Jesus is not just written about in the Bible. Early Christian writings provide more information about Jesus outside of the bible. ### 1. Clement of Rome: > [!quote] [The Letter of 1st Clement](https://paperpile.com/app/p/26f26d00-28df-02ce-847b-f66b50d426f3 'The Apostolic Fathers: I. Clement. II. Clement. Ignatius. Polycarp. Didache. Barnabas') >For from him [Jacob] come the priests and all the Levites, who serve the altar of God, from him comes the Lord Jesus according to the flesh, from him come the kings and rulers and governors in the succession of Judah, and the other scepters of his tribes are in no small renown seeing that God promised that thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven... > >...especially remembering the words of the Lord Jesus which he spoke when he was teaching gentleness and longsuffering. > >...Let us reverence the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was given for us. > > The Apostles received the Gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ was sent from God ### 2. Papias: > [!quote] [Eusebius of Caesarea (The History of the Church)](https://paperpile.com/app/p/3eaa5a3b-2d43-00e2-9f3b-2bec08b38b37 'The History of the Church') >If, then, any one came, who had been a follower of the elders, I questioned him in regard to the words of the elders— what Andrew or what Peter said, or what was said by Philip [Philip The Apostle], or by Thomas [Thomas The Apostle], or by James [James The Lesser], or by John [John The Apostle], or by Matthew [Matthew The Apostle], or by any other of the disciples of the Lord, and what things Aristion and the presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I did not think that what was to be gotten from the books would profit me as much as what came from the living and abiding voice. ### 3. Ignatius: > [!quote] [The Letter to the Smyrnaeans](https://paperpile.com/app/p/26f26d00-28df-02ce-847b-f66b50d426f3 'The Apostolic Fathers: I. Clement. II. Clement. Ignatius. Polycarp. Didache. Barnabas') >I give glory to Jesus Christ, the God who has thus given you wisdom; for I have observed that you are established in immoveable faith, as if nailed to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, both in flesh and spirit, and confirmed in love by the blood of Christ, being fully persuaded as touching our Lord, that he is in truth of the family of David according to the flesh, God's son by the will and power of God, truly born of a Virgin, baptized by John [John The Baptist] that>>"all righteousness might be fulfilled by him," > >truly nailed to a tree in the flesh for our sakes under Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch [Herod Antipas],(and of its fruit are we from his divinely blessed Passion) that he might set up an ensign " for all ages through his Resurrection, for his saints and believers, whether among the Jews, or among the heathen, in one body of his Church. ### 4. Polycarp: > [!quote] [Letter to the Philippians](https://paperpile.com/app/p/26f26d00-28df-02ce-847b-f66b50d426f3 'The Apostolic Fathers: I. Clement. II. Clement. Ignatius. Polycarp. Didache. Barnabas') > ...Let us turn back to the word which was delivered to us in the beginning...Let us then persevere unceasingly in our hope, and in the pledge of our righteousness, that is in Christ Jesus, who bare our sins in his own body on the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," but for our sakes, that we might live in him, he endured all things. Let us then be imitators of his endurance, and if we suffer for his name's sake let us glorify him. For this is the example which he gave us in himself, and this is what we have believed. ### 5. Justin Martyr: > [!quote] [Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr](https://paperpile.com/app/p/173cb149-9872-0bed-aee0-3dd88e441409 'Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume I. Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus' > Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the times of Tiberius Cesar; and that we reasonably worship Him And in his dialogue with Trypho: > [!quote] [Justin Martyr: the dialogue with Trypho](https://paperpile.com/app/p/9a4bbbca-8470-0b2d-9708-ad3dd26e1a35 'Justin Martyr: the dialogue with Trypho') > Now the prophecy speaks with this addition : Before the child knows how to call father or mother he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria. And you cannot prove that this has ever happened to anyone among the Jews, but we can prove that it took place in the case of our Christ. For at the very time that He was born wise men came from Arabia and worshiped Him, after they had first been to Herod who was king at that time in your land. When therefore the Wise Men from Arabia had come to Bethlehem, and had worshiped the Child, and had offered to Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh...And Joseph too, who was espoused to Mary, though he thought first to cast out Mary who was espoused to him, supposing that she was with child of human intercourse, namely of fornication, was commanded in a vision not to cast his wife out, the angel that appeared to him saying : that 'that which she has conceived is of the Holy Ghost.' Moved therefore by fear he did not cast her out, but, as the first enrollment under Cyrenius was then taking place in Judaea, he came back from Nazareth where he was living, to Bethlehem, to which he belonged, to enroll himself. For he was by descent of the tribe of Judah that inhabited that land. Then he is commanded, together with Mary, to go out into Egypt, and to be there, together with the Child, until it should be again revealed to them that they should return into Judaea. ### 6. Irenaues: > [!quote] [Saint Irenaeus (Bishop of Lyon. ), John J. Dillon](https://paperpile.com/app/p/8a642c03-5dde-0018-9965-7e39f5d8b394 'St. Irenaeus of Lyons Against the Heresies') >For what they saw, that they also expressed; and He whom they beheld was not a mere phantasm, but an actual being of flesh and blood. ### 7. Quadratus: > [!quote] [Eusebius of Caesarea (The History of the Church)](https://paperpile.com/app/p/3eaa5a3b-2d43-00e2-9f3b-2bec08b38b37 'The History of the Church') > To him Quadratus addressed a discourse containing an apology for our religion, because certain wicked men had attempted to trouble the Christians. The work is still in the hands of a great many of the brethren, as also in our own, and furnishes clear proofs of the man's understanding and of his apostolic orthodoxy. He himself reveals the early date at which he lived in the following words: But the works of our Saviour were always present, for they were genuine:— those that were healed, and those that were raised from the dead, who were seen not only when they were healed and when they were raised, but were also always present; and not merely while the Saviour was on earth, but also after his death, they were alive for quite a while, so that some of them lived even to our day. Such then was Quadratus. These other early Christian sources also speaks of Jesus and his teachings as from the same time period. 8. [Didache](https://paperpile.com/app/p/26f26d00-28df-02ce-847b-f66b50d426f3 'The Apostolic Fathers: I. Clement. II. Clement. Ignatius. Polycarp. Didache. Barnabas') 9. [The Epistle Of Barnabas](https://paperpile.com/app/p/26f26d00-28df-02ce-847b-f66b50d426f3 'The Apostolic Fathers: I. Clement. II. Clement. Ignatius. Polycarp. Didache. Barnabas') 10. [The Shepherd of Hermas](https://paperpile.com/app/p/bfa2f35c-6368-054f-a439-a841b997dd1c 'The Shepherd of Hermas') 11. [The Epistle to Diognetus](https://paperpile.com/app/p/548e9ff9-bd05-0996-aedd-e4314c06e628 'Apostolic Fathers: Volume II. Epistle of Barnabas. Papias and Quadratus. Epistle to Diognetus. The Shepherd of Hermas (Loeb Classical Library No. 25N)') The early Christian writings from figures such as Clement of Rome, Papias, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus, as well as texts like the Didache, The Epistle of Barnabas, The Shepherd of Hermas, and The Epistle to Diognetus, provide significant historical context and insights into the life, teachings, and impact of Jesus Christ outside of the biblical narrative. These documents not only corroborate many details found in the New Testament but also offer additional perspectives and interpretations of Jesus's life and his teachings. These early Christian texts are crucial in understanding the historical Jesus and the development of early Christian communities, their beliefs, practices, and the challenges they faced.