Introduction
A few years ago, I came across a discussion between teens
and college-aged young adults, doubting if the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts
on the Mayflower in 1620. At first thought, this conversation might provoke
someone to shake his or her head, thinking how stupid this generation is for
not believing a historical event important to the American nation. After
further thought, however, no one can really blame this generation for
questioning history. College students today, when they went through elementary
school, heard a story of George Washington cutting down a cherry tree and then
reporting to his father, “I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree. In
reality, this story never happened. This story circulated when George
Washington sat in as President of the United States, in order to teach early
Americans that George Washington always spoke the truth in honesty. In
elementary school, students learn that Cristopher Columbus discovered America
in 1492. Then, in high school, the same students learn the Leif Ericson
discovered American about 500 years earlier, and more closely to what we know
as [the United States of] America (Leif Ericson landed in present-day
Newfoundland; Cristopher Columbus landed in the present-day Caribbean island of
Hispanola). No wonder this generation doubts history so much! And that’s
history that only happened a few centuries ago. How much more ancient history,
where the ancient historians rarely differed between their history and
religious myths. For example, the Trojan War really happened between the
Spartans and Trojans, but the Iliad
records the Trojan War had Greek gods and goddesses appearing to heroes on both
sides. A teen or young adult reading the Iliad
could doubt the Trojan War happened because Homer mentions Greek gods and goddesses
involved in the war.
For if anyone wants to disprove the ancient Greek
polytheism, all a person would have to do is take a hike up to Mount Olympus.
When that person reaches the summit of Mount Olympus and observes no gods or goddesses
there, he or she can easily conclude the Greek gods and goddesses do not exist.
If the Greek gods and goddesses do not exist, then anyone can easily conclude
that all the Greek myths, like the Iliad
(even Greek history, like the Trojan War!), that have the Greek gods and
goddesses in them cannot be trusted as historically accurate. Ancient
religions, like the ancient Greek polytheism, has turned many people into
atheists. Their atheism, which makes people believe God does not exist, makes
people believe that any ancient writing mentioning a God must not be
historically credible. Going further, if any of those ancient writings calls a
person a God, both the writing and the person cannot be considered historically
credible. In terms of Christianity, some atheists concludes that since God does
not exist, Jesus does not exist, and if the Bible mentions Jesus existed as
both God and man, they don’t take the Bible seriously as history. The atheist’s
prejudices and presuppositions has led him or her astray. Jesus did exist
outside the Bible, for many first century people, including hostile opponents,
referenced Jesus. Even if the atheist admits Jesus existed, as some do, they
state the Bible does not accurately record who Jesus is or what Jesus did.
Therefore, the Christian cannot quit at proving Jesus existed in history. The
Christian must insist that Jesus lived just as the Gospels record. This paper
will not only prove Jesus existed, as the historical records demonstrate, but
also that the Gospels accurately recorded the historical Jesus, using
archaeology and the testimony of the early church fathers.
Background of the
Need
Throughout history, especially recent history, everyone from
atheists to so-called “intellectuals” have doubted if Jesus existed. If they do
say Jesus existed, either willingly or reluctantly, they question if the
Gospels historically record Jesus as he lived in the first century. The most
recent and most famous is the Jesus Seminar. Consisting of Robert Funk and
thirty of his friends, the Jesus Seminary sought to sort out the non-fiction Jesus
and the fiction Jesus from the four canonical Gospels and the pseudapigraphal Gospel of Thomas. The members of the
Jesus Seminar voted on the sayings of Jesus using four colored beads. Red meant
Jesus definitely said it or something close to it. Pink represented Jesus probably
said it, or said a somewhat similar idea, but multiple transmissions have left
a little room for questioning it. Gray denoted that Jesus probably didn’t say
it, but maybe it roughly represents an idea Jesus had. Black signified that
Jesus never said, but rather the church sometime in history inserted that
interpretation about Jesus. When all voting finished, only sixteen percent of
events, seventeen percent of parables, and eighteen percent of the sayings of
Jesus got the red bead vote to acknowledge them as historically accurate. The
Jesus Seminar denied all of Gospels’ miracles, from the virgin birth to the
resurrection. When the Jesus Seminary completed, they turned Jesus into a smart
teacher and a social revolutionists, and nothing more. Therefore, Christians
need apologetics that defend both Jesus as a real person in history and the
Gospels as real historical accounts of the real Jesus.
Historical Records
Atheism denies the existence of God, but some atheists go
even further and boldly proclaim that Jesus never existed either. Those
atheists claim that only the New Testament mentions Jesus, and therefore they
quickly conclude that Jesus never existed outside the imagination of the
apostles. Such atheists, however, have concluded too quickly, and thus have
concluded falsely, for historical records outside the Bible speak of Jesus.
Suetonius
Roman historians wrote about Jesus. Suetonius Tranquillus,
an upper class lawyer, wrote a history of twelve Roman emperors after viewing
the Roman archives of the emperors. Upon writing about Emperor Claudius,
Suetonius records that Claudius removed the Jews from Rome. Suetonius says that
Claudius removed the Jews because of their riots due to “the instigation of
Chestus.” Christian scholars have good reason to believe that Chestus is a
scribal error for Christ. Despite several records carefully recording the name
of every Jew in Rome, not a single record writes down a Chestus in Rome. If
Chestus did exist as a slave, as some skeptics have suggested, a good Roman
historian, like Suetonius, would have provided some kind of biographical sketch
explaining the minor character’s importance. No such biographical sketch
exists, suggesting every commoner knew about the character. The error probably
comes from the term Chrestiani, a profane
name Romans gave Christians, including Suetonius. In fact, when Suetonius uses
profanity in regards to Christians in an official historical recording,
Suetonius displays his disdain towards Christians. Suetonius further
demonstrates his hatred towards Christians when he later records that
Christians follow an imaginary myth that causes misbehavior. Therefore, the Christian
can conclude that Suetonius believed Jesus existed, for Suetonius blames the
work of Jesus for upheaval between Jews and Christians in Rome.
Tacticus
In his final work, Roman senator and historian Cornelius
Tacticus records Roman history from the fourteenth century A.D. to the
sixty-eighth. Tacticus highlights the burning of Rome as an important event in Roman history. Tacticus records
Nero started the fire, but blamed Christians as the cause. Tacticus then
briefly describes Christians. He explains that Christians followed a Jesus of
Nazareth, whom they called the Christ, who got executed by Pontius Pilate.
Tacticus also looks down on Christians, for he calls them a people “hated for
their abominable crimes” and later calls them “hateful of humanity.” Yet
Tacticus too acknowledges Jesus. He calls Jesus a Christ, fully knowing the
implications of the title. He recognizes Jesus as the founder of the movement
the apostles expounded, commonly known as Christianity. He verifies for the
Christian that Pontius Pilate had Jesus crucified. Furthermore, by mentioning
Pontius Pilate, who many Roman historians mention, Tacticus puts Jesus in real
history. Therefore, the Christian can conclude Tacticus knew Jesus existed,
too.
Pliny the Younger
As a Roman senator and governor, Pliny the Younger took the
time to investigate Christians in order to know how to deal with them. Pliny
even went as far as sending out spies to spy on Christians to learn more about
them. In a letter to Trajan, Pliny reports that the Christians recite a creed
stating Jesus as Christ and God. Once again, Pliny recognizes the start of the
Christian movement that had reached Rome. The movement started with Jesus.
Pliny records a style of worship similar to that in Acts. Pliny even goes
further and mentions that Christian worship included reciting a creed,
declaring Jesus as God. He goes on to say their reverence for Christ as God
does not allow them to worship another as God. In conclusion, Pliny not only
recognized Jesus as real, but also recognized that some saw Jesus as God. Like
Suetonius and Tacticus, Pliny stands as an enemy of Christianity, for he too
declares the religion nothing more than a crazy superstition. Not even Pliny’s
hostility towards Christianity could prevent him from denying the existence of
Jesus.
Josephus
Not only did Roman historians record Jesus in history, but a
Jewish historian did as well. Jewish historian Josephus speaks about Jesus in
many of his works. Of all the works of Josephus, Testamonium Flavium and Antiquities
talks the most about Jesus. The most famous passage comes from Testamonium Flavium. Even subtracting
the material that has come into question, Joseph makes bold statements for a
Jewish devotee. First, Josephus calls Jesus wise, and he also notes that other
people knew Jesus as a wise man. Second, Josephus says Jesus does “surprising
works,” possibly nodding at the miracles as supernatural acts. Third, Josephus
states that Jesus faced opposition from Jewish leadership and Pontius. Fourth,
Josephus confirms Jesus died on the cross at Pilate’s command. Fifth, although
Josephus may not have believed it himself, he records the Christians believe
Jesus rose from the dead, which led Christians to believe Jesus must be the
Messiah. Josephus didn’t just believe Jesus existed, Joseph believed most of
the Gospel claims as well.
Josephus mentions Jesus in Antiquities of the Jews, although indirectly. Antiquities of the Jews concludes with the close of Festus’s reign
and Annas’s rule in the Sanhedrin. When Festus dies, Annas makes a power grab
and starts making executive decisions. In one decision, Annas has James, “the
brother of Jesus called Christ,” arrested, along with “certain others.” The
certain others probably refers to Christians. To specify a common name such as
James, Josephus identifies him as the brother of the Jesus. To specify a common
name such as Jesus, Josephus identifies him as Jesus known as Christ. This name
and title makes it clear that the original reader could have known about Jesus.
Rabbis
Not only did Jewish historians record Jesus in history, but
Jewish rabbis did as well. Two of the most explicit mentions come from the
transcripts of the Sanhedrin. These transcripts do more than just acknowledge
Jesus existed. They acknowledge Jesus received the death penalty, and the time
table matches the one found in the Gospels. Later on in the text, a rabbi
declares Jesus practiced magic. This rabbi asserts he saw something
supernatural happen, even if he does not call it a divine miracle. Although all
the writings criticize and condemn Jesus, they prove Jesus existed nonetheless.
Archaeological
Records
Previously, we have explored records and other writings in
history that mention a Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians believed to be the
Messiah. Next, this paper will look at the Gospels as historically accurate.
Before this paper can look at the Gospels, however, this paper needs to look at
the archaeological record. The archaeological will not have any explicit
mentions of Jesus by name. Rather, the archaeology will display the history,
culture and geography of the first century Israel. In turn, when the Gospels
display the same history, culture and geography, the reader can rest assured
that the Gospel authors recorded the Gospels as accurate to history.
Coins
In Mark 12:13-17, the Pharisees and Herodians try to trap
Jesus with a question about taxes. In this story, Jesus asks for a coin, and
then he asks whose inscription is on the coin. They reply Caesar’s. Indeed,
archaeology has revealed coins had Caesar’s name stamped on them. In fact,
Caesars would use the coins to spread propaganda about themselves. Coin
inscriptions would not only have the Caesar’s name, but also a title such as
“Son of God” or “Son of a Divine one.” Such titles would remind the citizens
that the previous Caesar, the current Caesar’s father, had reached a place
among the gods, which verifies the current Caesar as the legitimate Caesar of
Rome. Sometimes, if a Caesar pushed to make himself deity before death, he
would change the coin inscription to something like “the holy one” or “the
revered one.” Caesar Augustus, the emperor during the time of Jesus, had made
this change by the time Jesus entered the ministry. Not only does Jesus
reference this change in the Gospel of Mark, he might use it to make the
Herodians, a political party supporting the Romans, to decide who is God: Jesus
or Caesar.
Calendar
Another key inscription comes from a calendar found in Priene,
a city located in western Asia Minor. The calendar made the birthday Caesar
Augustus the new beginning to the year. The calendar writes that the Caesar’s
birth is good news and that people should celebrate with good tidings toward
each other. Both terms “good news” and “good tidings” comes the Greek word euanggelia, or gospel. What makes the
Caesar’s birthday gospel, or good news, is that a god comes down to earth in
human form. The inscription of the word gospel on the Roman calendar helps the
Christian understand the use and importance of the word gospel in the four
Gospels. Mark roughly borrows this Priene calendar inscription for the start of
his Gospel. In Mark 1:1, Mark boldly proclaims that Caesar’s birth does not
begin the good news, but rather the ministry of Jesus begins the good news.
Altogether, the Romans used the idea of gospel just as much as the Christians
living in the Roman Empire.
Urbanization of
Galilee
Archaeology reveals that, during the ministry of Jesus,
Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, began building more in Galilee to make
rural Galilee more urban. Antipas started by building two cities. One he named
Sepphoris, and the other he named Tiberias. These two cities attracted many
rural Galileans into city life, as well attracting many other people from faraway
lands. With more people in the land, the demand for food and housing went up.
In order to pay for food and housing, people would go into debt and have to
work off their debt as tenants working in a farmer’s field. Jesus knew his
currents events. Therefore, he taught lessons in Galilee that many Galileans
could relate to. Such teachings consist of the parable of the wicked servant,
the parable of the workers in the vineyard and the parable of the tenants. All
these parables accurately describe life as a tenant farmer in first century
Galilee.
Gospel Record
So far, we have explored records and other writings in
history that mention a Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians believed to be the
Messiah. Most of these writings come from opponents of Jesus and opponents of
Christianity. If Jesus didn’t exist, those opponents would have called the
Christians out for believing in an imaginary person. Since these opponents take
the time to refute Jesus, he must exist. Christians can use these writings to
prove that Jesus existed to atheists. These accounts, however, can only get the
Christian to prove Jesus existed. This leaves people to make any claim about
Jesus they please. The Christian should not stop at proving the existence of
Jesus. If the Christian believes the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then
Jesus needs to be real like the Bible says. The Gospels writers took the time
to record the words and actions of Jesus just as he lived them. Even as early
as the church fathers, they could see the Gospels as historically accurate.
Four Distant Gospel
Authors
Due to increased persecution in the 40s A.D., the apostles,
including all four Gospel authors, split into four main mission groups to
spread the Gospel. Paul and Luke most likely ministered to Greeks in Greece, as
all Paul’s epistles hint. John most likely ministered in Asia Minor, as his
seven letters in Revelation hints. Peter and Mark probably ministered together
to the Romans in Rome. James and Matthew probably ministered to the Jews,
wherever they were scattered. Looking at a map, the four Gospel authors wrote
their Gospel accounts very far apart from each other, in both distance and
time. This means they almost certainly did not collaborate with each other.
Still, their stories concur with each other. Therefore, the reader can conclude
these stories accurately account what Jesus did on this earth.
Against the Expectations
Some skeptical of the Gospels’ historical accuracy
hypothesize the Gospel authors fictionalized Jesus in order to make him the
Messiah. If the Gospel writers did fictionalize Jesus to make him the Christ,
they did a terrible job. The first century Jews, including the Jewish Gospel
writers Matthew, Mark and John, had expectations of the Messiah totally
different to the character of Jesus. Still Matthew, Mark and John wrote down
that contrary character Jesus displayed instead of writing down their dream Messiah.
If the Gospel authors wanted their ideal Messiah, they would showed Jesus as a
prophet who agreed with all the respected Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ religious
teachings. Instead, they showed Jesus constantly in conflict with the
Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ legalistic interpretation of the Law. If the Gospel
writers wanted their model Christ, Jesus would heavily support a sovereign
Israel and would fight Rome like Joshua fighting the Canaanites. Instead, Jesus
never causes Rome any problems. In fact, he even helps a Roman centurion. The
Gospel authors could have chosen to fictionalize Jesus to prove to Jews Jesus
was truly the Messiah. Instead, they chose to accurately record Jesus as he
lived in history, even if it meant losing Jewish followers.
Early Church Fathers
The early church fathers quickly accepted the books of
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as historically accurate accounts of the life of
Jesus. The early church fathers had these four Gospels circulated throughout
the whole Roman Empire. They quoted them freely in their letters. For example,
Clement quotes all three synoptic Gospels in a letter to Corinth. Irenaeus
writes that Polycarp, a disciple of John, read and quoted the Gospel of John
constantly. When the early church fathers came together to write the creeds of
the faith, they heavily relied on the four Gospels. When the creeds record that
Pontius Pilate crucified Jesus, they align the crucifixion with history. Upon
observing Christians, Pliny writes that the Christians read and recite the
Gospels every Sunday. If the Christians read and recite the Gospels, they had
to believe them to be true, including Jesus living. Justin the Martyr also
observes Christians coming together to read a creed in his First Apology. Justin even writes down some of this creed. The
creed not only records Jesus crucified during the time of Pontius Pilate, but
also during Tiberius Caesar. All the early church fathers clearly conclude
Jesus did exist as a real man in history, just as the four Gospels accurately
record.
The Gnostic Gospels
The Gnostic gospels might sound like an odd choice to defend
the historicity of the four true Gospels, but comparing the two, the Gnostic
gospels reveal themselves to be fiction and the four true Gospels to be historical.
The
Gospel of Truth, written by the
Gnostic Valentinus, does not record any action of Jesus, so it cannot be taken
as historically true. The same goes for the
Gospel
of Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas does not have any narrative. While
The Gospel of Thomas has several sayings
that anyone can find in the other four canonical Gospels, it also contains
saying heretical compared to the other Gospels. All this evidence adds up to a
false Gospel. The
Unknown Gospel,
written in the second century, while free of heresy, consists of a compilation
of verses from the other four canonical Gospels. This so-called gospel is
merely a harmony of the true Gospels, furthermore attesting to the four Gospels
historical accuracy. Same goes for the
Gospel
of Peter. The
Gospel of Peter’s
source comes from the three synoptic Gospels. Again, this attests to how the
people of second century already saw the synoptic Gospels as historically
accurate. The early church fathers quickly and easily rejected these Gnostic
Gospels because they knew they were not historically credible. They knew they
needed a historical account of the man Jesus, so that’s why they went with the
historical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John over the Gnostic Gospels.
Conclusion
Jesus did exist in history. Romans historians such as
Suetonius, Tacticus and Pliny the Younger wrote about Jesus. Jewish historian
Josephus wrote about Jesus. None of these historians would have sacrificed
their credibility as historians for a fictional character, especially a
fictional character whom they despised, as well as despising his followers.
Jewish rabbis talk about Jesus in the Talmud. If Jesus wouldn’t have existed,
they would have wrote down that in order to silence the new Christianity for
falsely proclaiming a Messiah. Instead of denying his existence, they denied
his words and deeds. Furthermore, Jesus existed in history exactly as the
Gospels record it. They early church fathers immediately agreed with the
testimony of these books, and they even supplemented it with more history. At
the same time, the early church fathers quickly rejected the Gnostic gospels
because they knew those books did not agree with Jesus either historically or
theologically. All the Gospels match up with the exact same history and culture
modern-day archaeology has revealed. The Gospel authors could not have
collaborated their Gospels into pieces of fictions. They lived too far apart to
collaborate. If they did collaborate, they did a horrible job, for they created
a Messiah totally contrasting what the Jews declared the Messiah would be.
Therefore, the Gospels must then accurate record the real, historical Jesus. If
the atheists still wants to consider themselves intellectual, they must stop
denying the existence of Jesus, as stated in the Gospels, for they are not
doing themselves any favors.
