Written for: Apologetics
Date Written: 4/24/2010
The
Historical Person of Jesus Christ
Ryan Watters
God’s Bible School and College
The
Historical Person of Jesus Christ
One of the
more common trends in modern atheism is to question the
historical existence of the person of Jesus Christ. Did
He really exist? Or was He just a myth like so many of
the other pagan gods? More importantly, if He did
exist, how do we know? Many people working through
these issues will not accept the testimony of the
Bible. While this is unfortunate, and certainly
unfounded, it is simply a fact.
However,
the Bible is not our only source for information
concerning the person of Jesus Christ. There are a
number of extra-biblical sources that verify the
existence of a person named Jesus Christ. The purpose
of this paper is to look at some of this evidence, and
attempt to prove the existence of Jesus through outside
sources.
Tacitus. Cornelius Tacitus lived from 55-120 A.D. He
was Roman by nationality, and Cairns (1966) refers to
him as the “dean of Roman historians” (p. 49). He was
also well known for his honest and upright character
(p. 87). His reporting on the man called Jesus is
extremely valuable to our case. As historian Edwin
Yamauchi (1998) states, “Tacitus recorded what is
probably the most important reference to Jesus outside
the New Testament” (p. 107). He stated the following in
his work Annals
(115A.D.):
"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 Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in
Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every
part of the world find their center and become popular"
(as cited by Habermas, 1984, p.87-88).
Here we
have an external source, a Roman citizen who was by no
means a friend of the Christians, verifying that
Christus (a.k.a. Jesus) suffered “the extreme penalty”
at the hands of Pontius Pilate. This blends well with
Scripture which states that Jesus was crucified under
the authority of Pilate. This can be no less than
historical support for the existence of Jesus Christ.
Seutonius. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas, like Tacitus,
was also a Roman historian. We don’t know very much
about Suetonius, except that he was chief secretary of
the Emperor Hadrian, and was a contemporary of Tacitus
(Habermas, 1984, p.89). He wrote:
"Because
the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the
instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from the
city" (as cited by Habermans, 1984, p.90).
From this
quote we know that Christ was the source of much
contention among the Jews, which certainly purports
with the accounts in the book of Acts. Again, this is
just another piece of evidence on the side of the
historical reliability of the person of Jesus Christ.
Pliny the Younger. Pliny was also Roman by nationality,
but instead of being an historian, he was rather an
official in the government. He was known to be a very
proficient letter writer, and Bruce refers to him as,
“one of the world’s greatest letter-writers, whose
letters…have attained the status of literary classics”
(as cited by Habermas, 1984, p.94). His role in the
government brought him into conflict with the
Christians because they took a religious stance that
did not allow for the mandated emperor worship. This
was a rather grievous offense to Pliny and the Roman
government, and it was his responsibility to bring the
Christians back into line with the Roman laws.
In one of his letters to the emperor, Trajan, he wrote,
"They (the
Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain
fixed day before it was light, when they sang in
alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and
bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked
deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or
adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust
when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after
which it was their custom to separate, and then
reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary
and innocent kind" (as cited by Habermas, 1984, p.94).
So we see
evidence from an external source by the early second
century (112 A.D.) that the church really did worship
Jesus as God, met on the first day of the week
(Sunday), and committed themselves to live simply,
godly lives (Habermas, 1984, p.94). Again, this is
someone who was in no way friendly to the Christian
movement, but rather was doing everything possible to
stop it. Still, he mentions Christ and the early
church. How can you explain the name of Jesus Christ
popping up in letter after historical letter unless the
historic person of Jesus Christ really existed?
The above is just a small selection of the significant
amount of evidence available to support the person of
Jesus Christ. Taken as a single instance it may be easy
to dismiss. However, when you view it in tandem with
the large amount of other evidence readily available,
you must ask yourself, what is the most probable
explanation? You can spin conspiracy theories for each
instance all day long, but at the end of the day, you
must ask yourself, what is most probable? The answer
seems clear to me, the person of Jesus Christ truly did
exist.
Reference
Cairns,
Earl. (1996). Christianity
through the centuries.
Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI.
Habermas,
Gary R. (1964). Ancient
evidence for the life of Jesus. Thomas
Nelson Inc.: Nashville, TN.
Strobel,
Lee. (1998). The
case for Christ.
Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI.