[squirt]

we also have volumes of writings by the "apostolic fathers" who were the earliest Christian writers after the New Testament, they authored the Epistle of Clement in Rome, the Epistles of Ignatius, the Epistle of Polycarp, the Epistle of Barnabas, and others, in many places these writings attest to the basic facts about Jesus, particularly his teachings, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his divine nature, the 7 letters of Ignatius is among the most important of the writings of the apostolic fathers, Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch in Syria, was martyred during the reign of Trajan before AD 117, he emphasized both the deity of Jesus and the humanity of Jesus, as against the docetic heresy, which denied that Jesus was really human, he also stressed the historical underpinnings of Christianity; he wrote in one letter, on his way to being executed, that Jesus was truly persecuted under Pilate, was truly crucified, was truly raised from the dead and that those who believe in him would be raised too, put all this together - Josephus, the Roman historians and officials, the Jewish writings, the letters of Paul and the apostolic fathers - and you've got persuasive evidence that corroborates all the essentials found in the biographies of Jesus, even if you were to throw away every last copy of the gospels, you'd still have a picture of Jesus that's extremely compelling - in fact, it's a portrait of the unique Son of God