this "supposed" Jesus lived wrote a single sentence about the man. Also, note that I place the approximate date
of birth of each person and additional names the writers are known by- at the
time Remsburg did not know that one writer had a different name or that
writings of one were finally afterward associated with the writing of another
by historians. I also use the term BCE instead of BC and CE instead of AD. I
get all my information for this fact-checking/cross-referencing from Wikipedia,
Encyclopedia Britannica, and www.attalus.org.
pgs 24-25
The following is a list of writers who lived and wrote
during the time, or within a century after the time, that Christ is said to
have lived and performed his wonderful works:
Josephus (c. 37 CE), Arrian (c. 86-89 CE), Philo-Judaeus (c.
30 BCE to 50 CE) , Petronius (c. 27 CE), Seneca (c. 4 BCE), Dion Pruseus (c. 40
CE note this is the person known as the writer below mentioned “Dio Chrysostom”),
Pliny the Elder (c. 23 CE also known as Gaius Plinius Secundus), Paterculus (c.
19 BCE is also known as Marcus Velleius Paterculus), Suetonius (c. 69 CE is also known
as Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus), Appian (c. 95 CE also is known as Appian of
Alexandria), Juvenal (c. 1-100 CE also known as Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis),
Theon of Smyrna (c. 100 CE), Martial (c. 38-41 CE also known as Marcus Valerius
Martialis), Phlegon (c. 200 AD also known as Phlegon of Tralles), Persius (c.
34 CE also is known as Aulus Persius Flaccus), Pompon Mela (all that’s known is he
died c. 43 CE), Plutarch (c. 46 CE also known as Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus),
Quintius Curtius (c. early 1st Century and his actual known person
has been posited to be unknown), Justus of Tiberius (c. 50-70 CE), Lucian (c. 125
CE also known as Lucian of Samosata), Apollonius (c. 15 CE also is known as Apollonius
of Tyana), Pausanias (c. 110 CE), Pliny the Younger (c. 61 CE also is known as Gaius
Plinius Caecilius Secundus), Valerius Flaccus (c. 45 AD also is known as Gaius
Valerius Flaccus), Tacitus (c. 56 CE also known as Publius Cornelius Tacitus),
Florus Lucius (c. 70 CE), Quintilian (c. 35 AD also is known as Marcus Fabius
Quintilianus), Favorinus (c. 80 CE also known as Favorinus of Arelate), Lucanus
( c. 39 CE also is known as Marcus Annaeus Lucanus), Phaedrus (c. 15 BCE is known for
Latinizing Aesop’s fables), Epictetus (c. 55 CE), Damis (1st to 2nd
Century and also some doubt he may have been a real person and he may have been
a creation of Philostratus c. 170 CE), Silius Italicus (c. 26 CE also is known as Tiberius
Catius Asconius Silius), Aulus Gellius (c.125 CE), Statius (c. 45 CE also is known
as Publius Papinius Statius), Columella (c. 4 CE also known as Lucius Junius
Moderatus Columella), Ptolemy (c. 100 CE also known as Claudius Ptolemy), Dio
Chrysostom (see Dion Pruseus above as they are the same person), Hermogones (c. 1st
Century also is known as Hermogenes of Tarsus), Lysias (Who is this? Clearly not the logographer from Greece in c.
459 BCE, otherwise I can find no other reference. Does anyone else know who Remsburg may be
referring to here?), Valerius Maximus (c. early 1st Century),
Appion of Alexandria (c. 95 CE).
Enough of the writings of the authors named in the list remains to form a large library. Yet in
this mass of Jewish and Pagan literature, aside from two forged passages in the
works of a Jewish author, and two disputed passages in the works of Roman
writers, there is to be found no mention of Jesus Christ.
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P.S. Think about it, this information was known and available to
believers even in 1909. Now, in the Information Age aka The Internet and/or other forms of mass communication
this is still relativity unknown and was kept from me by my Academic superiors
at Liberty University. Why? Why wasn't this information provided for my
consideration? Why was it kept hidden or
unavailable to the LU library? Surely,
if they have so much confidence in their beliefs, they would've proudly
presented this information and shown why it was fallacious. It would have been another winning blow by
the marvelous minded Christian Apologists that they had on and off their
site? 😒
Read the book here: https://archive.org/details/christcriticalre00rems/
Final Note (?): I may do follow up on other possible writers that would have been withing the time and/or vicinity of the 1st Century. I am running up against a brick wall as there were so many minor writers of the time but tracking them down is very difficult and Remsburg must have been going off of memory or some other form of the list from where he derived the names of these writers.
