Excerpts from “THE CHRIST: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of His Existence” by John E. Remsburg

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 1^st 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 (1^st to 2^nd 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. 1^st 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 1^st 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.