Reliability of New Testament History
[sun_chariot]
You sometimes hear people say that Jesus was not a historical person
- we don’t have any writings by him, or a picture, just mythical stories
- other unbelievable resurrection & miracle stories exist for others at that time
- so Jesus is just an amalgam of these put together decades after the events
- they say Jesus probably never existed and we can’t know any facts about him
[Reading Library]
You hear this from all kinds of people but not from historians
- historians are very sceptical people, but they know facts when they see them
- and there is no way you can dismiss the basic facts of Jesus’ life
- though most historians remain sceptical about the details and his exact teaching
Historians have a problem – they usually can’t interview witnesses
- they have to rely on what was recorded, and like detectives they believe no-one
- they always look for a motive in what someone says, and make allowances
- ancient historians have more problems, because the records are far more sparse
- how sparse? VERY sparce – and the 1st C is about the worse time you can pick
[Ketuvah]
The most valuable document in 1st C Jewish culture was a marriage certificate
- this recorded the rights & money due to a woman when divorced or bereaved
- her children for the next 10 generations needed it to prove their legitimacy
- without proof of legitimacy they couldn’t enter a synagogue or get married
- so every family looked after marriage certificates like their crown jewels
- in the 1st C about 250,000 marriage certificates were treasured in this way
- how many have survived? One – found in the Judean Desert (DJD.XXVII.11)
(it might be early 2ndC, and we have 3 others from the 2nd C).
- that’s a survival factor of 4 documents per million in the 1st C
So the historian has to be aware that most of his sources are destroyed
- and the little that has survived represents masses of evidence that didn't.
- ancient historians always have to remember the aphorism of Carl Sagan:
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”
- of course Sagan referred to the zero evidence for life elsewhere in the universe
- but historians refer to the frustratingly small evidence from the ancient world
- so next time you hear someone say “There MUST be other life in the universe”,
remember that ancient historians have much more evidence for their opinions.
[Roman Rulers]
What about at the time – how many people actually knew about Jesus?
- Jews knew about him, but what about the Romans or those outside Palestine?
- how many historians of the time knew about him or would bother to mention him?
- we know from Acts that most Romans in Palestine were ignorant of Jesus
- the motive of Acts was to show how important Jesus was, so we can believe it
when we find that Romans even in Palestine knew almost nothing about him
1) The Roman Commander arresting Paul in the Temple mistook him for an
Egyptian Messiah figure (Acts 21.38) – the only Messiah he knows about
2) The Roman Governor Felix knew about The Way (ie the Christian Way)
because his wife is Jewish and was especially interested (Act.24.24)
3) his successor, the Governor Festus, didn't know anything about why Paul was
imprisoned, except it was "points of dispute about their own religion and about
a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. " (Acts 25:19 )
- he didn’t realise Jesus had supposedly risen from death, because when Paul
explained this, Festus was astonished and called him a madman (Acts 26:23-26)
This unscientific sample suggests one in three Romans in Palestine knew of Jesus
- but that one actually had a Jewish wife so perhaps the odds are skewed.
- outside Palestine there was no reason why any Roman should hear anything
- he was an obscure itinerant preacher who become infamous for a week
[Socrates]
Evidence for others at the time is very sparse
- what evidence do we have for Socrates, the founder of Western philosophy?
- he died aged about 70 in about 400BC, found guilty of perverting the young
- we know his teachings only through his pupils Plato and Xenophon
- Plato records mainly his teaching, though you’re never sure how much is added
- Xenophon records events as well as teaching and portrays a very serious man
- but Aristophanes’ The Clouds portrays him as rather silly, irreverent and scatty
- Thucydides, a contemporary Greek historian, doesn’t mention him at all
- those who convicted him and non-followers left no record about him
- so we have an entirely one-sided view written by very biased pupils and fans
- but no-one disputes that he existed, his teaching method or his death by suicide
[4Gospels]
So, what do we have about Jesus in historical sources
- as far as an ancient historian is concerned, we have a treasure trove
- apart from powerful people like emperors, we have more than for anyone else
- we have five historical sources which are biased but still very valuable
- ie Mark, additions by Matthew & Luke, Q (ie shared by Luke+MT) & John
- these occasionally contradict, but only in ways that make them more reliable
- some of these sources knew about each other (they used each other) but they
were still willing to stand out with a slightly different version.
[Ladies]
For example, with the resurrection appearances,
- John says Mary Magdalene came to the tomb
- Mark and Luke say that Mary mother of James was also there
- Matthew simply says that “the other Mary” accompanied her
- but Mark says Salome was also there, and Luke says Joanna was there
These are fairly easy to reconcile:
John: Mary Magdalene
Matt: Mary Magdalene + “other” Mary
Mark: Mary Magdalene + Mary m of James + Salome
Luke: Mary Magdalene + Mary m of James + Joanna
If we assume that Solome was also called Joanna, everything is solved
- but the point is that these reports weren’t fudged to make them agree
- everyone reported what they knew, and stuck to it, like real witnesses
[Rabbis]
Some modern scholars don’t like the fact that gospels were unwritten for decades
- my main research is Jewish law, which was collected in oral form for 200 years
- they eventually wrote it down in about AD 200, but we trust what they wrote
- until they wrote it, because then it could easily be changed by the one writing it
- till then, it was memorised by a community, who corrected each other’s errors
- but as soon as it is written, any scribe can make a different version
- personally, I’d prefer they’d written things down later, but I can live with that
The Gospels have far greater historical value than the best Jewish sources
- scholarly books on the Pharisees relies mostly on Christian, not Jewish writings
- because the Gospels and Epistles make several sources written close to the time
- they form fantastic historical sources, so long as you take account of their bias
- just like you take into account the bias of historians like Josephus or Tacitus
- everyone has an addenda and a motive, so you read them intelligently
- when you do that, the Gospels are gold-dust for the ancient historian
And, unlike Socrates, we have lots of information written by Jesus’ enemies
[PlinyYounger]
Pliny the Younger wrote to Emperor Trajan about AD 112 with a report about
those who refused to worship the emperor, and instead worshiped "Christus".
Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the
gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your
image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues
of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ — none of which those who are really
Christians, it is said, can be forced to do — these I thought should be
discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians,
but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three
years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all
worshiped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.
They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had
been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing
responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not
to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their
trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was
over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food-but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do
after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden
political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out
what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses.
But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.
(Pliny to Trajan, Letters 10.96–97)
[Tacitus ]
Tacitus wrote a history of the Emperors in about AD 116, including Nero's
persecution of Christians following the Great Fire of Rome c. 64:
Nero fastened the guilt of starting the blaze and inflicted the most exquisite
tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians
[Chrestians] 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 centre and become popular.
(Tacitus, Annals 15.44)
[Suetonius ]
Suetonius wrote a rather more racy history of the Emperors in about AD 119,
including riots in the Jewish community in Rome under emperor Claudius:
As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus,
he [ Claudius ] expelled them [the Jews] from Rome
(Suetonius, Claudius 25.1-5)
[Josephus]
Josephus
was a Jewish historian who wrote mainly for Roman readers. He wrote the
Antiquities of the Jews in AD 93, mentioning Jesus twice, though scholars think
that the longer report has been added to by Christian scribes:
Josephus calls James "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ."
(Josephus Antiquities 20.9.1 [200])
About this time came Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it is appropriate to call him a
man. For he was a performer of paradoxical feats, a teacher of people who
accept the unusual with pleasure, and he won over many of the Jews and also
many Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, upon the accusation of the
first men amongst us, condemned him to be crucified, those who had formerly
loved him did not cease to follow him, for he appeared to them on the third
day, living again, as the divine prophets foretold, along with a myriad of other
marvellous things concerning him. And the tribe of the Christians, so named
after him, has not disappeared to this day.
(Josephus Antiquities 18.3.3 [63] - the likely Christian additions are dotted)
[RomanScribe]
Mara bar Sarapion was a Syrian Stoic imprisoned by the Romans some time
after AD 70. He wrote to his son about a Wise King recently killed by the Jews:
For what benefit was obtained by the Athenians by putting Socrates to death,
seeing that they received as retribution for it famine and pestilence? Or the
people of Samos by the burning of Pythagoras, seeing that in one hour the
whole of their country was covered with sand? Or the Jews by the murder of
their Wise King, seeing that from that very time their kingdom was driven
away from them? For with justice did God grant a recompense to the wisdom
of all three of them. For the Athenians died by famine; and the people of Samos
were covered by the sea without remedy; and the Jews, brought to desolation
and expelled from their kingdom, are driven away into every land. Nay, death
was not the result for Socrates because of Plato; nor yet for Pythagoras,
because of the statue of Hera; nor yet for the Wise King, because of the new
laws which he enacted.
(Ante Nicene Fathers 8.737 )
[Jewish Scribe]
The Talmud records Jewish traditions from about 100 BC to AD 600. Dating is
very difficult but the words in bold probably originate in the early 1st century.
It is taught: On the eve of Passover they hung Yeshu of Nazareth and the crier
went forth for forty days beforehand declaring that "[Yeshu] is going to be
stoned for practicing witchcraft, for misleading and enticing Israel. Anyone
who knows something to clear him should come forth and exonerate him." But
no one had anything exonerating for him and they hung him on the eve of
Passover.
(Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a, in uncensored versions)
[NazarethInscription1]
Nazareth Inscription:
- few people refer to this, but it is important because it is so indirect
- it was bought in Nazareth in 1878, but probably didn’t originate there
- it dates from the second half of the 1st C, when Nazareth was just a dirt village
- it is an inscription in Greek on a marble block about 2ft across
- the most likely place for it in Palestine would be the capital, Jerusalem
Here’s what it says:
[NazarethInscription2]
EDICT OF CAESAR
It is my decision [concerning] graves and tombs—whoever has made them for
the religious observances of parents, or children, or household members—that
these remain undisturbed forever. But if anyone legally charges that another
person has destroyed, or has in any manner extracted those who have been
buried, or has moved with wicked intent those who have been buried to other
places, committing a crime against them, or has moved sepulcher-sealing
stones, against such a person I order that a judicial tribunal be created, just as
[is done] concerning the gods in human religious observances, even more so
will it be obligatory to treat with honor those who have been entombed. You are
absolutely not to allow anyone to move [those who have been entombed]. But if
[someone does], I wish that [violator] to suffer capital punishment under the
title of tomb-breaker.
This says that anyone moving a corpse from a tomb is punishable by death
- this isn’t grave robbing – there’s no mention of stealing; only moving a corpse
- this doesn’t concern Roman graves – they contain urns of ashes, not corpses
- it specifically mentions graves which have stones rolled in front of them
- no-where else in the Empire was there any law protecting non-Roman graves
- and yet here, in Palestine, it suddenly becomes a capital offence to move bodies
The date is difficult to determine, but the most likely date is middle 1st century
- and this problem is something very serious – it warrants the death penalty
- the crime is moving a corpse from Jewish tombs in Palestine with a roll-away
stone in front
- does that remind you of anything?
- how many similar crimes could there be?
- there is no suspicion of forgery. Not one sceptical scholar has suggested that
[Reading Library]
There is so much evidence, that historians can afford to be very sceptical
- and we have scrutinised the evidence about Jesus more than perhaps any other
- no other comparable person has so much evidence to argue over
- it is easy to find possible contradictions because there is so much of it
- for most people and events of the time we have only one record, so there is
nothing much to discuss
- but for Jesus we often have two or three records, which often conflict
- they appear different not because they were made up, but because they are real
- and we even have evidence by those who were enemies of Jesus
Non-Christian evidence tells us:
* Jesus died on Passover Eve (ie the 14th of Nisan)
* he was executed by Romans, at the instigation of Jews
* he was hung – ie crucified.
* he left many religious teachings
* his body disappeared and his followers claimed he rose from death
* his followers were called Christians, after “Christ”
* this name indicates they thought he was the Jewish “Messiah”
* his followers encouraged each other to live a moral life
* they worshipped him as a god and refused to worship others
Christian evidence is so huge that whole libraries have analysed it
- there are still problems, but they are decreasing, not increasing
- and the presence of problems show that this is real history
- if it was made up, it would be tidy, consistent and easy.
- true history is complex, messy, confusing, and endless fun.