Birds aren’t real. The earth is flat. Jesus of Nazareth didn’t really exist.

Our culture is filled with examples of people questioning basic facts. Skeptics often insist they need more evidence to accept claims that most people have long taken for granted.

Christianity is no exception. The Bible presents extensive evidence that Jesus of Nazareth lived, was crucified by Pontius Pilate, and was raised again on the third day. But because the Gospels make supernatural claims and because of ongoing debates about when they were written, some dismiss their historical testimony. They say they want independent, historical evidence.

A famous passage by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus appears to offer exactly that. In his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus mentions Jesus. Yet for centuries, scholars have debated whether parts of that passage were original or were later additions by Christian scribes. The scholarly consensus—even among evangelicals—has been that Josephus mentions Jesus, but that references to his resurrection or messianic identity were likely added later.

In a recent book, Josephus and Jesus, New Testament scholar T. C. Schmidt challenges that consensus. More surprisingly, according to John Dickson’s review, Schmidt makes a plausible case that Josephus was “drawing not on Christian rumor but on the recollections of Jerusalem leaders he knew personally.”

This evidence doesn’t prove the resurrection is true or compel belief that Jesus was the Christ. But it does show that claims about Jesus’s death and resurrection were circulating remarkably early among non-Christians. It also decisively undercuts the claim that Jesus of Nazareth never existed.