Appendix B
The Historical Jesus
Having appealed to the
testimonies of the gospel writers who bore witness to Jesus' resurrection and
Messianic qualifications, it is necessary to substantiate the historical
reliability of the New Testament itself. It is crucial to realize that the New
Testament is a very reliable document. Unlike the "holy" books upon
which false religions are based, the New Testament is accurate to the smallest
detail in relation to the facts. As
Ed Wharton noted:
The gospel narratives are not like myths which happened once
upon a time. Myths are not located among people and places that can be verified.
But the gospels are set within the historical context of the first century.
Jesus' birth is related in an environment that can be and has been verified. The
political figures and events contemporaneous with Jesus' birth are
described...Every political and religious figure mentioned here is historically
verifiable. Why would any half-smart forger or semi-literate inventor of myth
want to tie his character to so many people who lived at the very time he wrote?
There is but one solution: Jesus of Nazareth is an authentic historical
character.1
Wharton further comments:
Mr. H. G. Wells, author of THE
OUTLINE OF HISTORY, was no Christian. He had no motive to endorse the gospels as
historically reliable outside of an historical context. His comment upon the
beginnings of Christianity is interesting: 'About Jesus we have to write not
theology but history...Almost our only sources of information about the
personality of Jesus are derived from the four gospels, all of which were
certainly in existence a few decades after his death...But all four agree in
giving us a picture of a very definite personality...In spite of miraculous and
incredible additions, one is obliged to say, 'Here was a man. This part of the
tale could not have been invented.' Though Wells, without offering the slightest
reason other than his own philosophical presupposition, brands the miraculous
elements of the gospels as 'incredible,' he nevertheless admits the historical
accuracy of the gospel documents and uses them freely and authoritatively as his
source material for that section of his historical work.
Will Durant, former professor of
the Philosophy of History at Columbia University, and a scholar of the first rank, says, 'We may conclude with the
brilliant but judicious Schweitzer that the gospel of Mark is in essentials
'genuine history." Concerning the darkness which accompanied Jesus'
crucifixion as recorded by Mark he further comments, 'About the middle of this
first century a pagan named Thallus, in a fragment preserved by Julius Africanus,
argued that the abnormal darkness alleged to have accompanied the death of
Christ was a purely natural phenomenon [an eclipse] and coincidence; the
argument took the existence of Christ for granted.' We might add that such an
argument took the darkness for granted, too! Thus Mark told us the truth when he
said "there was darkness over the whole land" from 12:00 noon till
3:00 P.M. (Mark 15:33).2
We should add that Jesus'
crucifixion occurred at the Passover, which is the time of the full moon. It
would have been impossible for a full eclipse of the sun to transpire at that
time.
The Testimony of Josephus
Even Josephus, a non-Christian
Jewish historian who lived between 37 and 100 A.D., bore witness to this when he
wrote:
Now, there was about this time
Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of
wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He
drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the]
Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the chief men among us, had
condemned him to the cross, those that had previously followed did not forsake
him, for he appeared to them alive on the third day, as the divine prophets had
foretold these and many other wonderful things concerning him"3
It is argued that some
"Christian" scribe must have altered the text to favor the Christian
view of Jesus, since Josephus pages later seems to put the question in doubt:
Festus was now dead, and Albinus
was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges and brought
before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James,
and some others [or some of his companions]; and, when he had formed an
accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be
stoned...4
However, the Jewish scholar
Joseph Klausner believed that most of the first quotation was genuine except
"if it be lawful to call him a man," "he was the Messiah",
and "for he appeared to them alive on the third day, as the divine prophets
had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him."5
However, the quote is found in
every extant manuscript of Josephus. It is possible that Josephus was writing
from the perspective of Jesus' followers. It is also possible that Josephus was
a nominal believer. It was not unusual for the Israelites to vacillate between
two opinions. Josephus was a general for the Jewish nation during the Jewish
War. He might have become disillusioned with God's abandonment of the great city
into the hands of pagan conquerors. From this vantage point, Josephus may have
had many a chilling night to ponder Jesus' great prophecy of Jerusalem's
destruction for her rejection of His Messianic claim (Luke 21:20-24). He might
have felt that Jesus was the Messiah but was not willing to forsake all to
follow him.
In any case, Josephus confirms
the following New Testament claims: (1) Jesus lived during the first century and
was put to death during the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate. (2) Jesus claimed
to be the Messiah. (3) Many people, both Jews and Gentiles, accepted this claim.
The Testimony of Tacitus
"Consequently, to get rid of
the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on
a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during
the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate,
and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke
out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all
things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and
become popular."6
Within this quote from this pagan
Roman historian, we find an amazing indirect witness for Jesus' resurrection.
When Jesus was crucified, all His disciples forsook him and cowered hopelessly
behind locked doors for fear of the Jews (John 20:19). Their three-year
preaching tenure was immediately abandoned "Thus checked for the
moment." But fifty days later, they resumed evangelizing Jerusalem and
carried the message into all the world (Acts 2, Matt. 28:19-20) "again
broke out not only in Judea... but even in Rome..."
What interrupted their preaching?
Jesus' death. What motivated the disciples to resume their evangelism? Jesus'
resurrection from the dead!
Miscellaneous Testimonies
Suetonius, another Roman
historian, states, "Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the
instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome."7
As Kennedy documents:
Among the secular historians and
writers of antiquity who refer to Christ and Christianity are: Tacitus, the
Roman historian; Suetonius; Pliny the younger; Epictetus; Lucian; Arsides;
Galenus; Lampridius; DioCassius; Hinerius; Libanius; Ammianus; Marcellinus;
Eunapius; Zosimus...Pontus Pilate, procurator of Judea who condemned Christ to
death, wrote of those extraordinary activities to Tiberius Caesar in an
apparently well-known account that has been referred to by several other
historic personages. One Christian apologist, some years later, writing to
another Caesar, encouraged him to check with his own archives and discover from
the report of Pontius Pilate that these things were true. In this long report,
after describing the miracles of Christ, Pilate states: “And him Herod and
Archelaus and Philip, Annas and Caiaphas, with all the people, delivered to me,
making a great uproar against me that I should try him [Christ]. I therefore
ordered him to be crucified, having first scourged him, and having found against
him no cause of evil accusations or deeds. And at the time he was crucified
there was darkness over all the world, the sun being darkened at mid-day, and
the stars appearing, but in them there appeared no luster; and the moon, as if
turned into blood, failed in her light.”8
In view of the foregoing, we must
concur with Historian J. Gilchrist Lawson's conclusion:
The legendary, or mythical,
theory of Christ's existence is not held by anyone worthy of the name scholar.
The historical evidences of Christ's existence are so much greater than those in
support of any other event in ancient history; no candid scholar could reject
them without also renouncing his belief in every recorded event in ancient
history.9