page_title: Sources for the historicity of Jesus
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Sources for the historicity of Jesus / Christian sources / Pauline epistles / Overview
context_page_description: Christian sources, such as the New Testament books in the Christian Bible, include detailed stories about Jesus, but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus. The only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.
  Non-Christian sources that are used to study and establish the historicity of Jesus include Jewish sources such as Josephus, and Roman sources such as Tacitus. These sources are compared to Christian sources such as the Pauline Epistles and the Synoptic Gospels. These sources are usually independent of each other, and similarities and differences between them are used in the authentication process.
  In a review of the state of research, the Jewish scholar Amy-Jill Levine stated that "no single picture of Jesus has convinced all, or even most scholars" and that all portraits of Jesus are subject to criticism by some group of scholars.
context_section_description: In the context of Christian sources, even if all other texts are ignored, the Pauline epistles can provide some information regarding Jesus. This information does not include a narrative of the life of Jesus, and refers to his existence as a person, but adds few specific items apart from his death by crucifixion. This information comes from those letters of Paul whose authenticity is not disputed. Paul was not a companion of Jesus and claims his information comes from the holy spirit acquired after Jesus' death.
  Of the thirteen letters that bear Paul's name, seven are considered authentic by almost all scholars, and the others are generally considered pseudepigraphic. The 7 undisputed letters (and their approximate dates) are: 1 Thessalonians (c. 51 CE), Philippians (c. 52–54 CE), Philemon (c. 52–54 CE), 1 Corinthians (c. 53–54 CE), Galatians (c. 55 CE), 2 Corinthians (c. 55–56 CE) and Romans (c. 55–58 CE). The authenticity of these letters is accepted by almost all scholars, and they have been referenced and interpreted by early authors such as Origen and Eusebius.
  Given that the Pauline epistles are generally dated to AD 50 to AD 60, they are the earliest surviving Christian texts that include information about Jesus. These letters were written approximately twenty to thirty years after the generally accepted time period for the death of Jesus, around AD 30–36. The letters were written during a time when Paul recorded encounters with the disciples of Jesus, e.g. Galatians 1:18 states that three years after his conversion Paul went to Jerusalem and stayed with Apostle Peter for fifteen days. According to Buetz, during this time Paul disputed the nature of Jesus' message with Jesus's brother James, concerning the importance of adhering to kosher food restrictions and circumcision, important features of determining Jewish identity. The New Testament narratives, however, do not give any details about what they discussed at that time; fourteen years after that meeting, Paul returned to Jerusalem to confirm that his teaching was orthodox, as part of the Council of Jerusalem.
  The Pauline letters were not intended to provide a narrative of the life of Jesus, but were written as expositions of Christian teachings. In Paul's view, the earthly life of Jesus was of a lower importance than the theology of his death and resurrection,a theme that permeates Pauline writings. However, the Pauline letters clearly indicate that for Paul Jesus was a real person (born of a woman as in Gal 4.4), a Jew ("born under the law", Romans 1.3) who had disciples (1 Corinthians 15.5), who was crucified (as in 1 Corinthians 2.2 and Galatians 3.1) and who resurrected from the dead (1 Corinthians 15.20, Romans 1.4 and 6.5, Philippians 3:10–11). And the letters reflect the general concept within the early Gentillic Christian Church that Jesus existed, was crucified and was raised from the dead.
  The references by Paul to Jesus do not in themselves prove the existence of Jesus, but they do establish that the existence of Jesus was the accepted norm within the early Christians (including the Christian community in Jerusalem, given the references to collections there) twenty to thirty years after the death of Jesus, at a time when those who could have been acquainted with him could still be alive.
caption: A page from 2 Corinthians in Papyrus 46, c. AD 200
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