Do early sources report that Jesus existed?

• 1 Cor 15:3-5 -- For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died… and that He was buried, and that He was raised... and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…

Some example reports, dating between AD 40-50, include...

• 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 -- none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
• 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 -- For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
• 1 Corinthians 15 -- For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died… and that He was buried, and that He was raised… and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…
• Galatians 4:4 -- But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
• 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15 -- For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets
• 1 Timothy 6:13 -- Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
• Hebrews 1:6 -- And when He again brings the firstborn [Jesus] into the world,
• See also Romans 1, Romans 8, Galatians 1.

• Thallus (in his History): [Unknown words which attempt to explain the darkness at Jesus's death as an eclipse] (cited by Julius Africanus: “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness, and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.” [A History of the World 18:1]^{2, 3})

For example,

• Luke 1:1-4 -- Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. …[2:21-22] And when eight days had passed, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus,… And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem…

For example,

• Acts 4:10 -- let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified,

For example...

• John 1:43-45 -- The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. ...Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

• Josephus (in Jewish Antiquities 18.3.3 §63-64): “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.” [Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, vol. 9, trans. L. H. Feldman, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press, 1969), 495.]
  

  IMPORTANT: Grayed out text is not considered part of Josephus's Antiquities, but instead a later addition by a Christian scribe.

• Josephus (in Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1): “convened the judges of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned.” [Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, vol. 9, trans. L. H. Feldman, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press, 1969), 495.]

• Clement of Rome: “Let us fear the Lord Jesus [Christ], whose blood was given for us.” [1 Clement 21:6]
• Clement of Rome: “For of Jacob are all the priests and levites who minister unto the altar of God; of him is the Lord Jesus as concerning the flesh; of him are kings and rulers and governors in the line of Judah; yea and the rest of his tribes are held in no small honor” [1 Clement 32:2]
• Clement of Rome: “…most of all remembering the words of the Lord Jesus which He spake, teaching forbearance and long-suffering” [1 Clement 13:1][see also Ch. 42]

• Didache 9:2 -- “We thank you, our Father, for the holy vine of your son David, which you have made known to us through your son Jesus; to you be the glory forever.” [From Gerd Theissen, Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide Trans by Bowden, (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996, 1998)]

• Mara Bar-Sarapion: What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samon gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise king? It was just after that their kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise king die for good; he lived on in the teaching which he had given. [British Museum Syriac ms Additional 14,658]²

• Papias “…if by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders should come my way, I inquired about the words of the elders - that is, what according to the elders Andrew or Peter said, or Philip, or Thomas or James, or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and the elder John, the Lord’s disciples, were saying.”[trans. by Richard Bauckham in his _Jesus and the Eyewitnesses_ (Eerdmans, 2006), 15-16.]

• Ignatius (in his Epistle to the Smyrnæans, Ch. 1): “…being fully persuaded with respect to our Lord, that He was truly of the seed of David according to the flesh, and the Son of God according to the will and power of God; that He was truly born of a virgin, was baptized by John, in order that all righteousness might be fulfilled by Him; and was truly, under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, nailed [to the cross] for us in His flesh.”

See also: ―Letter to the Trallians ch. 9 ―Letter to the Smyrnaeans ch. 3

• Polycarp (Letter to the Philippians 7:1-3): “For every one who shall not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is antichrist: and whosoever shall not confess the testimony of the Cross, is of the devil; and whosoever shall pervert the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts and say that there is neither resurrection nor judgment, that man is the firstborn of Satan. … according as the Lord said, The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. …Jesus Christ who took up our sins in His own body upon the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, but for our sakes He endured all things, that we might live in Him.” [Trans. by J. B. Lightfoot]

• Pliny the Younger (Letters 10.96-97): “Those who denied that they were or had been Christians… and moreover cursed Christ… they were accustomed to … sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god.”

[Note: Pliny does not say “as if he existed,” but says “as to a god” sarcastically, because he does not think Jesus was a god. He knows Jesus only as a man.]

• Cornelius Tacitus (in his Annals, 15:44): “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.” [Annals, 116.]

• Suetontius (Life of Claudius 25.4): “As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [i.e. Christus/Christ], he [Claudius] expelled them from Rome.”

• Justin Martyr: “Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judæa, in the times of Tiberius Cæsar; and that we reasonably worship Him“” [ch. 13, see also 30, 32, 34-35, 47-48, 50; Dialogue with Trypho 12, 77, 97, 107-108]

• Lucian of Samosata (in “The Death of Peregrinus”): The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day-the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was cruci­fied on that account. . .. You see, these mis­guided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property. [The Death of Peregrinus, 11-13]

• Irenaeus (in his Against Heresies Book II, 22:6): “and He whom they beheld was not a mere phantasm, but an actual being of flesh and blood. He did not then want much of being fifty years old; and, in accordance with that fact, they said to Him, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham?” He did not therefore preach only for one year,”