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Historicity of Jesus

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The question of whether Jesus historically existed is part of the study undertaken in the quest for the historical Jesus and the scholarly reconstructions of his life.[1][2][3] Virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Jesus was a historical figure[4][5][6][7][note 1] and dismiss denials of his existence as a fringe theory,[note 2] while many details like his alleged miracles and theological significance are subject to debate.[8][9][10][note 3]

Standard historical criteria have aided in evaluating the historicity of the gospel narratives,[11][12] and only two key events are almost universally accepted, namely that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and crucified by order of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate.[9][10][8][13]

Besides the gospels, sources for the historicity of Jesus consist of Roman historians Josephus and Tacitus, who lived shortly after the time of Jesus and referenced him and his followers in their histories.

Historical existence

The quest for the historical Jesus and the scholarly reconstructions of the life of Jesus are based primarily on critical analysis of the gospel texts and applying the standard criteria of historical-critical investigation,[1][2][3] and methodologies for analyzing the reliability of primary sources and other historical evidence.[14]

Virtually all scholars of antiquity agree that a historical human Jesus existed.[7][15][16] Historian Michael Grant asserts that if conventional standards of historical textual criticism are applied to the New Testament, "we can no more reject Jesus' existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned."[17]

Christ myth theory

See also: Francesco Carotta

The Christ myth theory, which developed within the scholarly research on the historical Jesus, is, in Geoffrey W. Bromiley's words, the view that "the story of Jesus is a piece of mythology" possessing no "substantial claims to historical fact".[18] Alternatively, Bart Ehrman (who himself rejects the Christ myth theory) summarises Earl Doherty's view as being "that no historical Jesus worthy of the name existed, that Christianity began with a belief in a spiritual, mythical figure, that the Gospels are essentially allegory and fiction, and that no single identifiable person lay at the root of the Galilean preaching tradition".[19]

Sources

Main article: Sources for the historicity of Jesus
Judea Province during the 1st century

Some scholars estimate that there are about 30 surviving independent sources written by 25 authors who attest to Jesus.[20] The New Testament represents sources that have become canonical for Christianity, and there are many apocryphal texts that are examples of the wide variety of writings in the first centuries AD that are related to Jesus.[21][need quotation to verify] There are also numerous Jewish and Roman sources (e.g. Josephus, Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and rabbinic tradition[which?]) that talk about Jesus.[22] On the quality of extant sources, Hans-Joachim Schoeps argues that they intertwine history and legend and present the views of the early disciples and the Christian community.[23] According to Christopher M. Tuckett, most available sources are collections of early traditions about Jesus.[24] According to Maurice Casey, some of the sources, such as parts of the Gospel of Mark, are translations of early Aramaic sources which indicate proximity with eyewitness testimony.[25]

Historiographical approaches associated with the study of the poor in the past, such as microhistory, can help assess what type of sources can be reasonably expected in the historical record for individuals like Jesus. For instance, Justin Meggitt argues that since most people in antiquity left no sign of their existence, especially the poor, it is unreasonable to expect non-Christian sources to corroborate the specific existence of someone with Jesus's socio-economic status.[26] Ehrman argues that the historical record for the first century was so lacking that no contemporary eyewitness reports for prominent individuals such as Pontius Pilate or Josephus survive.[27] Historian Michael Grant argues that when the New Testament is analyzed with the same criteria used by historians on ancient writings that contain historical material, Jesus' existence cannot be denied anymore than secular figures whose existence is never questioned.[28]

New Testament sources

Synoptic Gospels

Main article: Synoptic Gospels
Further information: Census of Quirinius
An 11th-century Byzantine manuscript containing the opening of the Gospel of Luke

The synoptic gospels are the primary sources of historical information about Jesus and of the religious movement he founded.[29][30] The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke recount the life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of a Jew named Jesus who spoke Aramaic. There are different hypotheses regarding the origin of the texts because the gospels of the New Testament were written in Greek for Greek-speaking communities,[31] and were later translated into Syriac, Latin, and Coptic.[32] Scholars argue that the surviving gospels show usage of earlier independent written and oral sources that extended back to the time of Jesus's death, but did not survive.[33][note 4] Aramaic sources have been detected in Mark's Gospel, which indicate use of early or even eyewitness testimony when it was being written.[34][35] Historians often study the historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles when studying the reliability of the gospels, as the Book of Acts was seemingly written by the same author as the Gospel of Luke.[36]

Pauline epistles

The seven Pauline epistles considered by scholarly consensus to be genuine are dated to between AD 50 and 60 (i.e., approximately 20 to 30 years after the generally accepted time period of Jesus's death) and are the earliest surviving Christian texts that may include information about Jesus.[37][failed verification] Although Paul the Apostle provides relatively little biographical information about Jesus[38] and states that he never knew Jesus personally, he does make it clear that he considers Jesus to have been a real person[note 5] and a Jew.[39][40][41][42][note 6] Moreover, he interacted with eyewitnesses of Jesus since he wrote about meeting and knowing James, the brother of Jesus[43][note 7][45] and Jesus's apostles Peter[45] and John.[46]

Non-Christian sources

Josephus and Tacitus

Main articles: Josephus on Jesus and Tacitus on Jesus

Non-Christian sources used to study and establish the historicity of Jesus include the c. first century Jewish historian Josephus and Roman historian Tacitus. These sources are compared to Christian sources, such as the Pauline letters and synoptic gospels, and are usually independent of each other; that is, the Jewish sources do not draw upon the Roman sources. Similarities and differences between these sources are used in the authentication process.[47][48][49][50]

In Books 18 and 20 of Antiquities of the Jews, written around AD 93 to 94, Josephus twice refers to the biblical Jesus. The general scholarly view holds that the longer passage, known as the Testimonium Flavianum, most likely consists of an authentic nucleus that was subjected to later Christian interpolation or forgery.[51][52] On the other hand, Josephus scholar Louis H. Feldman states that "few have doubted the genuineness" of the reference found in Antiquities 20, 9, 1 to "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James".[53][54][55][56]

Tacitus, in his Annals (written c. AD 115), book 15, chapter 44,[57] describes Nero's scapegoating of the Christians following the Fire of Rome. He writes that the founder of the sect was named Christus (the Christian title for Jesus); that he was executed under Pontius Pilate; and that the movement, initially checked, broke out again in Judea and even in Rome itself.[58] The scholarly consensus is that Tacitus' reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate is both authentic and of historical value as an independent Roman source.[59][60][61]

Mishnah

The Mishnah (c. 200) may refer to Jesus as it reflects the early Jewish traditions of portraying Jesus as a sorcerer or magician.[62][63][64][65] Other references to Jesus and his execution exist in the Talmud, but they aim to discredit his actions, not deny his existence.[62][66]

Historical Jesus

Main articles: Historical Jesus and Portraits of the historical Jesus
Part of the ancient Madaba Map showing two possible baptism locations
Bronzino's depiction of the Crucifixion with three nails, no ropes, and a hypopodium standing support, c. 1545

Baptism and crucifixion

The only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.[9][10][8][13][67][68]

The criterion of embarrassment has been used to argue for the historicity of the baptism of Jesus, shown here in The Baptism of Christ by Juan Fernández Navarrete.

According to New Testament scholar James Dunn, nearly all modern scholars consider the baptism of Jesus and his crucifixion to be historically certain.[8] He states that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent" and "rank so high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical 'facts' they are obvious starting points for an attempt to clarify the what and why of Jesus' mission."[8] John P. Meier views the crucifixion of Jesus as historical fact and states that based on the criterion of embarrassment Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader.[69] The criterion of embarrassment is also used to argue in favor of the historicity of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist as it is a story which the early Christian Church would have never wanted to invent.[70][71][72] Based on this criterion, given that John baptised for the remission of sins, and Jesus was viewed as without sin, the invention of this story would have served no purpose, and would have been an embarrassment given that it positioned John above Jesus.[70][72][73]

Amy-Jill Levine has summarized the situation by stating that "there is a consensus of sorts on the basic outline of Jesus' life" in that most scholars agree that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and over a period of one to three years debated Jewish authorities on the subject of God, gathered followers, and was crucified by Roman prefect Pontius Pilate who officiated 26–36 AD.[74]

General biographical elements

There is much in dispute as to his previous life, childhood, family and place of residence, of which the canonical gospels are almost completely silent.[75][76][77]

Scholars attribute varying levels of certainty to other episodes. E. P. Sanders proposed eight "indisputable facts" about Jesus's life as a framework for biographical discussion:[9][78]

  • Jesus was a Galilean preacher.
  • His activities took place in Galilee and Judea.
  • He was baptized by John the Baptist.
  • He called disciples.
  • He had a controversy at the Temple.
  • Jesus was crucified by the Romans near Jerusalem.[9][78]
  • After his death his disciples continued.
  • Some of his disciples were persecuted.[9][78]

Scholarly agreement on this extended list is not universal.[9][78][79] Elements whose historical authenticity are disputed include the two accounts of the nativity of Jesus; the miracles, such as turning water into wine, feeding the multitude, walking on water, and various cures, exorcisms, and resurrections; his own resurrection; and certain details about his crucifixion.[80][81][82][83][84][85]

Quest for the historical Jesus

Since the 18th century, three separate scholarly quests for the historical Jesus have taken place, each with distinct characteristics and based on different research criteria, which were often developed during that phase.[86][87] Currently modern scholarly research on the historical Jesus focuses on what is historically probable, or plausible about Jesus.[88][89]

Portraits of the historical Jesus

Main article: Portraits of the historical Jesus

The portraits of Jesus constructed in the quests have often differed from each other, and from the image portrayed in the gospel accounts.[90][7][91] There are overlapping attributes among the portraits, and while pairs of scholars may agree on some attributes, those same scholars may differ on others, and there is no single portrait of the historical Jesus that satisfies most scholars.[92][93][94] The mainstream profiles in the third quest may be grouped together based on their primary themes of apocalyptic prophet, charismatic healer, Cynic philosopher, Jewish Messiah, and prophet of social change[92][95]—but there is little scholarly agreement on a single portrait or the methods needed to construct it, especially in the 21st century.[90][91][96][97] Ehrman elucidates these differences by pointing out that there are essentialy two different portraits of Jesus, one for the preacher who really existed, and the other for the Jesus most Christians believe in today.[98] There are, however, overlapping attributes among the portraits, and scholars who differ on some attributes may agree on others.[92][95][93]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Multiple sources:
    Stanton (2002, p. 145): Today nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed and that the gospels contain plenty of valuable evidence which has to be weighed and assessed critically. There is general agreement that, with the possible exception of Paul, we know far more about Jesus of Nazareth than about any first or second century Jewish or pagan religious teacher.
    Wells (2007, p. 446):"Today, most secular scholars accept Jesus as a historical, although unimpressive, figure."
    Ehrman (2012, pp. 4–5): "Serious historians of the early Christian movement—all of them—have spent many years preparing to be experts in their field. Just to read the ancient sources requires expertise in a range of ancient languages: Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and often Aramaic, Syriac, and Coptic, not to mention the modern languages of scholarship (for example, German and French). And that is just for starters. Expertise requires years of patiently examining ancient texts and a thorough grounding in the history and culture of Greek and Roman antiquity, the religions of the ancient Mediterranean world, both pagan and Jewish, knowledge of the history of the Christian church and the development of its social life and theology, and, well, lots of other things. It is striking that virtually everyone who has spent all the years needed to attain these qualifications is convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was a real historical figure."
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ahistoricity was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ * "Introduction". The Historical Jesus : Five Views, edited by James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic. 2009. pp. 38–39. ISBN 9780830838684. Contrary to previous times, virtually everyone in the field today acknowledges that Jesus was considered by his contemporaries to be an exorcist and a worker of miracles. However, when it comes to historical assessment of the miracles tradition itself, the consensus quickly shatters. Some, following in the footsteps of Bultmann, embrace an explicit methodological naturalism such that the very idea of a miracle is ruled out a priori. Others defend the logical possibility of miracle at the theoretical level, but, in practice, retain a functional methodological naturalism, maintaining that we could never be in possession of the type and/or amount of evidence that would justify a historical judgment in favor of the occurrence of a miracle. Still others, suspicious that an uncompromising methodological naturalism most likely reflects an unwarranted metaphysical naturalism, find such a priori skepticism unwarranted and either remain open to, or even explicitly defend, the historicity of miracles within the Jesus tradition.
    * Ehrman (2012, pp. 13): In agreement with the view of Albert Schweitzer: "The Jesus proclaimed by preachers and theologians today had no existence. That particular Jesus is (or those particular Jesuses are) a myth. But there was a historical Jesus, who was very much a man of his time"
  4. ^ The Gospel of Luke states that "many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us."[23]
  5. ^ In Galatians 4:4, (although in the same sentence, that he was sent by "God", which kind of negates the assertion of an impartial "reality") Paul states that Jesus was "born of a woman."
  6. ^ In Romans 1:3, Paul states that Jesus was "born under the law."
  7. ^ That Jesus had a brother named James is corroborated by Josephus.[44]

References

  1. ^ a b Levine, Allison & Crossan 2006, pp. 1–2.
  2. ^ a b Bart D. Ehrman (1999). Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford University Press. pp. ix–xi. ISBN 978-0-19-512473-6.
  3. ^ a b Dunn 2003, pp. 125–127.
  4. ^ Mark Allan Powell (1998). Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 168. ISBN 978-0-664-25703-3.
  5. ^ James L. Houlden (2003). Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: Entries A–J. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-856-3. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  6. ^ Van Voorst 2000, pp. 14, 16.
  7. ^ a b c Bart Ehrman (a secular agnostic) wrote: "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees, based on certain and clear evidence." B. Ehrman, 2011 Forged : writing in the name of God ISBN 978-0-06-207863-6. p. 256-257
  8. ^ a b c d e Dunn 2003, p. 339.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Herzog 2005, pp. 1–6.
  10. ^ a b c Powell 1998, pp. 168–173.
  11. ^ Bock, Darrell; Webb, Robert, eds. (2009). Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus : A Collaborative Exploration of Context and Coherence. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3161501449.
  12. ^ Blomberg, Craig (2011). "New Testament Studies in North America". In Köstenberger, Andreas J.; Yarbrough, Robert W. (eds.). Understanding The Times: New Testament Studies in the 21st Century. Crossway. p. 282. ISBN 978-1-4335-0719-9. The fruit of a decade of work by the IBR Historical Jesus Study Group, Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus: A Collaborative Exploration of Context and Coherence [Ed. Darrell L. Bock and Robert L. Webb (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, forthcoming).] takes a dozen core themes or events from Jesus' life and ministry and details the case for their authenticity via all the standard historical criteria, as well as assessing their significance. The results show significant correlation between what historians can demonstrate and what evangelical theology has classically asserted about the life of Christ.
  13. ^ a b Crossan 1994, p. 145.
  14. ^ E. Meyers & J. Strange (1992). Archaeology, the Rabbis, & Early Christianity. Nashville: Abingdon, 1981; Article "Nazareth" in the Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday. [page needed]
  15. ^ Robert M. Price (a Christian atheist) who denies the existence of Jesus agrees that this perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars: Robert M. Price "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" in The Historical Jesus: Five Views edited by James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy, 2009 InterVarsity, ISBN 0830838686 p. 61
  16. ^ Jesus Now and Then by Richard A. Burridge and Graham Gould (1 April 2004) ISBN 0802809774 p. 34 "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church's imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more. There's a lot of evidence for his existence."
  17. ^ Michael Grant (1977), Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels
  18. ^ Bromiley 1982, p. 1034.
  19. ^ Ehrman 2012, pp. 12, 347, n.1.
  20. ^ Ehrman, Bart (28 October 2016). "Gospel Evidence that Jesus Existed". Ehrman Blog.
  21. ^ Theissen, Gerd; Merz, Annette (1996). The Historical Jesus. Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press. pp. 17–62. ISBN 978-0-8006-3122-2.
  22. ^ Van Voorst 2000, pp. 19, 75.
  23. ^ a b Schoeps, Hans-Joachim (1968) [1961]. The Religions of Mankind. Translated by Winston, Richard; Winston, Clara. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books. pp. 261–262. ISBN 978-0-385-04080-8. The Gospels cannot be equated with ... biographies. ... [Their] primary purpose was not to present a detailed historical picture of the life of Jesus. And the non-Christian materials ... provide us with no essential new knowledge beyond the accounts of the Gospels. ... [Thus] the situation in regard to sources is highly unsatisfactory; legendary and historical accounts are hopelessly intertwined. The historian must recognize that the materials available to us do not enable us to reconstruct Jesus as he really was. [They have] only the Jesus the early disciples saw, the Christ who has survived in the beliefs of the Christian community.
  24. ^ Tuckett 2001, p. 122.
  25. ^ Casey 2010, p. 63-64 "It also provides evidence that Mark is an unrevised literal translation of an Aramaic source, and this at a point where there is every reason to believe that the story is literally true. This means that our oldest source is sometimes perfectly accurate, because parts of it were originally written by people who were in close touch with the events of the historic ministry. This is only one short step away from eyewitness testimony"..
  26. ^ Meggitt, Justin J. (October 2019). "'More Ingenious than Learned'? Examining the Quest for the Non-Historical Jesus". New Testament Studies. 65 (4): 458-459. doi:10.1017/S0028688519000213. For example, given that most human beings in antiquity left no sign of their existence, and the poor as individuals are virtually invisible, all we can hope to do is try to establish, in a general sense, the lives that they lived. Why would we expect any non-Christian evidence for the specific existence of someone of the socio-economic status of a figure such as Jesus at all? To deny his existence based on the absence of such evidence, even if that were the case, has problematic implications; you may as well deny the existence of pretty much everyone in the ancient world.
  27. ^ Ehrman 2012, p. 49–50: "Think again of our earlier point of comparison, Pontius Pilate. Here is a figure who was immensely significant in every way to the life and history of Palestine during the adult life of Jesus (assuming Jesus lived), politically, economically, culturally, socially. As I have indicated, there was arguably no one more important. And how many eyewitness reports of Pilate do we have from his day? None. Not a single one. The same is true of Josephus. And these are figures who were of the highest prominence in their own day."
  28. ^ Grant 1992, p. 199-200 "But above all, if we apply to the New Testament, as we should, the same sort of criteria as we should apply to other ancient writings containing historical material, we can no more reject Jesus' existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned".
  29. ^ "Jesus Christ". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Archived from the original on 3 May 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2010. The Synoptic Gospels, then, are the primary sources for knowledge of the historical Jesus
  30. ^ Vermes, Geza. The authentic gospel of Jesus. London, Penguin Books. 2004.
  31. ^ Mark Allan Powell (editor), The New Testament Today, p. 50 (Westminster John Knox Press, 1999). ISBN 0-664-25824-7
  32. ^ Stanley E. Porter (editor), Handbook to Exegesis of the New Testament, p. 68 (Leiden, 1997). ISBN 90-04-09921-2
  33. ^ Ehrman 2012, pp. 83–85: "All of these written sources I have mentioned are earlier than the surviving Gospels; they all corroborate many of the key things said of Jesus in the Gospels; and most important they are all independent of one another. Let me stress the latter point. We cannot think of the early Christian Gospels as going back to a solitary source that “invented” the idea that there was a man Jesus. The view that Jesus existed is found in multiple independent sources that must have been circulating throughout various regions of the Roman Empire in the decades before the Gospels that survive were produced. Where would the solitary source that “invented” Jesus be? Within a couple of decades of the traditional date of his death, we have numerous accounts of his life found in a broad geographical span. In addition to Mark, we have Q, M (which is possibly made of multiple sources), L (also possibly multiple sources), two or more passion narratives, a signs source, two discourse sources, the kernel (or original) Gospel behind the Gospel of Thomas, and possibly others. And these are just the ones we know about, that we can reasonably infer from the scant literary remains that survive from the early years of the Christian church. No one knows how many there actually were. Luke says there were “many” of them, and he may well have been right. And once again, this is not the end of the story." (page 83) and "The reality appears to be that there were stories being told about Jesus for a very long time not just before our surviving Gospels but even before their sources had been produced. If scholars are right that Q and the core of the Gospel of Thomas, to pick just two examples, do date from the 50s, and that they were based on oral traditions that had already been in circulation for a long time, how far back do these traditions go? Anyone who thinks that Jesus existed has no problem answering the question: they ultimately go back to things Jesus said and did while he was engaged in his public ministry, say, around the year 29 or 30. But even anyone who just wonders if Jesus existed has to assume that there were stories being told about him in the 30s and 40s. For one thing, as we will see in the next chapter, how else would someone like Paul have known to persecute the Christians, if Christians didn’t exist? And how could they exist if they didn’t know anything about Jesus?" (page 85)"
  34. ^ Casey 2010, p. 63-64.
  35. ^ Ehrman 2012, pp. 88–91.
  36. ^ Green, Joel B. (2013). Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (2nd ed.). IVP Academic. p. 541. ISBN 978-0830824564.
  37. ^ Edward Adams in The Cambridge Companion to Jesus by Markus N. A. Bockmuehl (2001) ISBN 0521796784 pp. 94–96.
  38. ^ Eddy & Boyd 2007, p. 202.
  39. ^ Tuckett 2001, pp. 122–126.
  40. ^ Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making by James D. G. Dunn (2003) ISBN 0802839312 p. 143
  41. ^ Jesus Christ in History and Scripture by Edgar V. McKnight (1999) ISBN 0865546770 p. 38
  42. ^ Jesus according to Paul by Victor Paul Furnish (1994) ISBN 0521458242 pp. 19–20
  43. ^ Galatians 1:19
  44. ^ Murphy, Caherine M. (2007). The Historical Jesus For Dummies. For Dummies. p. 140. ISBN 978-0470167854.
  45. ^ a b Ehrman 2012, pp. 145–146: "In about the year 36, Paul went to Jerusalem to confer with Peter (Galatians 1:18–20). Paul spent fifteen days there. He may not have gone only or even principally to get a rundown on what Jesus said and did during his public ministry. It is plausible, in fact, that Paul wanted to strategize with Peter, as the leader (or one of the leaders) among the Jerusalem Christians, about Paul’s own missionary activities, not among the Jews (Peter’s concern) but among the Gentiles (Paul’s). This was the reason stated for Paul’s second visit to see Peter and the others fourteen years later, according to Galatians 2:1–10. But it defies belief that Paul would have spent over two weeks with Jesus’s closest companion and not learned something about him—for example, that he lived. Even more telling is the much-noted fact that Paul claims that he met with, and therefore personally knew, Jesus’s own brother James. It is true that Paul calls him the “brother of the Lord,” not “the brother of Jesus.” But that means very little since Paul typically calls Jesus the Lord and rarely uses the name Jesus (without adding “Christ” or other titles). And so in the letter to the Galatians Paul states as clearly as possible that he knew Jesus’s brother. Can we get any closer to an eyewitness report than this? The fact that Paul knew Jesus’s closest disciple and his own brother throws a real monkey wrench into the mythicist view that Jesus never lived."
  46. ^ Galatians 2:9
  47. ^ Tuckett 2001, pp. 121–125.
  48. ^ Bruce David Chilton; Craig Alan Evans (1998). Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the State of Current Research. BRILL. pp. 460–470. ISBN 978-90-04-11142-4. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  49. ^ Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey by Craig L. Blomberg (2009) ISBN 0-8054-4482-3 pp. 431–436
  50. ^ Van Voorst 2000, pp. 39–53.
  51. ^ Schreckenberg, Heinz; Kurt Schubert (1992). Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature. ISBN 978-90-232-2653-6.
  52. ^ Kostenberger, Andreas J.; L. Scott Kellum; Charles L. Quarles (2009). The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament. ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3.
  53. ^ The new complete works of Josephus by Flavius Josephus, William Whiston, Paul L. Maier ISBN 0-8254-2924-2 pp. 662–663
  54. ^ Josephus XX by Louis H. Feldman (1965), ISBN 0674995023 p. 496
  55. ^ Van Voorst 2000, p. 83.
  56. ^ Flavius Josephus; Maier, Paul L. (December 1995). Josephus, the Essential Works: A Condensation of Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish war ISBN 978-0-8254-3260-6 pp. 284–285
  57. ^ P.E. Easterling, E. J. Kenney (general editors), The Cambridge History of Latin Literature, p. 892 (Cambridge University Press, 1982, reprinted 1996) ISBN 0-521-21043-7
  58. ^ Eddy & Boyd 2007, pp. 179–180.
  59. ^ Evans 2001, p. 42.
  60. ^ Mercer dictionary of the Bible by Watson E. Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard (2001) ISBN 0-86554-373-9 page 343
  61. ^ Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation by Helen K. Bond (2004) ISBN 0-521-61620-4 page xi
  62. ^ a b Jesus and the Politics of his Day by E. Bammel and C. F. D. Moule (1985) ISBN 0521313449 p. 393
  63. ^ In Jesus: The Complete Guide edited by J. L. Houlden (8 Feb 2006) ISBN 082648011X pp. 693–694
  64. ^ Jesus in the Talmud by Peter Schäfer (24 Aug 2009) ISBN 0691143188 pp. 9, 141
  65. ^ Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey by Craig L. Blomberg (1 Aug 2009) ISBN 0805444823 p. 280
  66. ^ Kostenberger, Andreas J.; Kellum, L. Scott; Quarles, Charles L. (2009). The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament ISBN 0-8054-4365-7. pp. 107–109
  67. ^ Dunn 2003, p. 339 James Dunn states of "baptism and crucifixion", these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent"..
  68. ^ Crossan 1994, p. 45. "That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus ... agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact."
  69. ^ John P. Meier "How do we decide what comes from Jesus" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight 2006 ISBN 1-57506-100-7 pp. 126–128
  70. ^ a b Jesus as a figure in history: how modern historians view the man from Galilee by Mark Allan Powell 1998 ISBN 0-664-25703-8 p. 47
  71. ^ Who Is Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan, Richard G. Watts 1999 ISBN 0664258425 pp. 31–32
  72. ^ a b Casey 2010, p. 35.
  73. ^ The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide by Gerd Theissen, Annette Merz 1998 ISBN 0-8006-3122-6 p. 207
  74. ^ Amy-Jill Levine; Dale C. Allison Jr.; John Dominic Crossan (2006). The Historical Jesus in Context. Princeton University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-691-00992-6.
  75. ^ Eisenmann, Robert, (2001), "James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls"
  76. ^ Butz, Jeffrey (2005), "The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Traditions of Christianity" (Inner Traditions)
  77. ^ Tabor, James (2012), "Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity" (Simon & Schuster)
  78. ^ a b c d Authenticating the Activities of Jesus by Bruce Chilton and Craig A. Evans 2002 ISBN 0391041649 pp. 3–7
  79. ^ Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee by Mark Allan Powell (1 Nov 1998) ISBN 0664257038 p. 117
  80. ^ Who is Jesus? Answers to your questions about the historical Jesus, by John Dominic Crossan, Richard G. Watts (Westminster John Knox Press 1999), p. 108
  81. ^ James G. D. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, (Eerdmans, 2003) pp. 779–781.
  82. ^ Rev. John Edmunds, 1855 The Seven Sayings of Christ on the Cross. Thomas Hatchford Publishers, London, p. 26
  83. ^ Stagg, Evelyn and Frank. Woman in the World of Jesus. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978 ISBN 0-664-24195-6
  84. ^ Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Empty Tomb, Appearances & Ascension" pp. 449–495.
  85. ^ Bruce M. Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: Luke 24:51 is missing in some important early witnesses, Acts 1 varies between the Alexandrian and Western versions.
  86. ^ Ben Witherington, The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth (8 May 1997) ISBN 0830815449 pp. 9–13
  87. ^ Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee by Mark Allan Powell (1 Jan 1999) ISBN 0664257038 pp. 19–23
  88. ^ John, Jesus, and History Volume 1 by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just and Tom Thatcher (14 Nov 2007) ISBN 1589832930 p. 131
  89. ^ John P. Meier "Criteria: How do we decide what comes from Jesus?" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight (15 Jul 2006) ISBN 1575061007 p. 124 "Since in the quest for the historical Jesus almost anything is possible, the function of the criteria is to pass from the merely possible to the really probable, to inspect various probabilities, and to decide which candidate is most probable. Ordinarily the criteria can not hope to do more."
  90. ^ a b The Quest for the Plausible Jesus: The Question of Criteria by Gerd Theissen and Dagmar Winter (30 August 2002) ISBN 0664225373 p. 5
  91. ^ a b Jesus Research: An International Perspective (Princeton-Prague Symposia Series on the Historical Jesus) by James H. Charlesworth and Petr Pokorny (15 September 2009) ISBN 0802863531 pp. 1–2
  92. ^ a b c The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 pp. 124–125
  93. ^ a b Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth by Michael James McClymond (22 March 2004) ISBN 0802826806 pp. 16–22
  94. ^ Amy-Jill Levine in The Historical Jesus in Context edited by Amy-Jill Levine et al. 2006 Princeton University Press ISBN 978-0-691-00992-6 p. 1: "no single picture of Jesus has convinced all, or even most scholars"
  95. ^ a b The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1 by Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (20 February 2006) ISBN 0521812399 p. 23
  96. ^ Images of Christ (Academic Paperback) by Stanley E. Porter, Michael A. Hayes and David Tombs (19 December 2004) ISBN 0567044602 T&T Clark p. 74
  97. ^ The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth by Ben Witherington (8 May 1997) ISBN 0830815449 p. 197
  98. ^ Ehrman 2012, p. 64 "What I think is that Jesus really existed but that the Jesus who really existed was not the person most Christians today believe in."

Sources

(1991), v. 1, The Roots of the Problem and the Person, ISBN 0385264259
(1994), v. 2, Mentor, Message, and Miracles, ISBN 0385469926
(2001), v. 3, Companions and Competitors, ISBN 0385469934
(2009), v. 4, Law and Love, ISBN 978-0300140965
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