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Scala/Art Resource, New York, NY

This “Christ in majesty” is the centerpiece of the apse mosaic in the Basilica of St. Pudentiana in Rome. A representation of Jesus as the all-powerful and ever-present lord of the universe, it dates to about 400 A.D.

In a passing reference and in a longer passage known as the Testimonium, the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in his book Jewish Antiquities, provides extra-biblical evidence for Jesus’ existence. Professor John P. Meier arrays a host of arguments favoring the authenticity of these passages and also shows why a third Josephus reference to Jesus, in the Slavonic version of The Jewish War, is undoubtedly a Christian interpolation.