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In addition to the secular historian Josephus providing significant evidence to the life of Jesus as documented in this website's homepage there were other contemporary historians who were secular non-Christian writers with no motive to fabricate events. Tacitus, a Roman historian, wrote the following in his Annals, c. AD 115, which refer to what the Roman Emperor Nero did after the great fire of Rome which occured c. AD 64:
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."Annals 15 -44
Exitiabilis is the latin word for mischievous. It means destructive, fatal, deadly. Tacitus was stating that it was “a destructive or fatal or deadly superstition”. By effectively calling Christianity evil, it is obvious that he was not a Christian. It is important to note that Tacitus is not referring to the death of Jesus as superstition either. Tacitus wrote his history of Rome covering the death of Augustus to the death of Domitian,c.14-96 AD. He used earlier works by historians cross referencing them with each other. He sought to verify his facts, something unusual in the writing of the time.
Phlegon, a Greek writer of the 2nd Century provides further evidence:
"Phlegon mentioned the eclipse which took place during the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus and no other (eclipse); it is clear that he did not know from his sources about any (similar) eclipse in previous times . . . and this is shown by the historical account of Tiberius Caesar." Origen and Philopon, De. opif. mund. II21
"And with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place ...” Origen Against Celsus
Another Roman writer who was familiar with Christ and his followers is Suetonius (A.D. 75-160). Suetonius considered Christ (Chrestus) as a Roman insurgent who stirred up seditions under the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54): "Judaeos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes (Claudius) Roma expulit" (Clau., xxv).
The Jewish Talmud, another ancient document written shortly after Christ's life on Earth refers to Jesus having been crucified on the eve of Passover.
The gospel records: What about the gospel accounts? Importantly, they were written by eyewitnesses. Lee Strobel in his book "The case for Christ" rightfully states that the "eyewitnesses who wrote about Jesus were preaching to people who lived at the same time and in the same area that Jesus lived. This is important, because if the disciples were exaggerating or rewriting history, their audiences would have known it and called them on it.." By the end of the nineteenth century, archaeological discoveries had confirmed the accuracy of the New Testament manuscripts. Discoveries of early papyri were consistent with documentation from the time of Christ to later manuscripts. In addition to the papyri discoveries, an abundance of other manuscripts came to light. Over 24,000 copies of early New Testament manuscripts are known to be in existence today. In fact, as historical records, the gospel accounts can be considered to be some of the the most reliable ever.
