Letter to a Christain Nation 4

Posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 9:35 pm

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I apologize for how long it has taken me to get back to this book.  You may remember that at the last point, both Harris and I had agreed that the real question of Christianity had to do with Jesus.  As I see it there are three critical questions about Jesus and I will try to deal with each of them in the next couple of days.  The questions are these:  Did Jesus exist?  Does the New Testament claim that Jesus was God?  and most important Was Jesus raised from the dead?  Today let’s look at the first question, did Jesus exist?

First of all let me say that there are very few, even liberal scholars, who will doubt the existence of Jesus today.  While it is true that there are not many extra-biblical mentions of Jesus from the first century, several things should be noted.  First, we have 27 books of the New Testament, all of which speak of Jesus in one way or another and all of which were written in the first century (I know that some of the books are debatable, but even if one considers most of the books as written before AD 100 there are at least ten authors who speak of the historical person of Jesus). 

As to non-Christian sources from the time of Jesus the only clear Jewish reference in this period is that of Josephus Antiquities XVIII.63 64, the so called Testimonium Flavianum. Virtually all scholars are agreed that the received text is a Christian rewriting, but most are prepared to accept that in the original text a brief account of Jesus, perhaps in a less complimentary vein, stood at this point.  For a full examination of this passage see A Marginal Jew, Vol. 1. But reconstruction of what Josephus wrote is necessarily speculative, but almost all scholars of Josephus are willing to admit that he said something about Jesus of Nazareth.  A Roman reference is found in a brief notice in Tacitus Annals xv.44 which mentions only his title, Christus, and his execution in Judea by order of Pontius Pilatus.

The truth is that we have more evidence for the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth than for many historical figures whose existence is taken for granted.  Thus the answer to the first question “Did Jesus exist?” is a resounding yes.  This is far from proving anything supernatural, but one must start somewhere.  For those who have more specific or technical questions about the dating of the gospels or the epistles or the testimony of Josephus, I will place a “bibliography blog” up within the next few weeks that will point you to very detailed sources arguing these things.  For now, these three questions come from a very accessible book by one of the finest New Testament Scholars in the world.  Just click on this link to get it.

Three Crucial Questions About Jesus

Tomorrow:  Does the New Testament Call Jesus God?

Have a blessed thanksgiving.

SamLam