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Cultural and historical background of Jesus

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Syncretisms and Coincidence

Surroundings

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Horus

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Pythagoreanism

The number 12 is the number of Spheres that can surround an identically sized Sphere. It can thus be considered the maximum number of companions or disciples the central sphere can take. The number 153 is the first part of the ratio 153:265, the closest known fraction to the square root of 3 at the time of Pythagorus. This was calculated from a geometric shape known as the Vesica Piscis. The shape is considered to represent a fish, the same fish that Christians call Ichthys, and the number 153:265 was called by Pythagorus "The measure of the fish". The number appears in a story in the Gospel of luke as the number of fish Jesus catches in a miraculous catch. The story matches one told centuries before of Pythagorus.

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Osiris-Dionysus

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Mithras

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Issues of Priority

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Sources

Number of Secular Sources

The following is a list, of commentators and writers, which lived within living memory of (i.e. at the time of, or within a century of) the time Jesus is claimed to have lived, within a sufficiently close geographic region to that which Jesus is claimed to have lived in, to be able to know of Jesus's existance -

Arrian, Pliny the Younger, Phaedrus, Josephus, Epictetus, Ptolemy, Lucian, Aulus Gellius, Damis, Persius, Pliny the Elder, Suetonius, Lucanus, Juvenal, Justus of Tiberius, Martial, Apollonius of Tyana, Appion of Alexandria, Philo-Judaeus, Petronius, Dion Pruseus, Valerius Maximus, Quintius Curtius, Pomponius Mela, Flavorinus, Theon of Smyrna, Seneca, Paterculus, Hermogones, Tacitus, Statius, Quintilian, Silius Italicus, Phlegon, Florus Lucius, Columella, Valerius Flaccus, Lysias, Appian, Pausanias, Dio Chrysostom

Of these, from the evidence of their surviving works (which still survive in significantly high number to fill hundreds of volumes of text) only 5 are claimed to have written anything at all about Jesus - Pliny the Younger, Josephus, Suetonius, Philo, and Tacitus.

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Secular Sources

The Bible and associated Apocrypha can be considered a historic source, though some dispute that. Outside of this there is very little contemporary evidence.

Pliny the Younger gave the following evidence

• Mentioned Christianity
• Later said that he discovered Christianity was a foolish superstition

Suetonius gave a single statement - As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome

• Some scholars, and Christians interpret this as a reference to Christ.
• Others point out that Chrestus translates as Useful One and was a common name given to slaves.

Philo does not mention Christianity or Jesus explicitely, however,

• His philosophy and doctrine matched that of early Christians.
• Early Christians considered Philo to be "one of them".
• Philo based his doctrine on his reading of the Old Testament.

Tacitus wrote two paragraphs on the subject of Jesus and Christianity. The first states the known historical fact that Christians existed in Rome in 116AD. The second states that Christianity arose in Rome and Judea and that Jesus was sent to death by Pontius Pilate.

• Some scholars suggest that the second paragraph is merely describing Christian beliefs that were uncontroversial (i.e. that a cult leader was put to death), so had no reason not to be assumed as fact.
• Others claim that, as an enemy of the Christians, and a historian, Tacitus would have checked the claim about Jesus before writing it.

Josephus' Evidence

Josephus, as a historian, recorded detail of the many people claiming to be Messiahs that had existed in Roman Palestine, however, on Jesus, Josephus appears to have written only one passage, quoted by Eusebius as part of a larger text (the only source for this, and many other texts written by Josephus). The passage declares of Jesus-

• He existed
• He was a wise man (if "man" is appropriate)
• He converted many Jews and non-Jews
• He was Christ
• The Jewish leaders suggested his execution
• Pontius Pilate had him executed
• He had a resurrection on the 3rd day

Many Christians use the passage from Josephus as evidence that the Bible is not the only document from that time proclaiming the truth of their faith. However, critical scholars disagree and claim the evidence points to forgery-

• The passage contains terms not used anywhere else, in any other text, by Josephus (which textual criticism proclaims is evidence of a different author)
• The description reads as if it is a declaration of Christian faith. However Josephus was a Jew, and remained so throughout his whole life.
• The preceeding passage and the subsequent passage fit together more naturally without the intervention of the Jesus passage (though some of Josephus' other work doesn't flow smoothly either).
• The description matches one side of the debate held in Eusebius' time about the nature of Jesus.
• Eusebius is the first person to mention the passage - it isn't mentioned by the earlier Origen, who would be expected to have done so.

The discovery of a 10th century manuscript which seems slightly more neutral, written more from the point of view of a commentator, bolstered Christian hopes to use the passage as evidence, since it lacks the flaw of Josephus' Jewishness seeming to conflict with his writing the passage. However, it fails to explain why the earlier 9th century manuscripts known about should have the flaws listed above, and may itself be a 10th century forgery.

Official Records

The only known text claiming to be a form of official governmental records which also evidences Jesus, is the collection known as the Letters of Herod and Pilate.

Most scholars dispute the attribution of the text to either Herod or Pilate.

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Lesser Figures

Certain lesser (than the significance claimed of Jesus) figures are mentioned more in surviving texts than Jesus. For example, John the Baptist is mentioned. Scholars question why lesser figures should feature so prominently, whilst Jesus does not, if the Jesus, as described in the bible, was a real person.

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Reliability of Biblical Sources

Applying the method of analysis of source validity, used by historians, to the bible, reveals that the bible is too unreliable to use as a record of historic events.

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Gnosticism

The Epistles of Paul

The epistles of Paul can be split into two sections, those known as the Pastoral Letters, and the non-Pastoral letters. The authenticity of the Pastoral letters is disputed by many scholars, for various reasons. The non-Pastoral letters do not mention Jesus in any way which implies he actually existed. The non-Pastorals feature many things in common with Gnosticism, including the esoteric style in which they were written. Some scholars theorise that Paul was a gnostic teacher, and as such saw Jesus as an allegory, as part of a Jewish mystery religion.

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The Synoptic Gospels

The gospel of Mark makes much mention of secrets and of secret teachings. This is a founding principle of gnosticism, the secret teachings being gnosis. If the Secret Gospel of Mark is genuinely attributable to the same author, it can be considered to imply the existance of secret teachings. Thomas Didymous, also known as doubting Thomas, can be considered to be a Gnostic allegory. His name, having parts from two languages, literally means "Twin Twin". A twin of the Gnostic initiate is used to represent the earthly part of a character. Association between Thomas and Jesus points to Thomas being the earthly part of Jesus' gnostic self. This is further identified by the gradual learning process Thomas is put through, leading him to attain the nickname "doubting Thomas", symbolising the learning of the gnostic initiate. To gnostics, Jesus symbolises the gnostic initiate's higher self. His death and resurrection symbolise the throwing away of previous beliefs, and coming to gnosis. The naked youth at gethsemene, if identified with the white robed youth, at the tomb (who in some gospels is referred to as an angel), symbolises the initiation ceremony. These ceremonies typically consisted of stripping completely naked, being baptised, and then being robed in a white cloth. To gnostics, Jesus was not real. If the synoptic gospels are gnostic, they do not provide evidence for Jesus.

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The Gospel of John

There is some doubt over the nature of the Author of the Gospel of John. Traditional views place it as being John, a disciple. More recent study reveals that it has various discrepencies with the description of John given in the bible. The generally accepted opinion is the John was the last gospel to be written. Most scholars place it in the second century, though are divided as to whether at the beginning or the end. During the second century, Christianity was embroiled in arguments over the nature of Jesus, particularly with the Gnostics. However, the synoptic gospels did not provide much anti-gnostic argument, and those who were vehemently anti-gnostic used quotes from the Gospel of John. The gospel of John differs substantially from the Synoptic Gospels. The first evidence of mention of the Gospel of John is in the works of Iranaeus, a vehement anti-gnostic. He makes great use of it, and there is some suspicion that he made it up for this purpose. If this is the case, the Gospel is a fake, and cannot count as evidence.

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Other Gospels

Many non-canonical gospels exist. Sometimes, these are used to support evidence for Jesus. However, many consider some of these works to be wild fictions, such as the Infancy Gospel of Paul. Others are clearly gnostic, and as such cannot support the existance of Jesus as anything other than allegory.

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Persecution of Gnostics

Gnosticism survived into the 13th century, producing groups such as the Cathars. Gnostic ideas of god, the consideration of Jesus as allegory, that it was the idea of Jesus' actions (as interpreted in Gnostic texts) that was the saving of Mankind rather than Jesus' actual actions, as well as willingness to tolerate other faiths, made the catholic church feel deeply threatened. To counter this, the pope ("Innocent" III) organised a "crusade" (massacre) against the gnostics known as the Albigensian Crusade. Then it created the Medieval Inquisition, from which other Inquisitions such as the Spanish Inquisition developed, to hunt anyone who still held the beliefs.

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Original article before edit started

Debates concerning the historicity of Jesus center on two issues: the role of God in natural and human history, and the veracity of the New Testament as a historical source.

Christian Perspectives

Most Christians believe that God plays an active role in history through miracles and divine revelation; and many accept as a basis for their faith the divine authority of the Bible, and the divinity of Jesus. Some Christians believe that Scripture must be interpreted in the light of tradition, while others believe that individuals can interpret it for themselves.

Some Christians believe that human understanding of the divine is imperfect, and can and must be supplemented by other forms of knowledge. Such people draw on works by secular scientists and historians to help interpret their own experiences and their reading of Scripture. Some believe in God but question the divinity of Jesus and the Bible, and rely more heavily on the work of scientists and historians. Others do not believe in God and rely entirely on the work of secular scholars.

The increased importance of the Christological argument for the existence of God in modern evangelical teachings has formed questions of the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth with an enhanced urgency. The usual historian's criteria of authenticity, documentation, and the like, tend to be removed from ordinary historical discourse, to take up newly important places in Christological theology.

Skepticism

Many historians make statements about historical events or persons based on more pragmatic standards of empirical evidence. They look at scripture not as divinely inspired but as the work of fallible humans, who wrote in the light of their culture and time. There is a paucity of accepted contemporaneous sources and of direct empirical evidence concerning Jesus, which makes it especially difficult for representatives of the different religious and secular traditions of knowledge and faith to reach agreement on a "biography" of Jesus.

Taking a starting point loosely connected with Higher criticism, a rigorous historical analysis of Biblical texts in the 19th century, also known as the "Tübingen School" and connected to the Eberhard Karls university in Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, a number of critics have proposed that there was no historical Jesus. They argue from the internal features of, and inconsistencies between, the Gospels and other canonical and non-canonical Christian and Gnostic writings to argue that Jesus was a mythical (or mythologized) figure. The paucity of non-Christian historical sources that corroborate Christian writings is adduced as support for this position.

Jesus as a myth

Perhaps most prolific of those Biblical scholars who discount the historical existence of Jesus is a professor of German, George Albert Wells, who argues that Jesus was originally a Gnostic myth. Another example is Earl Doherty, who suggests that Paul's idea of Jesus was derived from his reading of the Torah.

Parts of this consideration derive ultimately from what Wells and Doherty characterize as the distinct lack of detail about Jesus' day-to-day existence or activities in Paul's letters. Most of Paul's references to Jesus make little mention of his time on earth, although Paul does refer in moderate detail to the Last Supper as though it was an actual historical event which Jesus attended.

In this extreme position within the skeptical view, Paul was not interested in —"nor heard of" is an extreme formulation— any actual person named Jesus from Nazareth (or Bethlehem), but rather believed in a metaphysical Jesus who died on some ethereal plane at the beginning of time, or some far-off time in history. The Jesus of Nazareth character was made up after Paul's time by a composite of Hebrew Biblical prophecies, with embellishments added by many people. In this view, the interpretation of the meaning of Jesus was also informed by messianic, apocalyptic and resurrectionist myths that were common during the late Hellenistic age. A persistent idea is that his existence is based on a whisper campaign to expel the Roman rulers.

Another part of this view is the study of the 'evidences' for Jesus, which, according to advocates of 'Jesus as a Myth', are fallacious and/or irrelevant, or possibly later inventions.

The term "demythologize" is understood less strongly by other authors. When Rudolf Bultmann says he wants to demythologize Jesus' teachings he means he wants to make those teachings a modern day reality, not something that stays and belongs to an ancient primitive world. Bultmann remained convinced the life of Jesus was theology in story form. Essentially, the question of the historicity of Jesus was considered unimportant compared with the meaning of the teachings that arose (in whatever way) around him.

Syncretism

Syncretism with Mystery Religions

Mystery in the Levant

The religious environment of the 1st century AD was one of a plethora of related mystery religions, each being a local syncretism of Osiris-Dionysus and local deities, spread throughout the eastern mediterranean -

• In Alexandria, Aion
• In Egypt, Osiris
• In Rome, Bacchus
• In Greece, Dionysius
• In Syria, Adonis
• In Phrygia (western Turkey), Attis
• In Samaria (Mesopotamia), Antiochus
• In Persia, Mithra
• In the Roman Army, Mithras

Despite being in the centre, and surrounded by all of these highly popular Mystery Religions, surviving records do not show any evidence of a Mystery Religion as having spread into the Levant in the 1st century, nor of any syncretistically developing there.

However, this is only the case if Early Christianity is considered, as it was traditionally held to be, as having been a literal religion, which did not view Jesus as a myth, and did not copy ideas from other religions and ascribe them to Jesus.

Common ground

Mystery religions generally deliberately rewrote existing religions so as to be able to treat religious traditions as metaphor pointing to a deeper understanding of the world (this is the principle of gnosis). These religions typically used a central Life-death-rebirth deity figure, who was recognised as being identical to the central figure in the other mystery religions.

Some of these religions, notably those surrounding Horus, Osiris, Dionysius, the syncretism of these three (and Apis) as Serapis, and Mithras, have a remarkable similarity to some of the more extraneous details about Jesus. These figures are, in their own religions, considered to have each died for the sins of mankind, on a crucifix. In addition many share appellations given to Jesus, such as "the Good Shepherd" or "Saviour", and, in the case of the later Serapis, "Christ" (followers of Serapis referring to themselves, rather confusingly, as "Christians").

Horus

Like many other deities, Horus was the product of a series of syncretisms of more local gods.

• Referred to as The Lamb, Light of the World, The Good Shepherd, The way, the truth, the life
• In the form of Har-Khutti (one of the earlier syncretisms), he has twelve followers.

Osiris - Dionysus

• He is considered to be God made man.
• Followers are baptised and born anew.
• Turns water into wine at a marriage ceremony.
• Mother was pregnant for 7 months (as early Christians believed of Mary) (when manifested as Dionysus)
• Has a last supper with 12 followers before his passion
• Brings a new religion, plotted against by the elders, arrested, unjustly found guilty, and executed (when manifested as Dionysus) (this is described in the play by Eurypides The Bacchae
• Has a human mother, but god as a father.
• Born in a cave/stable on 25th December in the presence of 3 shepherds.
• Rides into a town on a donkey whilst being welcomed with palm leaves.
• Dies at the same time as Easter, as a sacrifice for the world's sin.
• Descends into hell, and on the third day rises and ascends into heaven
• Will return to judge the living and the dead at the end of the world
• The passion is celebrated with bread and wine, which symbolise the body and blood.
• Born on January 6th (when manifested as Aion) (this is the date the early christians celebrated Jesus' birth).
• Died on March 23rd with Resurrection on March 25th (when manifested as Attis).

Mithras / Sol-Invictus

• Died on a cross and buried in a cave.
• Born on December 25th.
• Had a last supper with 12 followers.
• Has a virgin mother and god as a father.
• Healed the sick, raised the dead, and made the blind see.
• Saviour of mankind.
• Referred to as "The Way", "The Truth", "The Word", "The Good Shepherd", and "The Light"
• Considered Sunday sacred
• The passion is celebrated with bread and wine, which symbolise the body and blood.
• Baptism consisted of full immersion whilst naked, followed by dressing in white clothing and a crown, and a procession to the temple with torches.
• Images depict Mithras' passion as having two torchbearers either side, one torch pointing up the other down (symbolising heaven and hell)

Similarities with the Osiris-Horus-Isis myth

In the later version of his myth, Osiris has a god for a father, but a virgin human female for a mother. In this myth, the mother is called Meri, and the father is Lord Seth (the hebrew name prefix "Jo-", being a reference to Yahweh, is usually rendered as "Lord"). The place of birth is the house of the dead (also known as the house of bread, which in Hebrew is "Beth Lehem").

An additional detail resembling a variant of the Osiris myth is the raising of Lazarus. In hebrew the name of Lazarus is El-Aser, and El means god, therefore the story can be considered to be about the raising of "the god, Aser". The demotic/hieroglyphic (i.e. the Egyptian) pronunciation for Osiris is thought to be Aser. Osiris was raised from the underworld, which is called Annu, or house of Annu, which in Hebrew is "Beth Annu".

The Osiris myth also includes stories of Osiris being whisked away to the top of a mountain in the desert for 40 days by Set, where Set offers Osiris total power on earth. In the Jesus story, there is a similar event with Satan being the protagonist. The difference in the names Set and Satan is merely one of modern translation. In demotic, Set can be written Setn, which has almost total phonetic identity with Satan, as well as the strong semantic identity between "Adversary" and Set.

Another feature in common with stories of Jesus is the mention in the Apocalypse of John-the-Divine/Revelations of Mary being clothed in the sun, with the moon at her feet, wearing twelve stars as a crown, this is a common description of Isis, Horus' mother. It derives from the origins of the Isis story as astronomical observation.

Similarities with the Mithras myth

The Mithras religion is thought to be based on the variation on Zoroastrianism that came into existence when a caste of Persian priests insited on upholding ritual and ceremony (and thus their source of income and power). This caste is called the Magi, and were considered not only to be holy men, but also great astronomers (Babylon had a strong reputation for astronomy, due to the necessity of determining events from celestial reckoning). The esteem in which the caste was held meant that most mystery religions would seek some form of affiliation with them. In the infancy narrative of Jesus, Magi are present at Jesus' birth (in some modern translations, they are translated simply as wise men or as kings, but "magoi" in the Greek text).

The Mithras religion also features the birth of its saviour figure (also a representation of god who is nethertheless man) in a cave, surrounded by Shepherds, on 25th December (for solar reasons). Although modern interpretations of the infancy narrative of Jesus place his birth in a stable, the original understanding of Christians was that it was in a cave. The Greek text here says that the child was laid in a "manger" (φάτνῃ), because there was no room in the "inn" (κατάλυμα), not specifying where this manger was. However, archeological studies of the Bethlehem area have shown that the stables were often housed in caves.

Similarities with Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism includes practices that resemble Christianity, at least superficially. This religion teaches that fire is purifying (to the point that some accused adherants of worshipping fire, which is not strictly accurate). Many Christians use ashes on Ash Wednesday as a sign of purification. The putting of heretics to death by burning at the stake could also be related, though that practice seems to stem from the Byzantine Empire, where it was used against Zoroastrians.

Jesus is mentioned in various places as rising on the 3rd day. In Zoroastriansim, the soul remained in the body for 3 whole days after death, and therefore, rising on the 3rd day was the last possible opportunity before the soul left the body permanantly. If this explanation is accepted, the implication would be that Jesus was probably just in a coma, before the resurrection. This is the sort of feature prevelant in mystery religions - a superficial supernatural rendering that has a simpler but deeper explanation that is only revealed to those with gnosis.

Other features which supporters of the Jesus as myth argument propose include:

• Names of angels (including those used in non-Biblical sources) are shared with the distorted Magi version of Zoroastrianism
• The virgin birth of a saviour is shared with Zoroastrianism
• Last judgement, with sinners being sent into a fiery pit, shared with the distorted Magi version of Zoroastrianism
• Belief in Paradise from Zoroastrianism (the word Paradise is even a persian word)

Issues of priority

Scholars are divided on the question of whether the similarities between these beliefs are due to syncretism on the part of the Christians or of the mystery religions themselves. Particularly in the case of Mithras, the similarities with Christianity were considered remarkable, in the first and second centuries. The church father Tertullian tried to explain this away thus

"The devil, whose business is to pervert the truth, mimics the exact circumstances of the Divine Sacraments. He baptises his believers and promises forgiveness of sins from the Sacred Fount, and thereby initiates them into the religion of Mithras. Thus he celebrates the oblation of bread, and brings in the symbol of the resurrection."

Modern approaches to the question rely on more reasoned argument.

• In favor of the mystery religions copying from the Christians is -
  • the fact that all surviving evidence of the beliefs in the mystery religions postdates Christ.
  • The Osiris and Dionysius myths did not feature crucifixion in their early forms
• Against this argument is placed the considerations that -
  • The Osiris and Dionysius myths developed additional features when converted into mystery religions. Since the principle feature of mystery religions is the death and resurrection of a central god-as-man figure. It is likely that this change produced the idea of crucifixion in the myths.
  • All surviving evidence of the beliefs of Early Christians post dates Christ.
  • Imagery surrounding the Mystery Religions survives from at least the 3rd Century AD. Imagery surrounding Christ in similar style only survives as early as the 5th Century.
  • Early Christians systematically burnt texts which showed them in an unfavourable light (even burning the Great Library of Alexandrian destroying prized works from Plato, Euclid, etc., which only now survive due to Persian translations)

In favor of Christian borrowing from the mystery religions is the statement of Celsus, whose words are preserved in Origen's Contra Celsum. Celsus claimed that the pagan beliefs predated Christianity, and that Christianity

"continues to spread amongst the vulgar, nay one can even say it spreads because of its vulgarity, and the illiteracy of its adherants. And while there are a few moderate, reasonable, and intelligent people who are inclined to interpret its beliefs allegorically, yet it thrives in its purer form amongst the ignorant".

Early Christians tended to provide unprovable supernatural explanations for the similarities, including statements that the Devil was responsible for the similarites, by virtue of the Devil's ability to prophecy. For example, the early christian apologist Justin Martyr writes (in First Apology)

"Having heard it proclaimed through the prophets that the Christ was to come and that the ungodly among men were to be punished by fire, the wicked spirits put forward many to be called Sons of God, under the impression that they would be able to produce in men the idea that the things that were said with regard to Christ were merely marvellous tales"

Finally, the possibility of coincidence cannot be discarded. For instance the pyramids of Mexico and Egypt are quite similar, even though there are few who would propose contact between those cultures during the times in which pyramids were built. Similarly, Native American religions often include a flood myth resembling that of Gilgamesh or Noah. A combination of the various directions of sharing, or of coincidence, is also possible as an explanation.

Survival of Mystery Religions

The case for the myth usually states that the reason Christianity doesn't view Jesus as a myth is because they didn't comprehend it. The failure of mystery religions was that by their very nature, the masses took the stories somewhat literally, with the belief in the literal truth of stories eventually superceding the understanding of it as metaphor.

Gnostics

In general, some Christians groups tended to oppose Gnosticism; for instance Marcion was quickly condemned for his Gnostic interpretation of the Scriptures. Irenaeus, a reknowned second century heresy condemner, and church father, said, in Against Heresies, of the Valentinian group of Gnostics "They keep asking us how it is that when they confess the same things, and hold the same doctrines, we call them heretics"

Moderate skepticism

Many other scholars, who do not doubt the historical Jesus, would agree that these Pauline interpretations of his sayings at secondhand and literary extrapolations from his actions and mythologized invented detail have been applied to an historical figure. They demonstrate that the Pauline Christians were unfamiliar with Jewish culture and that the term "Nazarene" was unfamiliar to those transcribing Aramaic oral tradition into Greek: a more appropriate translation, this school suggests, of the historical rabbi Jesus, who came to be so thoroughly mythologized, was "Jesus the Nazirite." (see also Nazareth link below)

Others contend that aspects of Jesus' life as related in the New Testament were entirely derived from popular mystery religions in the Roman Empire at that time period. These religions worshipped saviour figures such as Isis, Horus, Osiris, Dionysus and Mithras, and Christian Gnosticism which flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries openly combined Christian imagery and stories with the beliefs and practices of Mediterranean mystery religions. This is not supported by the earliest surviving Christian art from the late 3rd and 4th centuries. In the catacombs of Rome it would seem that only Orpheus was adapted. The Christian's "Good Shepherd" carries a lamb and a flute.

Proponents of this view generally date the gospels much later than some mainstream scholars and assert textual corruption in the passages supporting the existence of Jesus in Paul and Josephus as interpolated. Flavius Josephus was trained as a Pharisee and the passages attributed to him do not read true to this; It fails a standard test for authenticity, in that it contains vocabulary not used by Josephus per the Complete Concordance to Flavius Josephus, ed. K. H. Rengstorf, 2002. Professor Shlomo Pines found a different version of Josephus's testimony in an Arabic version from the tenth century. Cornelius Tacitus's remarks about the Christians seem to echo contemporary popular opinion about Jesus and have no known independent source of information -- as a result, many skeptics discount it as a source about Jesus' historicity.

Recourse is not necessary to later pseudepigraphical writings, such as the much later alleged letter from Herod Antipas purporting to be directed to the Roman Senate defending his (Herod's) actions concerning both John the Baptist and Jesus, and said to be found among the records of the Roman Senate. Whatever their internal details, the very existence of such pseudepigraphical writings and of interpolations into authentic documents, which accumulate from the 2nd century onwards, to judge from internal evidence, has genuine historical value, in that they document a perceived need to supplement the documentation on the part of Christians who apparently felt the need to support the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth, by providing the kind of documents they felt ought to have existed.

Scholarly Defence of Jesus

Most Christian scholars, and many non-Christian scholars, do not dispute that a person named Jesus, connected in some way to the events described in the Bible, once lived; they believe that evidence for Jesus' existence two thousand years ago is by historical standards fairly strong. The primary source of historical knowledge about Jesus is contained within the Christian Gospels, as many historians believe them to have originated from sources written within living memory of Jesus (but later lost, and remaining lost). Evidence for a historical Jesus is also claimed by the Epistles, especially those by Paul. Other sources regarded as of less significance from the perspective of modern historians are other early Christian material, other religious traditions, and certain historians of the period. Many historians accept the New Testament as evidence for the historical existence of Jesus; but there is much less acceptance of the narrative of his life and death, and far less for any miraculous claims, among professional historians and liberal biblical scholars.

These scholars also draw on mention of Jesus in Josephus, and mention of early Christians in Suetonius and Tacitus. Most historians do not dispute the existence of a person who was named Jesus; Jesus is not only mentioned extensively within the New Testament, but is also considered a historical figure within the religions of Judaism, Islam, Mandeanism and Gnosticism. Both John the Baptist and James the Just are also documented in Josephus. The Roman historian Tacitus also makes a mention. (See Sources of Jesus) Sceptical Historians discount all of these sources - see Sources of Jesus

Moreover, the same historians generally agree that at least some of the sources on which Gospels are based were written within living memory of Jesus's lifetime. These historians therefore accept that the accounts of the life of Jesus in the Gospels provide a reasonable basis of evidence, by the standards of ancient history, for the historical existence of Jesus and the basic account of his life and death. The Gospel of Mark is considered by historians to be the earliest of the four. These scholars date it between 55 and 65, although the most common dating of Mark is 65-80 CE, which makes it possible that it was circulating while some of the apostles and their immediate disciples, as well as numerous other eye witnesses, were still alive; so they can conclude that it was fairly close to the early oral preaching about Jesus' life.

Religious accounts are not the only offered evidence for Jesus' existence. Some early secular sources also mention Jesus or his followers. Will Durant the philosopher and historian wrote in his book Caesar and Christ (pp. 554-5):

The oldest known mention of Christ in pagan literature is in a letter of the younger Pliny (ca. 110), asking the advice of Trajan on the treatment of Christians. Five years later Tacitus described Nero's persecution of the Chrestiani in Rome, and pictured them as already (A.D. 64) numbering adherents throughout the empire.... Suetonius (ca. 125) mentions the same persecution, and reports Claudius' banishment of "Jews who, stirred up by Christ , were causing public disturbances," the passage accords well with the Acts of the Apostles, which mentions a decree of Claudius that "the Jews should leave Rome." These references prove the existence of Christians rather than Christ; but unless we assume the latter we are driven to the improbable hypothesis that Jesus was invented in one generation.

He also writes (p. 557):

In summary, it is clear that there are many contradictions between one gospel and another, many dubious statements of history, many suspicious resemblances to the legends told of pagan gods, many incidents apparently designed to prove the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, many passages possibly aiming to establish a basis for some later doctrine or ritual of the Church....

All this granted, much remains. The contradictions are of minutae, not substance; in essentials the synoptic gospels agree remarkably well, and form a consistent portrait of Christ.... That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels.

Despite his generally solid reputation as a scholar, Durant's opinion here is not a conclusive defence for Jesus' historicity. The time between the first Gospel and Jesus's influence is disputed, the number of men and their background are uncertain, and the time it took to devise the story of Jesus is not necessarily as limited as Durant suggests.

Academic historians and religious texts

Unlike religious fundamentalists, who assume that such texts as the Gospels are entirely and literally true, and unlike some critics of Christianity, who assume that such texts are entirely false, most academic historians believe that such texts are historical sources, but that their meaning depends on a variety of factors. Historians generally assume that the Gospels, like other historical sources (for example, the works of Josephus), were written by human beings. Some argue that a text with a clearly identified author (for example, the Gospel of Luke) was written by someone else, or by several authors, or by an author drawing on several sources. Historians assume that a text that is based on real events may nevertheless reflect the biased view of the author or authors, or a bias that is meant to appeal to an intended audience. They also generally don't believe in supernatural phenomena, and tend to look for naturalistic explanations of any supernatural phenomena that were recorded. Consequently, they believe such texts contain information not only about a described event, they also reveal information of historical value about the authors and audience. Historians then use information about the cultural, political, and economic context (from sources outside the text in question) as a basis for reconstructing the intended or understood meaning of the text. Although historians use established methods, there are often vigorous debates over the validity or strength of a given interpretation. Moreover, historians strive to revise their interpretations when new linguistic, literary, or archaeological evidence becomes available.

See also

• Alleged relics of Jesus Christ
• Historical source material regarding Jesus
• Yeshu

External links

• Christian site on Josephus evidence
• Argument from Christian point of view
• Pro Jesus' existence
• Argues Jesus was originally a relatively minor figure
• PBS' From Jesus to Christ
• The Jesus Puzzle
• The Quest of the Historical Jesus By Albert Schweitzer Full online text
• Highly critical view of archaeology at Nazareth from www.jesusneverexisted.com
• Radical Criticism
• Journal of Higher Criticism

Reference

• Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries - was the original Jesus a pagan god? ISBN:0722536771
• Michael Grant, Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels
• Edgar J. Goodspeed, Biblical Forgeries
• Raymond E. Brown, Joseph Fitzmyer, Roland Murphy, Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, 1968
• Rudolf Bultmann, History of the Synoptic Tradition,Harper & Row, 1963
• Edgar V. McKnight,What is Form Criticism?, 1997
• Norman Perrin,What is Redaction Criticism?
• Robin Jensen,Understanding Early Christian Art, Rutledge, 2000
• Stephen Patterson, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossman, Edited by Hershel Shanks,The Search for Jesus: Modern Scholarship Looks at the Gospels,Biblical Archaeology Society, 1994 Symposium at the Smithsonian Institution, 11 Sept 1993
• The Jesus Puzzle. Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ?: Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus, Earl Doherty, Publisher: Canadian Humanist Pubns; 1st edition (October 19, 1999)
• The Jesus Hoax, Phyllis Graham, Publisher: Frewin; (1974)
• Jesus, Charles Guignebert, Publisher: Albin Michel; (December 31, 1969)
• An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism, Gordon Stein, Publisher: Prometheus Books; (December 1, 1989)
• The Historical Evidence for Jesus, George A.Wells, Publisher: Prometheus Books; (January 1, 1988)
• Jesus: The Evidence, Ian Wilson, Publisher: Regnery Publishing; 1 edition (October 1, 2000)
  

• Ancient Roman Christianity
• Jesus