(25)The disciples also taught that Jesus afterward ascended to heaven, which at least witnesses to the early Christian belief in this occurrence.
Lastly, Justin Martyr also witnesses to the facticity of the resurrection in another portion of Dialogue with Trypho: For indeed the Lord remained on the tree almost until evening, and they buried Him at eventide; then on the third day He rose again.^22 Here Justin records (26)that Jesus hung on the “tree” until evening,^23 (27)that he was buried at that time and (28)that he rose from the dead the third day afterward.
Justin Martyr records many other events from the life of Jesus, but often he reports that his data was gleaned from the Scripture.^24 These references here will suffice to provide numerous examples of Justin’s interest in Jesus’ actual life on earth.
18 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, LXXVII.
19 Ibid., XCVII.
20 Ibid., CVIII; cf. XVII.
21 This is “the sign of the prophet Jonah” (see Matt. 12:38–40).
22 Dialogue with Trypho, XCVII.
23 Justin refers to it as a “cross” in CVIII, for instance.
Synopsis of Christian Sources
In this chapter we have investigated five early Christian sources for the historicity of Jesus, all of which were extra-New Testament. Our intent was not to examine all the passages that spoke of Jesus, but only those which claimed to report historical data. Additionally, we limited our discussion to the life of Jesus, thereby overlooking material concerning early Christian origins. A synopsis of this material provides the listing of numerous details. The Life of Jesus
These ancient Christian sources taught that Jesus really did live on earth in human history (Ignatius) after being born as a man (Barnabas). He was from the tribe of Judah (Justin), from the family of Jesse (Justin) and of the lineage of David (Ignatius). Jesus was born of Mary (Ignatius), a virgin (Ignatius, Justin), in the city of Bethlehem (Justin). It is even reported that Bethlehem was located about five miles from Jerusalem and that his birth could be verified by the records of Cyrenius, the first procurator of Judea (Justin). Later, he was visited by Arabian Magi, who had first visited Herod (Justin).
