condition of palestine and its people during the time of jesus

For them the Jewish messiah is a political, or a military leader who would lead a revolution to overthrow the Roman government. 4. The Essenes - belong to a sect generally held to be responsible for the so-called “Dead Sea Scrolls”. They practiced asceticism, celibacy and common ownership. They observed the Torah in a very strict manner.

3. Flavius Josephus - Jewish historian, wrote about Jesus as a wise man put to death by Pontius Pilate, accused by the Jewish authorities.4. Pliny the Younger- he wrote of the Christians who sang hymns and chanted verses to Christ “as if to a god”5. Luciano di Samosata- a lecturer who wrote about Jesus Christ as a man crucified in Palestine for introducing a new cult.6. The Babylonian Talmud - spoke of a certain Yeshu who practiced magic and let his followers into apostasy. This Yeshu was hanged on the eve of the Passover.

The accounts of Jesus’birth and early childhood constitute what we often refer to as the infancy narratives.