A Brief look into the Historical Validity of Christianity My Background...who am I? A skeptic... (i.e. by definition: a person inclined to question or doubt all accepted opinions... Historicity of Jesus The historicity of Jesus concerns the degree to which sources show Jesus of Nazareth existed as a historical figure. It concerns the issue of "what really happened", based upon the context of the time and place, and also the issue of how modern observers can come to know "what really happened". A second issue is closely tied to historical research practices and methodologies for analyzing the reliability of primary sources and other historical evidence. It also considers the question of whether he was a Nazirite. Virtually all New Testament scholars and Near East historians, applying the standard criteria of historical investigation, find that the historicity of Jesus is effectively certain although they differ about the beliefs and teachings of Jesus as well as the accuracy of the details of his life that have been described in the gospels... - Source Wikipedia Authenticating the Biblical Narrative... ● We’ll take a look at non-Biblical or extra-Biblical sources for the historical credibility of Jesus and the Biblical narrative ● We’ll cover 5 “historical clues” referenced in the Bible as to the death of Jesus. The year, month, day and hour, etc... ● Historical evidence that corroborates aspects of the narrative that can be the most difficult for people to accept (certainly for me it was!). Before we begin... Mara Bar-Serapion (~70 AD) Mara Bar-Serapion, was a Syriac Stoic philosopher (non-Christian) in the Roman province of Syria. He is known for a letter he wrote in Syriac to his son, that the majority of scholars believe was written around 73 AD (~40 years after the crucifixion) What’s interesting about this letter? “What benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as judgment for their crime. Or, the people of Samos for burning Pythagoras? In one moment their country was covered with sand. Or the Jews by murdering their wise king [Jesus]?…After that their kingdom was abolished [destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD]. God rightly avenged these men…The wise king…Lived on in the teachings he enacted.” So what aspects of the Biblical narrative can we see confirmed by this extra-Biblical text: ● Jesus is framed here as a “wise king”...i.e. an influential man who died for His beliefs. ● The letter ties Jewish leadership as somehow responsible for Jesus’ death. ● Jesus’ followers adopted His beliefs and lived their lives accordingly... Anyone find the manner of Mara’s reference to Jesus interesting? Who was it that referred to Jesus as “King of the Jews”? Did the Jews? Did the early Christians refer to Christ in this manner? Who was it then that referred to Jesus in this manner? What might you conclude then about both Mara’s background as well as where he might have obtained this view of who Jesus was? - For the complete letter see Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 8) - A Letter of Mara, Son of Serapion Lucian of Samosata - Syrian Greek writer (115-200 AD) He was a Greek satirist who spoke sarcastically of Christ and Christians... “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day — the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account….You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property.” (Lucian, The Death of Peregrine. 11-13) From this account we can add to our conclusions: ● He taught about repentance and about the family of God. ● These teachings were quickly adopted by Jesus’ followers and exhibited to the world around them. Jewish Talmud (Part 1) What is the Talmud? The Talmud (Hebrew for "instruction”) is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. While the earliest Talmudic writings of Jewish Rabbis appear in the 5th century, the tradition of the Rabbinic authors indicates that they are faithfully transmitted teachings from the early “Tannaitic” period of the 1st Century BC to the 2nd Century AD. Why is this early source significant in the context of what we’re talking about tonight? There are passages referring to Jesus directly... Jewish Talmud (Part 2) Examples: “Jesus practiced magic and led Israel astray” (b. Sanhedrin 43a; cf. t. Shabbat 11.15; b. Shabbat 104b) And this, perhaps is the most famous Talmudic passages referencing Jesus: “It was taught: On the day before the Passover they hanged Jesus. A herald went before him for forty days (proclaiming), “He will be stoned, because he practiced magic and enticed Israel to go astray. Let anyone who knows anything in his favor come forward and plead for him.” But nothing was found in his favor, and they hanged him on the day before the Passover. (b. Sanhedrin 43a) From these passages mentioning Jesus by name, we can conclude the following: ● Jesus had “magical” powers (Acts 2:22 ““Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” & Matthew 7:22, 11:20-23; Mark 6, etc.) ● Led the Jews away from their beliefs (John 8:30-32 “Even as he spoke, many believed in him. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said...”) ● Was executed on the day before the Passover… (Matthew 26-27 - Jewish text directly aligns with the Biblical narrative) Tacitus (56-120 AD) Cornelius Tacitus was known for his analysis and examination of historical documents and is among the most trusted of ancient historians. He was a senator under Emperor Vespasian and was also proconsul of Asia. In his “Annals’ of 116 AD, he describes Emperor Nero’s response to the great fire in Rome and Nero’s claim that the Christians were to blame: “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 [Christ], 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.” Within this account, Tacitus confirms several key historical aspects of the Biblical narrative: ● Jesus originated from Judea (Matthew 2:1 “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod…”) ● Jesus was crucified “at the hands of” Pontius Pilate, “one of our procurators” (Matthew 27:2 “So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.”) ● Jesus’ followers were persecuted for their faith (If interested see the Wikipedia entry on Tacitus for a biographical synopsis and an overview of his significant written works) Let’s pause. A few more questions... Q) What would it take for me to get you to die for me? Q) What if I gave you the $500 dollars? Q) What if I had $1,000,000,000.00 (that’s right a Billion dollars)? (Why not?) Modern scholarship has largely acknowledged the authenticity of the reference in Josephus’ Antiquities - Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James" and considers it as having the highest level of authenticity among the references of Josephus to Christianity. Almost all modern scholars consider the reference in Book 18, Chapter 5, 2 of the Antiquities to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist also to be authentic and not a Christian interpolation. James, the brother of Jesus, was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He was thrown from the southeast pinnacle of the temple (over a hundred feet down) when he refused to deny his faith in Christ… Q) Who would you die for tonight? Q) Possibly you’d die for your Mom or Dad. Maybe a brother or sister you love. Maybe push them out of the way of an oncoming car. But what if they had already passed away? Would you die for them then? Would that even make sense to do? What would you GAIN at that point? You wouldn’t be saving their life (which is we presume to be what it is of VALUE in this example that you would go so far as to GIVE your life for. Why would anyone then die in memory of someone? Q) SO WHAT THEN motivated James, Jesus brother, to do so? Or Paul? Or Peter? Or those mentioned by Tacitus in the previous slide? What was it of value that they were willing to exchange their lives for? Have you thought about that? Clue #1: The High Priesthood of Caiaphas The gospels indicate that Jesus was crucified at the urging of the first century high priest whom is named in the Gospels as Caiaphas (Matthew 26:3-4, John 11:49-53).