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Historicity of Jesus


The existence of Jesus, known by Christians as Jesus Christ (Jesus the Messiah) and by Muslims as Isa, is accepted by the followers of two world religions, Christianity and Islam, on the basis of their respective scriptures - the Bible and the Koran. Many if not most Jews also acknowledge the existence of Jesus, although whether the Talmud itself contains references to him is in dispute. Those two religions differ in that Christianity considers Jesus to be the Son of God, whilst Islam sees him as a prophet and teacher. Adherents of Judaism generally do not accept him as a true Messiah. Some external evidence supports the existence of an individual named Jesus, but there is no general acceptance of the historical validity of the New Testament accounts of the man called Jesus who is at the center of all of those accounts.

The Bible also describes various miracles associated with Jesus' life, notably a virgin birth, a resurrection from death, and miracles of healing. Although this is standard Church teaching, some Christians do not (or do not strongly) believe in these miracles; non-Christians tend to dismiss them. Many scholars also see the Biblical narrative of Jesus' life as a mythologised account of a historical figure, aimed at winning new converts rather than being a neutral historical record. This includes the idea that interpretations of Jesus' sayings are secondhand and literary extrapolations from his actions and include mythologized invented detail.

Although the existence of a historical figure named Jesus is commonly accepted by Christians and non-Christians alike, there is a school of thought which sees Jesus as a later interpolation into one of the mystery religions (Gnosticism) which resemble Christianity. Others see the apparent relationship between Gnosticism and Christianity as based on a historical figure acting as the focal point for the linking of Jewish religious traditions and political history with a mystery religion, a syncretism - ultimately more popular among Gentiles than Jews - which would become Christianity.

Contents

Jesus' Existence

The Bible

Main article: Jesus and textual evidence

The primary source of historical knowledge about Jesus is contained within the Christian Gospels, as many historians believe them to have originated from sources written within living memory of Jesus. Evidence for a historical Jesus is also provided by the Epistles, especially those by Paul. Other sources regarded as of less significance from the perspective of modern historians are other early Christian material, other religious traditions, and certain historians of the period.

Historians generally agree that at least some of the sources on which Gospels are based were written within living memory of Jesus' lifetime. These historians therefore accept that the accounts of the life of Jesus in the Gospels provide some evidence for the historical existence of Jesus and the basic account of his life and death. The Gospel of Mark is considered by historians to be the earliest of the four. These scholars date it between 55 and 65, although the most common dating of Mark is 65-80 AD, which makes it possible that it was circulating while some of the apostles and their immediate disciples, as well as numerous other eye witnesses, were still alive; so they can conclude that it was fairly close to the early oral preaching about Jesus' life.

Contemporary non-Christian sources

Of the secular commentators living within memory of Jesus, from the evidence of their surviving works (which still survive in significantly high number to fill hundreds of volumes of text) only 6 are claimed to have written anything relating to Jesus - Pliny the Younger, Josephus, Suetonius, Philo, Lucian, and Tacitus. Lucian wrote a satire demonstrating the existence of Christians but condemning them as easily led fools, whereas Pliny the Younger wrote the same opinion in prose. Scholars draw on Josephus' mention of Jesus, and mention of early Christians in Suetonius and Tacitus. Both John the Baptist and James the Just are also documented in Josephus. The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus also makes a mention (in a passage in the Annals written in 115 CE), but merely echoes popular opinion about Jesus, having no independent source of information.

Josephus

Main article: Josephus on Jesus

Many Christians use a passage from Josephus as evidence that the Bible is not the only contemporary document proclaiming the truth of their faith and its history (such as the Resurrection of Jesus as Christ, who was executed at the suggestion of Jewish leaders, and won many converts). However, critical scholars such as John Dominic Crossan and K. H. Rengstorff note that the passage has many internal indicators that seem to be inconsistent with the rest of Josephus' writing and with what is known about Josephus, leading them to think that part or all of the passage may have been forged.

Pliny and Suetonius

Will Durant the philosopher and historian wrote in his book Caesar and Christ (pp. 554-5):

The oldest known mention of Christ in pagan literature is in a letter of the younger Pliny (ca. 110), asking the advice of Trajan on the treatment of Christians. Five years later Tacitus described Nero's persecution of the Chrestiani in Rome, and pictured them as already (A.D. 64) numbering adherents throughout the empire.... Suetonius (ca. 125) mentions the same persecution, and reports Claudius' banishment of "Jews who, stirred up by Christ [impulsore Chresto], were causing public disturbances," the passage accords well with the Acts of the Apostles, which mentions a decree of Claudius that "the Jews should leave Rome." These references prove the existence of Christians rather than of Jesus; see the discussion below on Gnosticism on whether the two are separable.

The only known text which claims to be a form of official governmental record and which also mentions Jesus is the collection known as the Letters of Herod and Pilate. They are found in some 6th century manuscript copies of the work of Justus of Tiberius (who was of the same time as Josephus). Virtually all scholars dispute the attribution of the texts to Herod or Pilate, and consider them pure (and obvious) propaganda. Early commentators stated that Justus had no mention of Jesus.

Pseudepigraphical writings

Among other later pseudepigraphical writings (written by persons unknown under others' names), there is an alleged letter from Herod Antipas purporting to be directed to the Roman Senate defending his (Herod's) actions concerning both John the Baptist and Jesus, and said to be found among the records of the Roman Senate. Whatever their internal details, the very existence of such pseudepigraphical writings and of interpolations into authentic documents, which accumulate from the 2nd century onwards, to judge from internal evidence, has genuine historical value - they document an apparent need on the part of Christians to supplement existing documentation to support the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth, by providing the kind of documents they felt ought to have existed.

Jewish records

Jewish records, both oral and written, of the period, were compiled into the Talmud, a work so large that it fills at least 32 volumes. Within its vastness, there is very little mention of anyone called Jesus, the closest match being a person or persons called Yeshu. However, the description of Yeshu does not match the biblical accounts of Jesus, the name itself is usually considered to be a derogatory acronym for anyone attempting to convert Jews from Judaism, and the term does not occur in the Jerusalem version of the text (which, compared to the Babylonian version, would be expected to mention Jesus more). Some Christians proclaim that the lack of references, and the difficulty in associating Yeshu with Jesus, is due to Christianity being negligible when the Talmud was predominantly created, in addition to the Talmud being more concerned with teachings, than recording history.

Jesus as a myth

The existence of Gnosticism and various mystery religions, with close similarities to Christianity, has led some to suggest that Christianity was strongly influenced by these, essentially building a mystery religion on the foundation of a Judaic tradition (syncretism). This would have included linking the two through Jesus' attempts to fulfill Old Testament prophecies, or else for later writers to claim that he did. More generally it would have included mythologising a Jewish leader into a Son of God, and a representative of wisdom and knowledge. Given the relative paucity of evidence for Jesus physical existence, some argue that he may never have existed outside the mythological realm at all.

Perhaps most prolific of those Biblical scholars denying the historical existence of Jesus is a professor of German, George Albert Wells, who argues that Jesus was originally a myth. Another example is Earl Doherty, who suggests that Paul's idea of Jesus was derived from his reading of the Torah. In this view, Paul was not interested in "nor heard of" any actual person named Jesus from Nazareth (or Bethlehem), but rather believed in a metaphysical Jesus who died on some ethereal plane at the beginning of time, or some far-off time in history. The Jesus of Nazareth character was instead made up after Paul's time by a composite of Old Testament prophecies , with embellishments added by many people. In this view, the interpretation of the meaning of Jesus was also informed by messianic, apocalyptic and resurrectionist myths that were common during the late Hellenistic age. A persistent idea is that his existence is based on a whisper campaign to expel the Roman rulers.

Jesus and syncretism

Main article: Jesus, pre-4th century Christianity, and syncretism

Some scholars, beginning in the nineteenth century with Alexander Hislop in The Two Babylons, think that either Jesus is the missing syncretism, or that at least some of the stories about Jesus arose as a result of the influence.

The pre-Christian Egyptian god Horus, itself a syncretism of many local deities, is thought to have many similarities with Jesus. Some of these similarities supposedly only reveal themselves when transliterating between Demotic and Hebrew. For example, Horus' resurrection of the god Osiris ("El-'Aser") has been linked with the resurrection of Lazarus.

The image on the left, dating from 20BC, depicts Isis and Horus, the image on the right is an early christian depiction of Mary and Jesus, from 5th century Fayum
The image on the left, dating from 20BC, depicts Isis and Horus, the image on the right is an early christian depiction of Mary and Jesus, from 5th century Fayum

Depictions, such as the image of Mary and the baby Jesus, are also shared with the Horus/Isis cult. In addition, some allege that Set is the prototype for Satan, the story of the battle in the wilderness with temptation being shared between the stories. Connections have also been drawn between Jesus and Pythagoras, based on the significance of various occurrences in the Gospels with respect to Pythagorean numerology. Both the Pythagorean philosophy and the Horus myths are thought to be linked to astrology.

During the first and second centuries BC, Hellenic philosophy merged with various minor deities to produce mystery religions, in which a Life-death-rebirth deity was used as allegory to encode wisdom. Such religions quickly replaced many local religions as the dominant form throughout the Mediterranian, with the resulting variations of the central god-man figure becoming known as Osiris-Dionysus. Some scholars think that Jesus was one of the forms of Osiris-Dionysus.

The religions share with Christianity many things, such as a form of baptism, religious meals of bread and wine (according to Tertullian, these shared the same meaning as Christianity's), the birthday of the central figure, and the last judgement, although different religions differed as to which features were held in common with Christianity. Also, different branches of early Christianity differed as to how similar they were to the mystery religions. There is some debate as to which religion developed these features first.

One well known mystery religion focused on the god Mithras (later linked with the sun ); it became the dominant form in the Roman army, spreading throughout the empire. Constantine I of the Roman Empire, who was the highest priest of this cult, is thought by some scholars to have tried to smooth out the differences between it and Christianity. For example, he supposedly arranged to move the sabbath to Sunday (the natural focus of worship for a sun god), and moved the date of Jesus' birth to December 25th (the same day as that of Mithras and Saturnalia, since it was the date of the winter solstice when the Julian calendar was introduced).

Jesus and Gnosticism

Main article: Gnosticism and the Gospels; see also Paul and Gnosticism

Some contend that aspects of Jesus' life as related in the New Testament were entirely derived from popular mystery religions in the Roman Empire at that time period. These religions worshipped saviour figures such as Isis, Horus, Osiris, Dionysus and Mithras, and Christian Gnosticism which flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries openly combined Christian imagery and stories with the beliefs and practices of Mediterranean mystery religions. The Gnostics were a branch of mystery religions which sometimes incorporated some Christian elements; they were highly concerned with secret, esoteric interpretations of the teachings of Jesus, and less so with their literal content, which they may even have regarded as allegory.

The Gospel of John and the general epistles of Paul have often been connected with Gnosticism. Thus, these texts may not have been intended as historical material of Jesus, reducing their value as evidence for his existence. The Pastoral Epistles of Paul are not usually viewed as Gnostic, but a few scholars claim they were forged by Irenaeus to support his anti-Gnostic views. Most scholars do not share this view, in part because Paul's epistles are generally agreed to have been written in the first century, whereas Irenaeus lived in the second century. Christian theologians generally see Paul and John as refuting both contemporary gnostic and hellenistic philosophies, although they may have used terminology from both systems to do so.

Nazareth or Nazirite?

Scholars have demonstrated that the (largely Greek) Pauline Christians were unfamiliar with Jewish culture and that the term "Nazarene" was unfamiliar to those transcribing Aramaic oral tradition into Greek: a more appropriate translation, this school suggests, of the historical rabbi Jesus, who came to be so thoroughly mythologized, was "Jesus the Nazirite." Some scholars argue that there is no evidence Nazareth existed before the 4th century AD. Against this theory is the fact that all four Gospels specifically speak of a place named Nazareth (see Matthew 2:23, Mark 1:9, Luke 1:26, John 1:46) in contexts where it cannot possibly be a confusion with "the Nazirite".

See also

External links

  • discussion of potential syncretisms with other religions http://www.truthbeknown.com/origins.htm
  • The Christ of India http://www.atmajyoti.org/spirwrit-the_christ_of_india.asp Alledged evidence of what happened during the "lost years".
  • Beautifully illustrated site discussing syncretisms both of stories and of religious practices http://geocities.com/christprise/pagan-origins.html
  • Christian site on Josephus evidence http://www.josephus-1.com/
  • Argument from Christian point of view http://www.christian-thinktank.com/jesusref.html
  • Pro Jesus' existence http://www.bibleviews.com/non-biblical.html
  • Argues Jesus was originally a relatively minor figure http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/sources.html
  • PBS' From Jesus to Christ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/
  • The Jesus Puzzle http://www.jesuspuzzle.com/
  • The Quest of the Historical Jesus By Albert Schweitzer Full online text http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/schweitzer/
  • Highly critical view of archaeology at Nazareth from www.jesusneverexisted.com http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/nazareth.html
  • Radical Criticism http://www.radikalkritik.de/in_engl.htm
  • Journal of Higher Criticism http://www.depts.drew.edu/jhc/
  • List of isopsephia values http://www.jesus8880.com/chapters/gematria/isopsephia-values.htm
  • The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ http://www.atmajyoti.org/sw_unknown_life.asp by Nicholas Notovitch

Reference

  • Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries - was the original Jesus a pagan god? ISBN:0722536771
  • Michael Grant, Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels
  • Edgar J. Goodspeed, Biblical Forgeries
  • Raymond E. Brown, Joseph Fitzmyer, Roland Murphy, Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, 1968
  • Rudolf Bultmann, History of the Synoptic Tradition,Harper & Row, 1963
  • Edgar V. McKnight,What is Form Criticism?, 1997
  • Norman Perrin,What is Redaction Criticism?
  • Robin Jensen,Understanding Early Christian Art, Rutledge, 2000
  • Stephen Patterson, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossman, Edited by Hershel Shanks,The Search for Jesus: Modern Scholarship Looks at the Gospels,Biblical Archaeology Society, 1994 Symposium at the Smithsonian Institution, 11 Sept 1993
  • Earl Doherty, The Jesus Puzzle. Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ?: Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus, Publisher: Canadian Humanist Pubns; 1st edition (October 19, 1999)
  • Phyllis Graham, The Jesus Hoax, Publisher: Frewin; (1974)
  • Charles Guignebert, Jesus, Publisher: Albin Michel; (December 31, 1969)
  • Gordon Stein, An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism, Publisher: Prometheus Books; (December 1, 1989)
  • George A.Wells, The Historical Evidence for Jesus, Publisher: Prometheus Books; (January 1, 1988)
  • Ian Wilson, Jesus: The Evidence, Publisher: Regnery Publishing; 1 edition (October 1, 2000)
  • Bruce, F. F. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? 5th ed. Intervarsity, 1960.
  • Fox, Robin Lane. The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible. New York: Vintage, 1991.
  • Keller, James A. Contemporary Doubts About the Resurrection. Faith and Philosophy 5 (1988): 40-60.
  • Mackie, J.L The Miracle of Theism: Arguments for and against the Existence of God. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
  • Martin, Michael. The Case Against Christianity. Temple University, 1991.
  • McCabe, Joseph. The Myth of the Resurrection and Other Essays. 1925. Prometheus, 1993.
  • Miller, Glenn. Christian `bias' in the NT Writers: Does it render the NT unreliable or inadmissable as evidence? 23 Feb. 1995.
  • O'Hair, Madalyn. Fundamentalism. Memphis State University. 22 Oct. 1986.
  • Ranke-Heinemann, Ute. Putting Away Childish Things: the Virgin Birth, the Empty Tomb, and Other Fairy Tales You Don't Need to Believe to Have a Living Faith. Translated by Peter Heinegg. 1992. Harper Collins, 1994.
  • Spong, John Shelby. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture. Harper Collins, 1991.
  • Swinburne, Richard. For the Possibility of Miracles - To Believe or Not to Believe: Readings in the Philosophy of Religion. Edited by E.D. Klemke. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
  • Taylor, Larry. MessiahGate - A Tale of Murder and Deception. August 1987: 1-7.
  • Till, Farrell. Did They Tarry in the City? The Skeptical Review. Volume 3, Number 2.
  • Watts, Charles. The Claims of Christianity Examined from a Rationalist Standpoint. Watts & Co., 1895.
  • Wheless, Joseph. Forgery in Christianity: A Documented Record of the Foundations of the Christian Religion. Psychiana, 1930.
  • Wheless, Joseph. Is It God's Word? Kessinger, 1925.



Last updated: 02-07-2005 12:47:33
Last updated: 05-03-2005 17:50:55