Did Christ exist as a real person, or is the Jesus myth true?
Did Jesus exist as a historical figure, or was He, as some atheists and secularists proclaim today, merely a collaboration of earlier mythical figures, constructed by later people as a God to deceive the masses?
Christians will point to the Bible as a source of proof, 66 books put together over a period of 1600 years, the most complete record of a people and their beliefs that exist in scholarship. But for those who don't want to take the Bible as evidence, the following can be presented.
Below is a collection of what historians, rulers and enemies of Christianity wrote. It goes to reason that if even those who persecute a faith acknowledge the faith's roots as being real, the person whom the faith is based upon as actually having existed, then Christ was as real a person as any other historical figure. His divinity is not what is being discussed here, as that comes to a matter of faith (though for those interested in exploring the matter, I suggest C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, and Lee Stroble's "A case for faith.") These notes purely deal with whether Christ Jesus, as a person, existed in Judea at the time the Bible places Him there.
1. Josephus - a Pharisee and Jewish historian
Writing about Ananias, a high priest mentioned in the Book of Acts in the Bible, Josephus, the most significant Jewish historian of the period wrote:
"He convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned." (Josephus, The Antiquities 20.200)
The Bible teaches that Mary had other sons after she bore Jesus. One of them was James. According to the New Testament, James did not even believe in Jesus before his crucifixion. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, says that Jesus appeared to James. It seems that this made a believer out of James. This passage from Josephus confirms important details in the New Testament and directly mentions Jesus, called the Christ.
Remember that not all Jews liked Jesus, and Josephus was not a Christian. He was known as an accurate historian. We have evidence then, apart from the Bible, that Jesus really did exist as a historical person, and that some called him 'the Christ', which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach, or Messiah.
He also wrote: Antiquities 18.3.3 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 principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.
2. Tacitus - A Roman Historian
In A.D. 115, Tacitus, the most important Roman historian of the first century, wrote as follows:
"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 Tiberias 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 Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome ... Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty: then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind" (Tacitus, Annals 15.44)
It is clear from this passage that Tacitus was no friend of the Christians. He called Christianity a 'mischievous superstition'. But at the same time, he tells us the following:
a. Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate, who was known of to Roman historians.
This is totally consistent with the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John on this point and is in fact part of the apostles creed - an important Christian statement of faith of the early church.
b. This happened during the reign of Tiberias (i.e. a time consistent with the A.D. 33 date which is the year most likely to have been the year of the crucifixion).
c. Christ's crucifixion briefly stopped the spread of Christianity ('for a moment') but then it broke out again from Judea and spread even to Rome. Its clear that Christianity started amongst JEWS.
d. Already an immense multitude believed in Jesus by the time of Nero and were arrested for their faith by Nero.
3. Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, wrote as follows to the Emporer Trajan around 111 A.D.
"I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubborness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished...
They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: that they met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery ...
This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they called deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths."
- Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96
This letter, this time from a persecutor of the church, shows us that the Christians by the early second century most definitely considered Christ to be a god, if not God.
4. Other Jewish Writers
The Talmud is a collection of writings very important in Judaism. It mentions Jesus, but not favorably. According to the Talmud, Jesus was a false Messiah, who practiced magic and deceived the people. He was called a sorcerer. This corroborates the accounts of the gospels that Jesus did many supernatural signs and wonders - like healing the sick, feeding the five thousand with a few loaves and fishes and so on.
5. Lucian Of Samosata
From this satirist and playwright of the second century, we have two quotes from a play entitled "The Passing of Peregrinus." The hero of the tale, Peregrinus, was a Cynic philosopher who became a Christian, rose in prominence in the Christian community, then returned to Cynicism. Lucian's attack is not so much on Christianity, but on the person of Peregrinus who took advantage of the Christians' simplicity and gullibility. [3] He alludes to Christ as
"… the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult to the world … Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they were all brothers ... after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping the crucified sophist himself and live under his laws." [5 p. 82] Although, Jesus isn't mentioned by name, there is no doubt that he is referring to Jesus. No one else was ever worshipped by the Christians.
CONCLUSION
If we are to believe historians and writers hostile to Christianity who lived around the time of Christ or the early church, then Jesus really did exist. Furthermore, belief in Him was so strong amongst even a multitude of people that He was worshipped as God. He did supernatural things amongst the Jewish people, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate according to Tacitus, and was believed by many to be the Christ.
If we can believe anything in history we should believe these reports by the detractors of Christianity. They effectively put to rest the ideas, popularised by some, that Jesus of Nazareth never really existed, or if he did, the stories that went around about Him and who He was were not believed until much later.
*some notes taken from christian-faith.com, as well as the Free Apologetic Society
Christians will point to the Bible as a source of proof, 66 books put together over a period of 1600 years, the most complete record of a people and their beliefs that exist in scholarship. But for those who don't want to take the Bible as evidence, the following can be presented.
Below is a collection of what historians, rulers and enemies of Christianity wrote. It goes to reason that if even those who persecute a faith acknowledge the faith's roots as being real, the person whom the faith is based upon as actually having existed, then Christ was as real a person as any other historical figure. His divinity is not what is being discussed here, as that comes to a matter of faith (though for those interested in exploring the matter, I suggest C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, and Lee Stroble's "A case for faith.") These notes purely deal with whether Christ Jesus, as a person, existed in Judea at the time the Bible places Him there.
1. Josephus - a Pharisee and Jewish historian
Writing about Ananias, a high priest mentioned in the Book of Acts in the Bible, Josephus, the most significant Jewish historian of the period wrote:
"He convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned." (Josephus, The Antiquities 20.200)
The Bible teaches that Mary had other sons after she bore Jesus. One of them was James. According to the New Testament, James did not even believe in Jesus before his crucifixion. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, says that Jesus appeared to James. It seems that this made a believer out of James. This passage from Josephus confirms important details in the New Testament and directly mentions Jesus, called the Christ.
Remember that not all Jews liked Jesus, and Josephus was not a Christian. He was known as an accurate historian. We have evidence then, apart from the Bible, that Jesus really did exist as a historical person, and that some called him 'the Christ', which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach, or Messiah.
He also wrote: Antiquities 18.3.3 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 principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.
2. Tacitus - A Roman Historian
In A.D. 115, Tacitus, the most important Roman historian of the first century, wrote as follows:
"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 Tiberias 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 Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome ... Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty: then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind" (Tacitus, Annals 15.44)
It is clear from this passage that Tacitus was no friend of the Christians. He called Christianity a 'mischievous superstition'. But at the same time, he tells us the following:
a. Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate, who was known of to Roman historians.
This is totally consistent with the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John on this point and is in fact part of the apostles creed - an important Christian statement of faith of the early church.
b. This happened during the reign of Tiberias (i.e. a time consistent with the A.D. 33 date which is the year most likely to have been the year of the crucifixion).
c. Christ's crucifixion briefly stopped the spread of Christianity ('for a moment') but then it broke out again from Judea and spread even to Rome. Its clear that Christianity started amongst JEWS.
d. Already an immense multitude believed in Jesus by the time of Nero and were arrested for their faith by Nero.
3. Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, wrote as follows to the Emporer Trajan around 111 A.D.
"I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubborness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished...
They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: that they met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery ...
This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they called deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths."
- Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96
This letter, this time from a persecutor of the church, shows us that the Christians by the early second century most definitely considered Christ to be a god, if not God.
4. Other Jewish Writers
The Talmud is a collection of writings very important in Judaism. It mentions Jesus, but not favorably. According to the Talmud, Jesus was a false Messiah, who practiced magic and deceived the people. He was called a sorcerer. This corroborates the accounts of the gospels that Jesus did many supernatural signs and wonders - like healing the sick, feeding the five thousand with a few loaves and fishes and so on.
5. Lucian Of Samosata
From this satirist and playwright of the second century, we have two quotes from a play entitled "The Passing of Peregrinus." The hero of the tale, Peregrinus, was a Cynic philosopher who became a Christian, rose in prominence in the Christian community, then returned to Cynicism. Lucian's attack is not so much on Christianity, but on the person of Peregrinus who took advantage of the Christians' simplicity and gullibility. [3] He alludes to Christ as
"… the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult to the world … Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they were all brothers ... after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping the crucified sophist himself and live under his laws." [5 p. 82] Although, Jesus isn't mentioned by name, there is no doubt that he is referring to Jesus. No one else was ever worshipped by the Christians.
CONCLUSION
If we are to believe historians and writers hostile to Christianity who lived around the time of Christ or the early church, then Jesus really did exist. Furthermore, belief in Him was so strong amongst even a multitude of people that He was worshipped as God. He did supernatural things amongst the Jewish people, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate according to Tacitus, and was believed by many to be the Christ.
If we can believe anything in history we should believe these reports by the detractors of Christianity. They effectively put to rest the ideas, popularised by some, that Jesus of Nazareth never really existed, or if he did, the stories that went around about Him and who He was were not believed until much later.
*some notes taken from christian-faith.com, as well as the Free Apologetic Society
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