Sunday Sermons
Did Jesus Really Live?
Every now and then someone seeks to argue that Jesus of Nazareth never really lived and is instead merely a fictional character. In this lesson however we will observe that this position is truly a lost cause. Before we look at the evidence, I want to address why anyone would hold such a point of view. It appears to me that such an extreme opinion is admitting the following:
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Unbelievers have not been able to successfully argue against what Jesus is said to have taught.
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Unbelievers cannot find any flaws in the Jesus presented in the Gospels.
It is far easier to simply deny that Jesus existed than to deal with Him, His character, His life, His miracles, the prophecies of His life, His resurrection and His teachings.
Supporting Evidence Outside the New Testament
The New Testament is not the only collection of writings that speak of the historical reality of Jesus. Other sources also mention Him, and these other sources serve like support wires that keep a tall antenna straight, or tie-downs that keep a load secure in the back of a pickup truck.
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Flavius Josephus (AD 37-101): Antiquities, Book 18, Chapter 3, Paragraph 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 then Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst 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”. Concerning this passage, Edwin Yamauchi notes, “Scholarship has gone through three trends about it (this quotation). For obvious reasons, the early Christians thought it was a wonderful and thoroughly authentic attestation of Jesus and His resurrection. They loved it. Then the entire passage was questioned by at least some scholars during the Enlightenment. But today there’s a remarkable consensus among both Jewish and Christian scholars that the passage as a whole is authentic, although there may be some interpolations (a phrase inserted here or there by a copyist)” (The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel, p. 79).
In addition, Josephus also mentions John the Baptist: "Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness” (Antiquities, Book 18, Chapter 5, paragraph 2). AndJames, the brother of Jesus: "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrim 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: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done” (Antiquities, Book 20, Chapter 9). One reason why Josephus does not write more about Jesus is that Josephus was interested in political matters and the struggle against the Roman Empire. Remember, unlike the Zealots, Jesus did not object to paying taxes to the Roman Government (Matthew 22), thus Jesus and His followers were not viewed as a political threat. Josephus is quite a reliable historian, his accounts of the Jewish War have proved to be very accurate, and have been verified by archaeological excavations.
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Tacitus (A.D. 55-117): Famous Roman Historian: Annals 15:44
“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 Pilatus, 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 centre and become popular… 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, has of hatred against mankind”.
Commenting upon this passage, Yamauchi notes, “It does provide us with a very remarkable fact, which is this: crucifixion was the most abhorrent fate anyone could undergo, and the fact that there was a movement based on a crucified man has to be explained. How can you explain the spread of a religion based on the worship of a man who had suffered the most ignominious death possible?” (The Case for Christ, p. 82). Also notice that Tacitus reports that an immense multitude held so strongly to their beliefs in Christ that they were willing to die rather than recant.
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Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor (112 A.D.)
“They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food but food of an ordinary and innocent kind”.
This quotation reveals a couple of things: Jesus was worshipped as God (John 1:1). Christians had high ethical standards, and they were not easily swayed from their convictions. It equally infers the rapid spread of Christianity, both in cities and rural areas and among every class of persons.
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The Talmud (A.D. 500)
“On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of the Passover!” This quotation was taken from the reading in The Babylonian Talmud, transl. by I. Epstein (London: Soncino, 1935), vol. III, Sanhedrin 43a, p. 281 as cited in Habermas, Gary R., The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, (Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company) 1996. There are a couple of references to Jesus in this large work of Jewish traditions. There are not a lot of references seeing that the Jews, as a whole, did not go into great detail concerning people they viewed as heretics. One passage repeats the rumor that Jesus was born of Roman soldier and Mary, yet this rumor suggests that there was something unusual about His birth. Thus in a negative way, the Talmud admits undeniable things about Jesus: 1) He really lived. 2) He was a healer and wonder worker. 3) He had an unusual birth. 4) He was crucified during Passover. 5) He was a popular teacher.
The Day the Earth Went Dark
“Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:45).
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Thallus (A.D. 52)
Thallus wrote a history of the Eastern Mediterranean world from the Trojan War to his own time. His writings are only found as citations by others. Julius Africanus, who wrote about A.D. 221, mentioned Thallus’ account of the eclipse of the sun:
“On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun”. So Thallus was apparently saying, “Yes, there had been darkness at the time of the crucifixion, and he speculated it had been caused by an eclipse. Julius then argues that it could not have been an eclipse, given when the crucifixion occurred, that is, during Passover which was a full moon, because it is not possible for a solar eclipse to occur at a full moon. And this writer is not the only writer who mentions this event. Phlegon, a Greek author from Caria writing a chronology soon after 137 A.D., reported that in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e. 33 A.D.) there was the ‘greatest eclipse of the sun’ and that ‘it became night in the sixth hour of the day (i.e. noon) so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea” (The Case for Christ, p. 85). Thus, even if we did not possess a New Testament, from secular sources, we would know the following things about Jesus: 1) He was a Jewish teacher. 2) Many people believed He could heal and cast out demons. 3) Some people believed He was the Messiah. 4) He was rejected by the Jewish leaders. 5) He was crucified under Pontus Pilate in the reign of Tiberias. 6) Despite a shameful death, many believed and were eyewitnesses of the fact He was still alive and spread this message beyond Palestine so that there were multitudes of believers in Rome by A.D. 64. 7) All kinds of people, slave and free, worshipped Him as God. 8) They would not recant even on pain of death.
