Despite the question, it's really not a troll - I promise.
The Romans, normally so anal about recording everything that happened, have absolutely no written record of him. The only claims for his existence are quotes from religious tracts, with their obvious conflicts of interest, rather than from objective historians. At that time, Greece and Rome were pretty civilized with plenty of writings, so why doesn't he appear in any of them?
Anonymous
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Oh, I think he probably did exist... I mean, Christianity must have started somewhere!
As for why the Romans had no record of him: well, they crucified literally thousands of Jews in those few decades... many of whom must have been called 'Jesus', for the same reason why, if you shoot a couple of thousand Americans, there must be a couple of Johns among them... did they keep records on all of them?
No, I think he simply was not that important to the Romans - and that the miracles that made him seem so important in retrospect were made up by the gospel writers.
I think he was merely a misunderstood idealist... and perhaps a minor insurrectionist.
Nickolai77
Judea in Roman times was a hot bed for fanatical religious activity. Rather like now, its funny how some things never change.There where hundreds of different religious sects vying for control over a religiously devout population, while the Romans tried to keep the peace as best they could. Jesus would have been one of many religious leaders to have been causing trouble, so no one really cared to record his actions but his followers some 60 years after his death.
Never the less the Romans were anal on recording yes. I imagine they must have kept tabs on these various religious leaders who could be causing rebellion. Whatever they recorded of Jesus must not have been seen as significant by the Romans, and so any primary source accounts of Jesus have been been lost to history.
Anonymous
There is not one single mention of Jesus in the entire Roman record - that is right - not one!!! At the same time as he was supposed to have been around there were a number of Jews claiming to be the messiah - all of whom are well recorded!!
He was supposed to have been a huge problem to the Romans and produced wonderful miracles but still not one contemporary record?
Even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!!
At best he was an amalgam of those others!!
But what about Pilot - recorded as a somewhat lackluster person but no mention of Jesus, a trial or crucifixion. Surely with such a humdrum man if there was any truth at all to the claims about Jesus it should have been recorded in Pilots history!!!
Martin S
It is not surprising that the Romans don't have much written down about an itinerant Jewish Rabbi who had a 3 year ministry in Palestine. But they do have a lot written down about how His ministry took off after His death (and resurrection) including stories about how His followers would suffer horrible deaths and torture rather than denounce their faith.
Many of these people claimed to have either seen Jesus when He was alive like Peter and Paul or they knew people who had been with Jesus. A Muslim might give up his life because he believed that doing so would ensure him an entrance into Heaven but he wouldn't do it for something that he knew was a lie. The Muslim faith is based upon something that was written in the 6th century AD. The Christians who died in the first century AD in Rome had faith based upon eyewitness accounts or personal experience.
gauke_2033
First of all, your argument is from a "lack of evidence". Just because we don't find anything written about Him from Roman sources is not evidence that they did not write about Him. They may have and it simply was lost. As for anything substantial, remember that as a wandering prophet in some obscure little country, He wasn't that important to Romans. So why would they write anything substantial? Why would you expect them to?
That being said, you're wrong anyway. He was written about.
• Tacitus (AD 55-120), a renowned historical of ancient Rome, wrote in the latter half of the first century that ‘Christus ... was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also.’ (Annals 15: 44).
• Suetonius writing around AD 120 tells of disturbances of the Jews at the ‘instigation of Chrestus’, during the time of the emperor Claudius. This could refer to Jesus, and appears to relate to the events of Acts 18:2, which took place in AD 49.
• Thallus, a secular historian writing perhaps around AD 52 refers to the death of Jesus in a discussion of the darkness over the land after his death. The original is lost, but Thallus’ arguments — explaining what happened as a solar eclipse — are referred to by Julius Africanus in the early 3rd century.
• Mara Bar-Serapion, a Syrian writing after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, mentions the earlier execution of Jesus, whom he calls a ‘King’.
• The Babylonian Talmud refers to the crucifixion (calling it a hanging) of Jesus the Nazarene on the eve of the Passover. In the Talmud Jesus is also called the illegitimate son of Mary.
• The Jewish historian Josephus describes Jesus’ crucifixion under Pilate in his Antiquities, written about AD 93/94. Josephus also refers to James the brother of Jesus and his execution during the time of Ananus (or Annas) the high priest.