Was Jesus an Historical Person?

Lately I have seen articles casting doubt that Jesus was an actual historical person. I guess there are still some atheists and extreme skeptics that are willing to claim he never really existed. However, no credible scholar or historian would agree.

Confirmation by Ancient Writers

Christ is mentioned by Greek, Roman, and Jewish writers. References to Christ by non-Christian writers provides solid evidence that Christ was an historical person, because these writers were mostly antagonistic towards Christianity and had no sympathy with the Christian movement. Here are some examples:

• The Roman historian and politician, Cornelius Tacitus lived from AD 65 – 120 and is regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. He lived through the reigns of six Roman emperors including Nero. His most recognized works are the Annals and Histories, which provide an account of the period stretching from AD 14 to AD 96. Writing in the decade of the 60s, he mentions the death of Christ and the persecution of Christians in Rome in the following passage:

  “But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, not all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius; but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also.” (Annals XV, 44)¹

  The overwhelming majority of scholars conclude that this passage is genuine and not a Christian interpolation. In addition, most scholars infer that "Suetonius misheard the name 'Christus' (referring to Jesus as Christ) as 'Chrestus'" and also misunderstood the report and assumed that the followers of someone called Chrestus were causing disturbances within the Jewish community based on his instigation.

• Another Roman historian, Suetonius, in his Life of Claudius stated,

  “As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (an alternate spelling of Christus), he (Claudius) expelled them from Rome.”

  The overwhelming majority of scholars conclude that this passage is genuine and not a Christian interpolation. In addition, most scholars infer that "Suetonius misheard the name 'Christus' (referring to Jesus as Christ) as 'Chrestus'" and also misunderstood the report and assumed that the followers of someone called Chrestus were causing disturbances within the Jewish community based on his instigation.²

• Flavius Josephus (born 37 or 38 AD and died after 100 AD) was a Jewish historian who wrote The Jewish War in the early 70’s and Jewish Antiquities in the early 90’s. One passage contained in the latter work refers to Christ, being crucified under Pontius Pilate, but is somewhat controversial because it includes an interpolation most likely written by a Christian scribe. The passage includes statements a Jew would never make. Nevertheless, many scholars still accept as genuine a redacted version of the passage mentioning Christ. However, in a later section of the Antiquities Josephus mentions the execution of James, the brother of Jesus “the so-called Christ”. Lewis Feldman, professor of classics at Yeshiva University who translated an edition of the Antiquities, stated that few scholars have doubted the authenticity of that passage.³


• A passage in the Babylonian Talmud refers to “Yeshu” or “Yeshu the Nazarene” being hanged on the eve of Passover.

Finally, the earliest church fathers had access to eyewitnesses of Jesus’s life and resurrection or those who were taught by the original disciples. The chain of witnesses over a very short time make a fabrication or fraud impossible.

Mythologizing the Historical Jesus

Some scholars maintain that the “Christ of faith” never existed. For example, the well-known atheist New Testament scholar, Bart D. Ehrman affirms that Jesus was an historical person, but he believes that Christians transformed him into a divine person. He supports the idea that a wandering Jewish sage was transformed into a larger-than-life figure. Some people theorize that the early Christians freely borrowed motifs from various oriental and Greco-Roman religious mythologies. But, is this contention really credible? Many mainstream scholars would say no.

First, it is hard to understand how a group of monotheistic Jews, who expected a military Messiah who would cast out the Roman conquerors and establish a literal kingdom on earth, could suddenly deify a man who to all appearances suffered the ultimate defeat of crucifixion. However, the Christian proclamation that Christ was the risen Messiah arose very shortly after his crucifixion in Jerusalem, the very location of Jesus’s death. How could a group of frightened, disillusioned followers see a victorious Messiah in a dead man? Furthermore, the Torah states “...for a hanged man is cursed by God”.(Deuteronomy 21:23)

This disillusionment and hopelessness is reflected in the Acts of the Apostles, where Luke describes the conversation of two men with a stranger as they walked to the town of Emmaus soon after Jesus was crucified. When the stranger seems to be ignorant of the recent crucifixion, one of the two men replies, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). Again, how could a dead Jesus be transformed into a victorious Messiah in a very short time?

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Footnotes

¹Cited in Josh McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1999, pp. 120 -121.

²James D. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered (2003) ISBN 0-8028-3931-2 pp. 141-143

³McDowell, p. 126

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