Did Jesus Really Exist? – The Chisholm Source

The New Testament: Primary Sources
1.1 If you doubt the reliability of the New Testament documents then you have to cast doubt on almost all of classical literature that’s written on paper-like material.

1.2 The New Testament is superior in terms of textual integrity (number and quality of manuscripts; time lapse from event to writing and from event to earliest manuscript).

1.3 The New Testament is superior to most in terms of time lapse between event and writing, superior to all in terms of time lapse between writing and earliest copy.

1.4 Marks of trustworthiness in the Gospels
- Damaging material to the disciples of Jesus (betrayal, did not understand their master’s teaching, jockeying for power rebuked by the Master, chief eyewitness/disciple rebuked as Satan);
- resurrection. – WOMEN AS FIRST WITNESSES OF EMPTY TOMB (Mt. 28; Mk. 16; Lk. 24; Jn. 20) when the testimony of women was worthless in a 1st century court!

1.5 The N.T. as reliable & trustworthy documents provide the earliest and fullest material on the historical Jesus and each document stands on its own as a separate piece of evidence.

1.6 The all too popular notion, even among scholars who ought to know better, that the gospels were anonymous has been countered by the German theological heavyweight Martin Hengel (Emeritus Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tübingen). While writing about the superscriptions of the gospels he informs “These titles are widely attested in a variety of ways; by some of the earliest papyri, by reports in the second- and third-century church fathers, and by the earliest translations. They too were already completely uniform in the second century…Anonymous works were relatively rare and must have been given a title in the libraries.” (his emphasis)

1.7 Dating cues for the New Testament
- Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple happened in AD 70—after 3 ½ years of war between the Jews and the Romans—yet no book records this devastating and life-changing event for Jews and in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy (AD 30, see Mt. 24, Mk. 13, Lk. 21). The traditional late dating of the gospels would destroy the prophetic and practical value of this prophecy for Christians (Jewish and Gentile alike).
- No book of the New Testament mentions the eventual expulsion of all Jews from Judaea following the destruction of Jerusalem.
- Indeed, not one NT document—with the possible exceptions of 1 Peter and Revelation—mentions or even hints at the earlier fire of Rome and the Neronian persecution (AD 64-65).
- James, the Lord’s brother, Peter and Paul are key figures in Acts yet, though Luke recorded the deaths of Stephen and James the brother of John he did not mention the deaths of James the Lord’s brother (AD 61/62, Paul (c. 64-67) and Peter (c. 65-67).
- The silence in Acts about the deaths of James, Peter and Paul, makes most sense only on the view that Acts was written about AD 61/62, that is before the deaths of the central characters of the book.
- If Acts was written about AD 62 then Luke is earlier and at least Mark and Matthew are still earlier than Luke (see Lk. 1.1-4).
- The oldest material in the N.T. apart from James (c. 45) is from Paul (1 Thess. about AD 50, 1 Cor. about AD 55/56) but in Paul we find some sections that are creeds/hymns and which would have been circulated much earlier than when Paul wrote and earlier than his conversion (cf. Phil. 2.6ff; 2 Tim. 2.8; Rom. 1.3-4; 1 Cor. 11.23-25; 1 Cor. 15.3-8; 1 Tim 3.16; 6.13).
- Peter’s sermons in Acts are very early historical material, he being an eyewitness and a disciple (Acts 2.22; 10.37-38; 13.23).

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^[1] In his The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ, 2000, 48.

But is there material about the historical Jesus beyond the New Testament documents?

A modern atheist and specialist historian on Christian Origins says
“Up to this stage in our quest to see if the historical Jesus actually existed, I have been mounting the positive argument, showing why the evidence is overwhelming that Jesus really did live as a Jewish teacher in Palestine and was crucified at the direction of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate…” (Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? 2012, p. 177.
Ancient Non-Christian Sources

2.1 Tacitus (AD 55-120), Roman historian. In Annals, 15.44 (± AD 115) while dealing with the fire of Rome.
“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 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 Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, 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.”

2.2 Suetonius, Roman historian, chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138). In Claudius, 25 (± AD 115).
“Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from the city.” (see Acts 18.2)
In Nero, 16

“After the great fire at Rome…Punishments were also inflicted on the Christians, a sect professing a new and mischievous religious belief.”

2.3 Josephus (AD 37/38-97), Jewish historian, became court historian for Emperor Vespasian after AD 70. In Antiquities (± AD 90-95).
“[The high priest Ananias] convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ, and certain others.” (20.9)

“After this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.” (18.3, underlined sections disputed, probably added by Christians)

2.4 Thallus, historian, wrote ± AD 52, work now lost but quoted in Julius Africanus who wrote AD 221 and while dealing with the darkness at the crucifixion said, “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by earthquake, and many places in Judaea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason an eclipse of the sun.” (in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, 130)

2.5 Phlegon, Greek author, writing a chronology soon after AD 137, now lost, said that in the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad, i.e., AD 33, there was, “…the greatest eclipse of the sun…it became night in the sixth hour of the day [noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.”

2.6 The Talmud, a Jewish collection of traditions and commentaries, covering different time blocks from AD 70-400. From the earliest period AD 70-200 we read, “On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged…” (Sanhedrin 43a)

2.7 Lucian, 2nd century satirist, bitter critic of Christians. “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…” (in Fowler & Fowler, The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 4, 11).

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^[2] See J.P Moreland, Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity, 1987, 152-154 and Colin Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History, 1990, 365-408.
^[3] There is a reasonable argument put forward that this Chrestus may not in fact have reference to our Lord.
^[4] Cited in Lee Strobel, The Case For Christ, 1998,111. See also Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, 1996, 218. For evidence for Jesus outside the New Testament in non-Christian sources see Habermas, 187-228 and for Christian sources, 229-242.
^[5] Hanged = ‘strung up on a cross’ not hanged by the neck. See a similar expression in Gal. 3.13.

Ancient Christian (non-New Testament)

3.1 Clement of Rome, writing about AD 95, in Corinthians, 42.
“The Apostles received the Gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ was sent forth from God. So then Christ is from God, and the Apostles are from Christ. Both therefore came of the will of God in the appointed order.”

3.2 Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, on the way to his execution, wrote (± AD 110-115) letters to 6 churches and one to Polycarp.
“Jesus Christ who was of the race of David, who was the son of Mary, who was truly born and ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died…who moreover was truly raised from the dead…” (Trallians, 9)

“[Jesus] is truly of the race of David according to the flesh, but Son of God by the divine will and power, truly born of a virgin and baptized by John that all righteousness might be fulfilled by Him, truly nailed up in flesh for our sakes under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch.” (Smyrnaeans, 1)

Recommended Resources

Clinton Chisholm, The Evidence for Jesus, CD featuring Prof. William Lane Craig.
Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Really Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, 2012
Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, 1996.
Lee Strobel, The Case For Christ, 1998.
Josh McDowell & Bill Wilson, He Walked Among Us, 1993.

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