Is most of what we know about Jesus from the Bible?

[VeronicaM]

Do we have any other sources?

 

[Psalm_22]

Thread title question, I would say yes. Other source question, Jesus spoke to many of the saints. Jmho.

 

[JamesTheJust]

Well, we have Sacred Tradition and the writings of the Saints as well.

 

[Elizium23]

Most of the true stuff is, yes. We have certain non-canonical writings such as apocryphal Gospels that were rejected by the Early Church, but the truth of those writings cannot be stated with any degree of accuracy, so it is extraordinarily dangerous to rely on them for anything other than curiosity. The non-Christian sources include Josephus and Tacitus, who wrote extremely brief things about His life. There is widespread consensus that at least one of Josephus’ passages about Jesus was “touched up” by Christian scribes in later centuries and cannot be viewed as authentic.

So in some sense, the sum total of all we know about Jesus is in the Bible. External sources can be used to corroborate or confirm various facts, but should not be relied upon for truth or doctrinal analysis.

The foregoing assumes that your question is about the historical Jesus. If you’re asking about the theological Jesus and the nature of Christ, then Sacred Scripture is only our starting point. We would have to look at, as the poster above mentioned, Sacred Tradition and the writings of saints for the whole picture in Christology. Doctrine has significantly developed since the canon of the Bible was set, and many heresies have arisen over the years on the subject of the nature of Christ. Our understanding of Him today is nuanced, specific, and based on a solid foundation of what has been revealed.

 

[powerofk]

Most of the true stuff is, yes. We have certain non-canonical writings such as apocryphal Gospels that were rejected by the Early Church, but the truth of those writings cannot be stated with any degree of accuracy, so it is extraordinarily dangerous to rely on them for anything other than curiosity. The non-Christian sources include Josephus and Tacitus, who wrote extremely brief things about His life. There is widespread consensus that at least one of Josephus’ passages about Jesus was “touched up” by Christian scribes in later centuries and cannot be viewed as authentic.

So in some sense, the sum total of all we know about Jesus is in the Bible. External sources can be used to corroborate or confirm various facts, but should not be relied upon for truth or doctrinal analysis.

The foregoing assumes that your question is about the historical Jesus. If you’re asking about the theological Jesus and the nature of Christ, then Sacred Scripture is only our starting point. We would have to look at, as the poster above mentioned, Sacred Tradition and the writings of saints for the whole picture in Christology. Doctrine has significantly developed since the canon of the Bible was set, and many heresies have arisen over the years on the subject of the nature of Christ. Our understanding of Him today is nuanced, specific, and based on a solid foundation of what has been revealed.

Right. And the main reason this is the case is that, outside of Christianity, Jesus wasn’t really considered an important figure until much later. Josephus seems to treat Jesus as simply one of many people who claimed to be the Messiah - a footnote in history, as it were. St. Paul’s letters seem to be the earliest existing written texts about Jesus, and St. Paul only met Jesus in a vision after the resurrection and ascension. Everything he knew about Jesus, he learned orally, probably from St. Peter, St. John, and St. James the Just/Lesser.

 

[Timothysis]

The books of what would become the New Testament were written before there was a “bible.” It wasn’t until later that they were collected together and put into the same volume.
Look at it this way; Julius Caesar is in the encyclopedia but that doesn’t mean that we only know of him because he is in the encyclopedia. In the same way, there was a time when these individual books that would eventually become known as the Bible (or New Testament as per St. Jerome) were circulating freely on their own. Later, they were collected and put together in the same volume. These books capture the early Church’s traditions of Jesus, so yes, most of what we know of Him is “from the Bible,” but it isn’t because of the Bible that we do, indeed, know of Him whacky. Had the Bible never been collated, these early texts and traditions would have still been spread around.