The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ

by Brant Pitre

Now Matthew published among the Hebrews a written gospel also in their own tongue while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome and founding the church. (Irenaeus of Lyons)6

After their [Peter and Paul’s] departure, Mark also, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the things which were preached by Peter. (Irenaeus of Lyons)12

Both the writings of the New Testament and ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman sources like Josephus, Tacitus, and Lucian of Samosata agree that Jesus was executed by the Roman authorities of his day.

I guess you could also claim that these mass conversions among the pagans just happened to coincide with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who just happened to live and die at the very time that the book of Daniel said the Messiah would come.