The Bible says that Jesus was real. But what other proof is there?

2022-12-27 18:09:06Histori SHKRUAR NGA CHRISTOPHER KLEIN
The Bible says that Jesus was real. But what other proof is there?

While billions of people believe that Jesus of Nazareth was one of the most important figures in world history, many others reject the idea that he even existed. A 2015 survey conducted by the Church of England, for example, found that 22 percent of adults in England did not believe that Jesus was a real person.

Among scholars of the New Testament of the Christian Bible, however, there is little dispute that he actually lived. Lawrence Mykytiuk, professor of science at Purdue University and author of a 2015 Review of Biblical Archeology article on the extrabiblical evidence of Jesus, notes that even in ancient times there was no debate on the matter. "The Jews who didn't like Jesus or his followers accused him of being a sorcerer and leading people astray," he says, "but they never said he didn't exist."

Archaeological evidence of Jesus does not exist.

There is no conclusive physical or archaeological evidence of Jesus' existence.

"There is nothing definitive, nor would I expect there to be, since at that time people did not leave an archaeological trace," says Mykytiuk.

"The reality is that we have no archaeological record of almost anyone who lived in the time and place of Jesus," says Bart D. Ehrman, professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, author of Did Jesus Exist? The historical argument for Jesus of Nazareth".

He says that the lack of evidence does not mean that a person did not exist at the time. It means that she or he, like 99.99% of the rest of the world at the time, had no impact on the archaeological record.

Questions of authenticity continue to surround direct relics associated with Jesus, such as the crown of thorns he wore during his crucifixion (a possible example is housed inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris) and an ornate linen burial cloth with the image of his face located in the Church of Turin.

The Bible says that Jesus was real. But what other proof is there?
Crown placed in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

However, archaeologists have been able to confirm elements of the story of Jesus in the New Testament. While some disputed the existence of ancient Nazareth, the biblical city of his childhood, archaeologists have discovered a rock-hewn courtyard house, along with tombs and a cistern. They have also found physical evidence of Roman crucifixions like the one of Jesus described in the New Testament.

The most detailed record of Jesus' life and death comes from the four Gospels and other New Testament writings.

"These are all Christians and they are obviously and understandably biased in what they report and must be evaluated very critically to establish any historically reliable information," says Ehrman.

"But their central claims about Jesus as a historical figure, a Jew with followers, executed by order of the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, during the reign of the emperor Tiberius are attested by later sources with an entirely different set of prejudices." .

Within a few decades of his life, Jesus was mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians in passages that authenticate parts of the New Testament that describe Jesus' life and death.

Historian Flavius ????Josephus wrote one of the earliest non-biblical accounts of Jesus.

The Bible says that Jesus was real. But what other proof is there?
Flavius ??Josephus

The first-century Jewish historian Flavius ??Josephus, who according to Ehrman “is by far our best source of information about first-century Palestine,” mentions Jesus twice in Jewish Antiquities, his massive 20-volume history of to the Jewish people which was written about 93 AD.

Thought to have been born a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus around 37 AD, Josephus was a well-connected aristocrat and military leader in Palestine who served as a commander in Galilee during the first Jewish revolt against Rome between 66 and 70 AD Christ, although Josephus was not a follower of Jesus, "he was there when the early church was starting, so he knew people who had seen and heard Jesus," says Mykytiuk.

In a passage in Jewish Antiquities that describes an illegal execution, Josephus identifies the victim, James, as "the brother of Jesus who is called the Messiah." While few scholars doubt the authenticity of the short story, Mykytiuk says, more debate surrounds Josephus' longer passage about Jesus, known as the "Testimonium Flavianum," which describes a man "who did amazing works" and was sentenced to be crucified by Pilate. Mykytiuk agrees with most scholars that Christian scribes modified parts of the passage, but did not insert the bulk of it into the text.

Another account of Jesus appears in the Annals of Imperial Rome, a first-century history of the Roman Empire written around AD 116 by the Roman senator and historian Tacitus. In his chronicle of the burning of Rome in AD 64, Tacitus mentions that the emperor Nero wrongly blamed "persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their horrors." Christus was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius.

As a Roman historian, Tacitus had no Christian bias in his discussion of Nero's persecution of Christians, Ehrman says. Almost everything he says agrees, from a completely different perspective, from a Roman author who despises Christians and their superstitions with what the New Testament itself says: Jesus was executed by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, for crimes against the state and a religious movement of his followers was born after him".

The Bible says that Jesus was real. But what other proof is there?
Cornelius Tacitus

"When Tacitus wrote the history, if he considered the information not entirely reliable, he normally wrote some indication of this for his readers," Mykytiuk says, vouching for the historical value of the passage. "There is no such indication of a possible error in the passage which mentions Christus."

Other Roman texts refer to Jesus.

Shortly before Tacitus wrote his account of Jesus, the Roman governor Pliny the Younger wrote to the emperor Trajan that early Christians would "sing hymns to Christ as a god." Some scholars also believe that the Roman historian Suetonius refers to Jesus by noting that the emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome who were constantly rioting at the instigation of Chrestus.

Ehrman says that this collection of fragments from non-Christian sources may not provide much information about the life of Jesus, “but it is useful for understanding that Jesus was known to historians who had reason to look into the matter. No one thought he was made up"./ HISTORY

Video