New Testament
The central figure of the New Testament is Jesus of Nazareth. Despite ongoing debate concerning the authorship of many of its books, there is a consensus among modern scholars that at least some were written by a contemporary of Jesus, namely the so-called 'undisputed' epistles of Paul. However, outside of the 27 books and letters collected into the New Testament, no contemporary references to Jesus are known, unless a very early dating is assumed of some uncanonical gospel such as the Gospel of Thomas. Nevertheless, some authentic first century and many second century writings exist in which Jesus is mentioned, leading scholars to conclude that the historicity of Jesus is well established by historical documents. First century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also mentions John the Baptist and his execution by Herod Antipas (Matthew 14:1-12), although Josephus was not a contemporary of John.
Read more about this topic: List Of Biblical Figures Identified In Extra-biblical Sources
Famous quotes containing the word testament:
“You don’t know your testament when you see it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 13:57.