Jesus of Nazareth: Fact or Fiction?

In a speech entitled, Why I Am Not a Christian, the popular 20^th century atheistic philosopher Bertrand Russell once stated, “historically it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if he did we do not know anything about him, so that I am not concerned with the historical question, which is a very difficult one.”[1] Conversely, Christians have been worshiping the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth, for centuries. Could Russell be correct in his assertion that it is doubtful Jesus ever existed? Are Christians worshiping a person who never lived? The quick answer is no. And quite ironically, there are only a scarce number of historical scholars (and a few internet atheists) who would agree with Mr. Russell today. In fact, even agnostic New Testament scholar Bart Erhman—who has been very critical of the Bible and Christianity—wrote an entire book defending the belief that Jesus most certainly existed.[2] Outside of leftist scholars G.A. Wells and Michael Martin,[3] few disagree that the existence of Jesus of Nazareth is an assured historical fact.

How can one be certain of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth? Can one really know a historical fact from centuries past? The answer to both questions is an unqualified yes. The aim of this paper is to establish the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth in three steps. First, we will review the non-Christian sources for Jesus existence. Second, we will examine the Biblical and oral traditions, which support a historical Jesus. And finally, we will refute the popular claim that Jesus is nothing more than another rising and dying copycat myth.

Review of non-Christian sources for the life of Jesus

The best place to learn about the existence, life, and works of Jesus of Nazareth are from four separate, first century biographies titled Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Of course, these four biographies are the Gospels. However, many non-Christians and skeptics of all strips tend to reject the Gospel accounts simply because they are found in the Bible. Naturally, it would be fallacious to reject the Gospel accounts merely because they have been put under one cover called the Bible. Even so, another route can be taken to establish Jesus existed as a real historical person. One of the best ways to meet the non-Christian or skeptic in their doubt is to review ancient, non-Christian sources detailing the life of Jesus.

A number of ancient historians actually mentioned and wrote about Jesus. One needs to look no further than Tacitus, a Roman historian who lived from AD 55 – 117.[4] Tacitus wrote the Annals, which cover a period of time starting with Augustus’ death in AD 14 all the way to Nero in AD 68.[5] In the Annals, Tacitus writes:

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 centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.[6]

From this account, one can learn a number of things about Jesus. First, that there was a group of people, called Christians, whom Nero tortured because they followed a man named Christus.[7] Second, that under the reign of Tiberius, this Christus was executed by Pontius Pilatus.[8] This, of course, is a significant confirmation of the life of Jesus from a non-Christian source.

Next, we shall look at the writings of Lucian of Samosata. Lucian wrote in the later half of the second century.[9] Lucian did not speak kindly of Jesus, or any Christians for that matter as we can read here:

It was now that he came across the priests and scribes of the Christians, in Palestine, and picked up their queer creed…The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day, the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on trust, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property.[10]

Even as Lucian speaks feebly of Christians, he provides incredible verification for the life of Jesus. Lucian points out that Christians worship their crucified sage and live after his laws. This not only offers evidence outside of the New Testament, but also corroborates it!

A third non-Christian reference to Jesus is by Pliny the Younger. Pliny the Younger was the governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor in AD 112.[11] In a letter to Emperor Trajan, Pliny explains he has been killing Christians and seeks the Emperor’s advice. Pliny explains how he made Christians worship Trajan’s statue and curse Christ. Interestingly, Pliny explains how those who really were Christians, would never curse Christ. Pliny continues:

They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they 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.[12]

Pliny, as with Tacitus and Lucian, provides a record of early Christians and Jesus. Interestingly, Pliny speaks of the Christian worship practices. Pliny records that the Christians meet on a certain day of the week, before dawn, to sing to Christ and worship Him as God.

Mara Bar-Serapion was an incarcerated Syrian who wrote manuscripts to his son Serapion during the first to third century. This manuscript, which refers to Jesus, is currently held by the British Museum.[13] A portion of the letter reads:

For what benefit did the Athenians obtain 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, Socrates did “not” die, because of Plato; nor yet Pythagoras, because of the statue of Hera; nor yet the Wise King, because of the new laws which he enacted.[14]

Mara Bar-Serapion gives numerous indications to the historical person of Jesus. The reader finds Jesus was considered to be a wise man, He was considered King of the Jews, and that the Jews murdered Him.

Therefore, even if the world did not consider any evidence found in the New Testament for the life of Christ, there are numerous non-Christian sources on which one can deduce the historical life of Christ. In addition to the records of Tacitus, Lucian of Samosata, Pliny the Younger and Mara Bar-Serapion, which I have detailed above, and according to Habermas and Licona, there are dozens of additional sources,

Moreover, nine secular, non-Christian sources mention Jesus within 150 years: Josephus, the Jewish historian; Tacitus, the Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a politician of Rome; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Lucian, the Greek satirist; Celsus, a Roman philosopher; and probably the historians Seutonius and Thallus, as well as the prisoner Mara Bar-Serapion. In all, at least forty-two authors, nine of them secular, mention Jesus within 150 years of his death.[15]

The fact that forty-two authors, either non-Christian or secular, mention the existence of Jesus’ life within 150 years of his death is impressive. In order to grasp the impressiveness, one must understand this fact in relation to a person of history who almost no reputable scholar questions their existence. Habermas and Licona compare this to one of the most well known Romans of history: Julius Caesar. They record:

Caesar is well known for his military conquests…Only five sources report his military conquests: writings by Caesar himself, Cicero, Livy, and Salona Decree, and Appian. If Julius Caesar really made a profound impact on Roman society, why didn’t more writers of antiquity mention his great military accomplishments?[16]

Of course, no one questions Julius Caesar’s impact or his military conquests. So why, therefore, are skeptics questioning Jesus’ existence? When held to the same standard, the life of Jesus has eight times as many sources as Julius Caesar![17] Thus, the evidence is decisive: Jesus really did live and was so impactful that many non-Christian and secular writers mentioned him.

Biblical and oral traditions for the life of Jesus

As we have discovered, having secular non-Christian sources for the life of Jesus within 150 years of his life is impressive. Even so, how much more impressive would it be if we were able to pin down an oral tradition for Jesus’ life within 20 years of his death? This is exactly what happens when one looks carefully at Paul’s first letter[18] to the church in Corinth.

According to Paul Barnett, in or around AD 54, the Apostle Paul penned 1 Corinthians.[19] In this letter the St. Paul writes,

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.[20]

Gary Habermas states, “there are many textual indications that [this] material pre-dates Paul.”[21] Habermas continues,

Most directly, the apostle employs paredoka and parelabon, the equivalent Greek terms for delivering and receiving rabbinic tradition (cf. 1 Cor. 11:23).  Indirect indications of a traditional text(s) include the sentence structure and verbal parallelism, diction, and the triple sequence of kai hoti. Further, several non-Pauline words, the proper names of Cephas (cf. Lk. 24:34) and James, and the possibility of an Aramaic original are all significant.  Fuller attests to the unanimity of scholarship here: “It is almost universally agreed today that Paul is here citing tradition.” Critical scholars agree that Paul received the material well before this book was written.[22]

In other words, this passage is a summation of early Christian preaching and was verbalized in such a way to become easily memorized.[23]

William Lane Craig argues Paul likely received this oral tradition from Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem in AD 36, if not earlier in Damascus. This would date this tradition to within five years of the life of Christ.[24] Either way, there is good evidence that an oral tradition regarding the life and work Christ existed and was quoted by St. Paul, predating his letter to the Corinthian church in AD 54. Certainly, a legend of a mythical man could not have developed this quickly. In the same way as the secular non-Christian sources for the life of Jesus, this oral tradition supports the fact that Jesus was a real man of history.

Rising and dying myth

Many atheists today argue Jesus never actually lived and is merely an impersonator of ancient pagan religions. Alfred Loisy, a French Roman Catholic priest, who was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church once wrote,

And the Christian myth was no more a fact of history than were the pagan myths; the Heavenly Man of Paul was no more real a person than Attis; the idea of universal Salvation by the death of Christ was no more consistent in itself than that of salvation procured by the death of Osiris.  These are analogous conceptions, dreams of one family (revcs apparcntes), built on the same theme with similar imagery.[25]

Loisy, writing over 100 years ago, harmonizes with a movement among individuals today regarding the origins of Jesus of Nazareth and the Christian faith. The argument is this. Christianity and the life story of Jesus is nothing more than a plagiarism of ancient pagan religions involving rising and dying gods. C.S. Lewis called this the myth of the “Corn King.”[26] Is the story of Jesus simply a recreation and copy of pagan mystery religions, which ought to be understood as fiction? No, and the reason is as follows.

First, without examination of the specific claims of plagiarism, we can find a fallacy in the skeptic’s argument. Just because one event sounds parallel to another, does not make the second event false. Take as an example Morgan Robertson’s novel entitled The Wreck of the Titan or, Futility.[27] Robertson’s novel describes a fictional transatlantic voyage of a luxury ship called the Titan. This 800 foot long ship was described as unsinkable. On the ship’s maiden voyage from England to New York, the Titan struck an iceberg while traveling at 25 knots around midnight of the cold April evening. Unfortunately, the Titan carried as few lifeboats as the law would allow. As the unsinkable ship sunk, more than half of its passengers lost their lives.[28]

Sound familiar? Of course it sounds like the true account of the Titanic; the unsinkable, approximately 800 foot long, luxury cruise liner that was traveling at 25 knots through the Atlantic and struck an iceberg in the middle of the April night. Most interestingly, is that Robertson wrote The Wreck of the Titan or, Futility fourteen years before the Titanic ever sat sail on its maiden voyage from England to New York.

What an unbelievable coincidence! My point is this. The fact that true life events of the Titanic mirror many of the events Robertson foretold in his novel 14 years prior say nothing about the historicity of the Titanic. One cannot reject the historical evidence for the Titanic, out of hand, simply because it sounds familiar. In other words, no one actually questions the historical event of the Titanic due to the uncanny similarities to the fictional Titan. And in the same way one would be in error to question the historical facts regarding Jesus simply because events in His life mirror previous fictional events.

However, it would not be wise to argue that events of Jesus’ life actually mirror earlier pagan myths. In fact, as Lee Strobel points out,

T. N. D. Mettinger…wrote one of the most recent academic treatments of dying and rising gods in antiquity…admits in his book The Riddle of Resurrection that the consensus among modern scholars—nearly universal—is that there were no dying and rising gods that preceded Christianity. They all post-dated the first century.[29]

In other words, if one wants to claim that Christians simply borrowed the Jesus story from earlier rising and dying pagan myths; then, the myths would have to predate the first century when we first see the historical record of Jesus. The problem for the skeptic, according to Mettinger, is the consensus among modern scholarship is that Jesus actually came first. Christianity could not have borrowed from these myths because they were not circulating during the first century.[30]  Talk about cutting an argument off at its proverbial knees.

Moreover, when one examines the facts of the matter, it is clear the similarities between these pagan myths and Jesus are actually quite dissimilar. Atheists have proposed the story of Jesus as a simple retelling of Mithras, Dionysus, Adonis, Horus, Isis or Osiris. Space does not allow for a full treatise of all these claims,[31] so I shall focus on only the most popular.

Proponents of the Jesus plagiarism objection claim Attis, Dionysus and Mithras were all born on December 25^th, just like Jesus. The problem with this objection is neither the Bible nor any Christian creed actually states or claims Jesus was born on December 25^th. Therefore any similarities with Attis, Dionysus and Mithras are completely and utterly irrelevant.[32]

Another popular claim is that Jesus is just the next in line of dying and rising gods. Most often, skeptics will point to Osiris whom they claim died and resurrection, just like Christ. The problem is that Osiris’ death and resurrection is nothing like the account found in the Gospels. Let’s explore. According to Dr. Michael Licona’s testimony as recorded by Lee Strobel, the most well known report of Osiris’ death is that he was killing by his brother, who subsequently sliced him into fourteen pieces and dispersed him across the earth. Next, the goddess Isis felt sympathy for Osiris and gathered his body parts for a proper burial. Unfortunately, Isis only found thirteen pieces. Nonetheless she put them back together and buried the nearly complete body. Then Osiris does come back to life—at least in some sense—and became the ruler of the underworld.[33]

A cursory reading of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection will surely put all similarities to bed. Of course, Jesus was resurrected in one piece, by the power of God and in a glorified body. Jesus walked the earth, ate and conversed with his disciples. He eventually ascended to heaven to be at the right hand of the Father. Clearly, in only the most superficial of readings can one say the account found in the Gospels is a rip-off of the story of Osiris.

Therefore, after an examination the historical evidence there is no doubt the existence of Jesus of Nazareth is an assured historical fact. First, reviewing the non-Christian sources—such as Tacitus, Lucian, Pliny the Younger and Mara Bar-Serapion–assured that there is good evidence for the secular references to the life of Jesus within 150 years of his death. Second, we found oral traditions, which can be traced back within 5 years of the death of Christ, supply a solid foundation for a historical, non-legendary Jesus. And finally, we discovered the popular claim that Jesus is nothing more than another pagan plagiarism is fallacious in is reasoning as well as unsupported by the facts of the matter. “The evidence is conclusive,” explains Josh McDowell, “Jesus really lived among us and accomplished powerful works that even hostile, non-Christian sources do not fail to confirm. The skeptics about Jesus’ historicity are simply wrong.”[34]

Bibliography

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Dowley, Tim. Introduction to the History of Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002.

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Habermas, Gary.“Experiences of the Risen Jesus: The Foundational Historical Issue in the Early Proclamation of the Resurrection.” GaryHabermas.com http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/dialog_rexperience/dialog_rexperiences.htm (retrieved April 20, 2013).

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McDowell, Josh. A Ready Defense. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993.

Nash, Ronald. The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought? Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2003.

Robertson, Morgan, The Wreck of the Titan or, Futility. Rahway: The Quinn & Boden Co., 1898. PDF e-book.

Russell, Betrand. “Why I Am Not a Christian.” The Bertrand Russell Society. http://www.users.drew.edu/~jlenz/whynot.html (retrieved April 14, 2013).

Strobel, Lee. The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007.

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