Quote Originally Posted by The12lber
Only one historical writer I know of living in his time, Tacitus, wrote about him. That being said, Tacitus never actually met Jesus or anything of that sort. He just mentioned that some Jew named Jesus was causing trouble in Israel.

Tacitus knew that Jesus existed in the same sense Winston Smith knew Goldstein existed, basically. When you skim over archaelogical evidence you'll actually find that Israel was plagued by would be Messiahs at the time, and that the only thing that differentiates Christ from these others is he lucked out with a religion and the rest are doomed to obscurity.
Thallus and Phlegon
Both were ancient historians and both confirmed the fact that the land went dark when Jesus was crucified. This parallels what the Bible said happened when Jesus died.

Mara Bar-Serapion
Some time after 70 A.D., Mara Bar-Sarapion, who was probably a Stoic philosopher, wrote a letter to his son in which he describes how the Jews executed their King. Claiming to be a king was one of the charges the religious authorities used to scare Pontius Pilate into agreeing to execute Jesus.

Josephus
Josephus was a Jewish historian who was born in either 37 or 38 AD and died some time after 100 AD. He wrote the Jewish Antiquites and in one famous passage described Jesus as a wise man, a doer of wonderful works and calls him the Christ. He also affirmed that Jesus was executed by Pilate and actually rose from the dead.

Evidence from the Babylonian Talmud
"On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald . . . cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy."