1. Sources

The sources for an account of Jesus, both secular and Christian, are complex.

1.1. Ancient histories contain no direct references. The so-called testimonium Flavianum (Josephus Ant. 18.63–64) refers to Jesus as “a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.… He was the Messiah.” This passage, however, seems at least to have undergone Christian revision. In his account of the execution of James, Josephus (Ant. 20.200) identifies James as …