Has anyone ever criticized you for your belief in Jesus? Have they
ridiculed you for your belief that Jesus Christ really came to the earth? I had
a class this last Monday and we discussed the fact that Jesus is a HISTORICAL
person. The following evidence is what we looked through and discussed.
There was a famous Jewish scholar who lived from 37-100 AD, named
Josephus. He wrote a history book called the Antiquities of the Jews. In this book, he mentions Jesus Christ. There
are two quotations from the Josephus’ book
in which Jesus is mentioned. The first is located in chapter 18, section 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 theses
and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him And the tribe of
Christians so named for him are not extinct to this day.”
This reference is doubted by many scholars for several reasons. One is
that Josephus changes his topic from what is being discussed in the previous
and following paragraph and shifts to discuss this so-called man Jesus. Another
reason is that in his reference to Jesus, Josephus calls him “the Christ”.
Josephus, being a good Jewish/Roman, should have known what the title of
“anointed one” would mean. There are more reasons, but because of only the
above two, many scholars do not consider the paragraph as one written
originally by Josephus. They speculate that it was written, most likely, by
Christian scribes and inserted at a later date.
The second reference to Jesus occurs in chapter 20, section 9:
“And now Caesar, upon hearing the death
of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph
of the high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on the son
of Ananus, who was also himself called Ananus... 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; and when he had formed an accusation against them as
breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”
Most scholars, if not all, do not question this reference. It is a
short but clear reference showing the existence of Jesus during the first
century. It mentions the death of James, the brother of Jesus who was the so called Christ. This execution is mentioned briefly and only in regard
to the high priest Ananus.
Even without the testimony of Josephus, there are several witnesses to
the existence of Jesus Christ during the first century. All of the references I
am referring to are references written by non-Christian historians and authors.
Consider what the references say.
Cornelius Tacitus, a very Roman historian who lived in 56-117AD,
mentioned Christ when discussing Nero’s burning of the city of Rome and how he
transferred the blame from himself to the Christians alive at that time:
"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 Judæa,
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, as of hatred against mankind".
Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia who lived from around 62-113AD,
also mentioned Christians in a letter to the emperor Trajan:
They
affirmed, however, that the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that
they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light,
when they sang in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as to a god, and bound
themselves to a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any
fraud, theft, adultery, never to falsify their word, not to deny a trust when
they should be called upon to deliver it up.
Because of these records, Christians can have great confidence! If
there was only evidence in the Bible to tell us about Jesus Christ, that would
be fine, as long as you believed in the Bible. Because there is evidence outside
of the Bible, we have SECULAR proof that Jesus was a living, breathing human
being who lived during the first century and brought upon a revolution that
shook the world and changed it forever!
