en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus
Josephus writes of a Jewish sect led by James the Just, whom he calls the brother of Jesus. Josephus’ history includes sections on John the Baptist, the High Priest Annas, Pontius Pilate, and Jesus called the Messiah.
3.3 Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.[20]
In the Mystery of God, there is also great evidence available in almost complete absence of it.
Atheists are very prideful, blind and deaf when it comes to using Sacred Scripture as evidence. Don’t be encouraged that your friend will see The Light through extra-biblical sources either.
The Apostles didn’t need physical evidence of Jesus, they knew him. The disciples to the Apostles didn’t need physical evidence of Jesus, they knew the Apostles. The Early Church didn’t need physical evidence of Jesus, they knew the disciples.
On and on.
Eventually, once the generations are far enough removed, Christians are asked to respond through faith.
As Jesus said and is recorded in John, Chapter 20:
Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
All that being said, paganism was rampent in the Middle East. God the Father continually had to reinstruct, reinstruct, reinstruct the Isrealites and the Jews concerning their connections to paganism (Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, amoung many others).
So, if Christians need to find proof of Jesus, Mary and Joseph then we can look for ancient evidence where Christianity overtook pagan worship. Sacred Scripture helps to p(name removed by moderator)oint the areas of evangelization. I’ll use Ephesus and Rome as examples.
St. John is thought to have taken the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary to Ephesus with him. St. Paul travels through Ephesus and one of his Letters addresses them specifically.
privatephesustours.com/christanity_in_ephesus.htm
sacred-destinations.com/turkey/ephesus-history.htm
The martyrdom of the Early Catholic Church in Rome centered both on pagan and Jewish converts to Christianity.
**
This is the prison diary of a young woman martyered in Carthage in 202 or 203 CE. The beginning and ending are related by an editor/narrator; the central text contains the words of Perpetua herself. Read more about the story of Perpetua from our interviews with New Testament scholars.**
A number of young catechumens were arrested, Revocatus and his fellow slave Felicitas, Saturninus and Secundulus, and with them Vibia Perpetua, a newly married woman of good family and upbringing.
Her mother and father were still alive and one of her two brothers was a catechumen like herself. She was about twenty-two years old and had an infant son at the breast. (Now from this point on the entire account of her ordeal is her own, according to her own ideas and in the way that she herself wrote it down.)
While we were still under arrest (she said) my father out of love for me was trying to persuade me and shake my resolution. ‘Father,’ said I, ‘do you see this vase here, for example, or waterpot or whatever?’
P.S. The Catholic Church today, continues to receive in catechumens, at the Easter Vigil Mass, after nine months of preparation through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).
I remember reading somewhere that their is as much evidence for Jesus as there is for the guy that was roman emperor at the time. I can’t remember the link 