SECT. XIV. An answer to the objection from external testimonies: where it is shewn that they make more for these books.
BUT I confidently affirm that there are no such things to be found; unless any one will reckon amongst these what is said by those who were born a long while after, and they such who professed themselves enemies to the name of Christ, and who therefore ought not to be looked upon as witnesses. Nay, on the contrary, though there is no need of them, we have many testimonies which confirm some parts of the history delivered in these books. Thus, that Jesus was crucified, that miracles were done by him and his disciples, both Hebrews and heathens relate. Most clear testimonies of Josephus, published a little more than forty years after Christ’s death, are now extant, concerning Herod, Pilate, Festus, Felix, John the baptist, Gamaliel, and the destruction of Jerusalem; which are exactly agreeable to what we find amongst the writers of the Talmud concerning those times: the cruelty of Nero towards the Christians is mentioned by Tacitus: and formerly there were extant books of private persons, such as Phlegon,439439 and the public acts, to which the Christians appealed;440440 wherein they agreed about the star that appeared after the birth of Christ;441441 about the earthquake, and the preternatural 141eclipse of the sun at full moon, about the time that Christ was crucified.