Is there substantive proof of the historical Jesus?
Answer Yes. The New Testament. It contains hundreds of references to the man Jesus of Nazareth, who called himself the Messiah and the Son of God, and was crucified. St. Paul writes often about various people who WITNESSED the risen Christ (let alone the pre-crucified Christ). Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all wrote gospels explaining who this person was, and referencing names of people who met him – some at least who would have been alive at the time of Christ… …But generally when such a question is asked, it usually is prefaced with “outside of the Bible”, so let’s see what we can dig up (however, one really ought not to simply discredit the New Testament simply because it’s the set of books canonized by the church)… The first-century Roman Tacitus, who is considered one of the more accurate historians of the ancient world, mentioned superstitious “Christians” (“named after Christus” which is Latin for Christ), who suffered under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. The
