Christopher000 wrote: And all I could come up with is Josephus...ha-ha. Pathetic.
and the rest of the Habermas witnesses from history are: 19.CELSUS (178 A.D.) 20.CLEMENT OF ROME 98A.D 21.IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 100A.D 22 QUADRATUS OF ATHENS 126 A.D 23.ARISTIDES THE ATHENIAN 126AD 24.JUSTIN MARTYR 120 AD 25.HEGESIPPUS 110 A.D
using ONLY their testimony, you could preach a 2 hour Easter sermon!
http://www.thedevineevidence.com/jesus_history.html http://www.garyhabermas.com/books/historicaljesus/historicaljesus.htm#ch91.Cornelius Tacitus;2 Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas; 3.Flavius Josephus;4.52 A.D. Thallus ;5.Pliny the Younger; 6.Emperor Trajan;7.emperor Hadrian;8. Serenius Granianus; 9.The Talmud notes about Jesus by Rabbi Akiba 135 A.D; 10. Toledoth Jesu anti Christian document refers to Jesus; 11.second century Greek satirist Lucian spoke rather derisively of Jesus;12.Mara Bar Serapion; 13.Gnostic document The Gospel of Truth written by the gnostic teacher Valentius 135 A.D.; 14. The Apocryphon of John of the gnostic teacher Saturninus, who taught around 120;15.The Gospel of Thomas(140A.D.);16.The Treatise On Resurrection;17.Acts of Pontius Pilate;18. Phlegon, a freedmen of the Emperor Hadrian who was born about A.D. 80
"The precise date of Easter has at times been a matter for contention. At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 it was decided that all Christian churches would celebrate Easter on the same day, which would be computed independently of any Jewish calculations to determine the date of Passover. It is however probable (though no contemporary account of the Council's decisions has survived) that no method of determining the date was specified by the Council. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote in the mid-4th century: :...the emperor...convened a council of 318 bishops...in the city of Nicea...They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God's holy and supremely excellent day. For it was variously observed by people." (Wiki)