The other 21 known contemporary historians should have noticed because according to Matthew, “Jesus' fame spread far and wide all over the land.” The Gospels all insist that Jesus was renowned not just throughout all Jerusalem but the entire region of Palestine, the Decapolis and Syria. If you add the book of Acts, then Jesus’ fame supposedly quickly spreads to Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, Rome and still further, throughout the Mediterranean world. Add wide-reaching political events and spectacular, unprecedented miracles allegedly witnessed by multitudes on top of that, and the lack of corroboration for the Gospels and Acts is a serious problem. But not if you realize is is a work of fiction.
Suddenly it doesn’t seem reasonable at all just to assume that the preacher Jesus Christ of Nazareth just HAD to have been a real person. Especially when one sees the number of ancient writers who had opportunity and more importantly, motive, to discuss Jesus in their writings, many of which have survived to this day. In many cases, these same writers have much to say about other much less interesting messiahs – but not Jesus, the only one who supposedly really did the miracles all the would-be saviors promised. We are left with a "Gospel of the Gaps.”
But there were many first century writers, philosophers, historians, and other commentators who had good reason to notice Jesus, and despite apologists’ fervent denials, a wealth of their writings still exists today. But these perfectly respectable sources are never on Christian lists of historical witnesses. They include important figures like Epictetus, Pomponius Mela, Martial, Juvenal, Seneca the Younger, Gallio, Seneca the Elder, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Justus of Tiberias, Philo of Alexandria, Nicolaus of Damascus and more. And these are just the contemporaries; there are still later commentators who we would expect to have mentioned Christ, but did not.
Believers are left with two unhappy choices: either the Gospels were grossly exaggerating Jesus’ life and accomplishments, and Jesus was just another illiterate, wandering preacher with a tiny following, completely unnoticed by society at large – or he was an outright mythical character. This is not a false dichotomy - outside of the Bible, there is no proof Jesus existed as he is portrayed in the Bible. None.
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