Jesus in Real Life · Source Catalog
Who wrote about Jesus, where they wrote, what they claimed, and how certain we can be. Color marks each author's stance; a hollow, dashed marker means scholars still debate whether it refers to Jesus at all.
Every image and component in this catalog has been checked for licensing. Where a work requires attribution, it is credited below.
All quoted passages are drawn from public-domain translations: William Whiston (Josephus), Church & Brodribb (Tacitus), the Ante-Nicene Fathers series (ed. Roberts & Donaldson), and public-domain English scripture. Fragmentary and gnostic texts are given as short faithful renderings with the source of the citation named in each record.
Most portraits are faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public-domain artworks — old engravings, panel icons, frescoes, manuscript illuminations, and Old Master paintings. Under established copyright practice these reproductions carry no new copyright. Note that almost none are true likenesses; each record states whether the image is an icon, a later imagining, or an authentic ancient portrait.
The following require specific attribution:
Thallus has no portrait: no likeness of him exists, and no verified public-domain image was available. His pin shows a plain medallion, which is the honest representation.
Dates, places of composition, author identities, and the question of whether a given text refers to Jesus at all are frequently contested. This catalog labels uncertainty rather than resolving it silently. Where something is unknown, it says so.
This is a working catalog of every surviving text from roughly the first three centuries that refers to Jesus — or to “Christ” — as a figure in history. It follows one rule: include everything, then let you sort and set aside. Devotional, neutral, and openly hostile sources sit side by side, from any nationality or place.
Map pins show where a work was composed, which is often not the author's homeland — Josephus was a Judaean Jew writing in Rome; Irenaeus, born in Smyrna, wrote in Gaul. Author origin and place of composition are kept as separate fields. Where a work's origin is genuinely uncertain, it is listed but left off the map rather than pinned to a guess.
Almost none of these writers have a real likeness. A portrait shown here is usually a later imagined image or a devotional icon, not a face drawn from life — and the caption says so. Essentially only Marcus Aurelius survives in authentic portraiture. Anonymous and pseudonymous works get a plain medallion, because there is no author to depict.
Sources tied to the crucifixion darkness and resurrection are flagged. The strongest is the earliest: Paul's creed in 1 Corinthians 15. External “eclipse” reports (Thallus, Phlegon) survive only as later quotations, and a solar eclipse is astronomically impossible at Passover's full moon — a point Julius Africanus already made in the 3rd century.
The Chinese Book of Later Han (Emperor Guangwu) record is included because the catalog aims to be exhaustive, but it is flagged questionable / no mention of Jesus: it never names him, its “sins on one man” line is a standard imperial self-blame formula, and it was compiled in the 5th century. It is in the catalog, labeled honestly — not offered as proof.
Dates are best estimates with a range; many are contested. Unknowns are labeled “unknown,” and good-but-uncertain guesses are labeled “uncertain,” “disputed,” or “proposed.” The point is a tool you can trust to tell you how firm the ground is under each source.