How do you think Christianity came to be? Did the early Christians decide to make Christ up? Why?
First century Jewish historian Yosef ben Matityahu (Latin name: Flavius Josephus) wrote of Jesus:
At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and [he] was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.
Paul began to write his epistles not very long after Jesus' death. Paul was a devout Jew. He was not a follower of Jesus until he saw Jesus on the road to Damascus. He was going there to arrest followers of Jesus.
Roman historian and politician Cornelius Tacticus writes about Jesus in his work Annals. He mentions Christ's followers, and said Christ had been crucified by Pontius Pilate.
