GO TO: The Historical Jesus

The Historical Reliability of The Bible

Modern non-christian Scholars

• EP Sanders, Arts and Sciences Professor of Religion at Duke University, Jesus and Judaism and One of the most respected and influential New Testament scholars wrote The Historical Figure of Jesus.  He is a Fellow of the British Academy. In 1966 he received a Th.D. from Union Seminary in NYC. In 1990 he received a D. Litt. from the University of Oxford and a Th.D. from the University of Helsinki.
• "...we have a good idea of the main lines of his ministry and his message. We know who he was, what he did, what he taught, and why he died. ….. the dominant view [among scholars] today seems to be that we can know pretty well what Jesus was out to accomplish, that we can know a lot about what he said, and that those two things make sense within the world of first-century Judaism."

• Maurice Casey, Emeritus Professor of New Testament, University of Nottingham and atheist: wrote Jesus of Nazareth
•   "those (generally non-experts) who think otherwise base their conclusions on ludicrously late dates for the Gospels, incorrect comparisons with pagan myths, tampering with ancient texts to remove inconvenient evidence, poor application of accepted historical methods and disregard for the work of major scholars in the field." 

•  Michael Grant, historian of the Roman Empire and worked at Ankara University, chairman of Humanity (Latin) at Edinburgh University, vice-chancellor of the University of Khartoum, vice-chancellor of Queen's University of Belfast, and an expert of ancient Greek, Roman and Israelite history: wrote Jesus: an historian's review of the Gospels
• "...In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." 

Ancient non-christian accounts

• Mara Bar-Serapion  wrote around 70AD speaking of Historical individuals.
• "...Or the Jews by murdering their wise king?…After that their kingdom was abolished. God rightly avenged these men…The wise king…Lived on in the teachings he enacted.”

• Flavius Josephus (37-101AD; wrote ~45 years after Jesus) was a Jewish Historian whom was captured by Romans in Jerusalem, taken to Rome, and was freed.  There he wrote his books.  In one of his books he talks about Jesus.
• “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man (And his conduct was good and he was kown to be virtiucous) For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. (They reported that he had appeared to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive). And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.”
• "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,"

•  Cornelius Tacitus (56-120AD); a very trusted Roman historian, senator, proconsul of Asia, and defiantly a non-christian who wrote around 116AD
• “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.”

•  Suetonius (69-140AD) a Roman historian records how Christians were treated in Roman society.  He mentioned a disturbance in Rome around 49AD
• “Because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (Christ), he (Claudius) expelled them from the city (Rome).” (Life of Claudius, 25:4)

• Lucian of Samosata (120-180AD; ~115 years after Jesus) was a satirist and Roman comedian who very negative and sarcastically critical of Christians. He wrote several books and in a negative since, affirms Christianity.
• "The Christians. . . worship a man to this day - the distinguished personage who introduced this new cult, 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 their contempt for death and self devotion . . . their lawgiver [taught] 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 on faith"  

• The Jewish (Babylonian) Talmud was written around 375 to 427 AD. It records that Jesus was crucified in Sanhedrin 43 and that he had close disciples.
• "Our rabbis taught Jesus the Nazarene had five disciples, and these are they: Matthai, Naqqai, Netzer, Buni, and Todah:
• Shabboth 14:4/8 – "someone ... whispered to him in the name of Jesus son of Pandera"
• Abodah Zarah 17a – "One of the disciples of Jesus the Nazarene found me"
• Sanhedrin 103a – "that you will not have a son or disciple ... like Jesus the Nazarene"
• Sanhedrin 107b – "The master said: Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic 

 OTHER OUTSIDE BIBLICAL SOURCES 

• PAPIAS:  He was born around 70AD and died around 163AD.  He was a disciple of John The Apostle and friend of Polycarp who was also a disciple of John and Aristion (one of the 70 apostles).  He helped lead the church around the same time Ignatius of Antioch was teaching.  He had access to The Apostles, disciples of the Apostles, and other eye witnesses.  He even spoke with the Apostle Philip's daughters in Hierapolis.  Although his writings were lost after the middle ages, they were still preserved in the quotes of other church leaders writings.  he relates that a dead man was raised to life in his day...  after the resurrection from the dead,  Hist Eccl. 5th.  "He [Papias] also reports other wonders and especially the raising of the mother of Manaemus from the dead."  he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative of the Lord's sayings. Wherefore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he remembered them.
• Ignatius of Antioch was born around 35-45AD and died around 98 to 110AD.  Another name for him was Ignatius Theophorus.  He was a friend of Polycarp, a disciple of John the Apostle, and chosen by Peter to lead the church in Antioch after Evodius.  It is an early tradition that he is one of the children Jesus took in his arms and blessed. He was martyred in the coliseum.  He was close to the apostles and eye witnesses of Jesus.

ALL THESE RECORDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED BY LATER CHRISTIANS ARGUMENT:

• This logic must then question every single ancient historical writing and thus; nothing can be believed in history.
• This argument also contradicts non-christian experts and scholars in the field, listed above.
• Coming from anti-chritian sources who have no benefit or motive to support Christianity.

WHY ARE THERE NO RECORDS OF JESUS DURING HIS LIFE?

• There are: The synoptic gospels are such.
• "But they are bias"
• non-christian historians throughout history validate their historical accuracy.
• Jesus was an insignificant figure to Rome before he became internationally famous by his followers.  Thus, we would not realistically expect to find anything about him from Romans that early.
• "what about Jewish non-christian accounts during his life?"
• The Jewish authority and the Sanhedrin of that day did not generate any writings until later, which are recorded in the Talmud.
• To doubt the historical reliably of Jesus because there are no writings of him during his life is to also doubt the existence of Plato and most ancient historical figures as well.  Because their existence is not questioned, the true bias comes from anti-historical Jesus.