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Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus mentioned Jesus in his massive 1st century work "Jewish Antiquities"
Photo from "The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus", translated by William Whiston, 1736

Copyright 1997 by Robert C. Jones

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Over the last two hundred years, the historical veracity of the Bible has been under attack from both within and without the faith. The attacks range from questioning whether Jesus ever existed (He did), to postulating bizarre theories regarding Jesus that have far less empirical evidence to back them than do the Gospels themselves. The chart below lists some of the primary skeptics since the 18th century:

Interestingly enough, though, modern archaeology, and ancient history do verify much of the historical panoply of the Gospels. The first section of this course will look at recent archaeological findings that have verified key Gospel accounts, and confounded the skeptics. The second part looks at contemporary historical evidence supporting the Gospels accounts of the life of Jesus.

So why do we "search" for the historical Jesus? Why do we seek historical verification of the Gospels? Isn't the "Jesus of Faith" sufficient? The Apostle Peter tells us that we DO need to be able to defend and verify the basis for our faith:

Biblical scholar John Meier offers these additional thoughts:

The Gospels as History

In the last 150 years, the Gospels of the New Testament have come under continued attacks by both Christians and non-Christians who question their historical accuracy. Yet, again and again, archaeological and historical evidence continues to verify the accuracy of the Gospels. This is especially interesting considering the Gospels were not written as histories, but rather, as testaments of faith. (If the Gospels had been written as histories, there would be many more details about the childhood of Jesus (as appeared in later spurious gospels), and we would know SOMETHING about the period of Christ's life between the ages of 12-30.) Archaeologists William Dever has said:

However, the fact that the Gospels are not biographies of the life of Jesus, doesn't mean that the historical detail contained therein is not accurate. For example, famous archaeologist Sir William Ramsey said:

Biblical archaeologist G. Ernest Wright once said:

• His mother's name was Mary; she was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter

• Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, not by Joseph

• Before Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem to participate in a census called by the Emperor Augustus

• Jesus was born in Bethlehem during the reign of Herod the Great (Herod died in 4 B.C., so Jesus was born <= 4 B.C.)

• Jesus was crucified on a Hill called Golgotha (Calvary). When he died, a great darkness appeared over Jerusalem, and several miraculous events occurred.

• Jesus rose from the dead, and appeared several times to the Apostles, and women followers

• 40 days after he rose from the dead, Jesus ascended to heaven

So, can we trust the historical account of Jesus given in the Gospels? There is both direct and indirect evidence to attest to much of the Gospel accounts. Some indirect evidence would include:

• Manuscript evidence - there are over 22,000 extant New Testament manuscripts, some dating as early as the 2nd century. In contrast, Julius Caesar's history of the Gallic Wars ("All Gael is divided into three parts...") has only 9 or 10 extant copies dating a thousand years after his death. (McDowell, p. 112) Therefore, we can be reasonably sure that what is contained in the Gospels we have today is an accurate representation of what was originally written in them.

• If the authors of the Gospels (and the Apostolic Fathers) made up the contents of the Gospels, would they have included details such as:

• Peter's stumbling dialogue during the Transfiguration

• The flight of the Apostles after the arrest of Jesus

• A woman (Mary Magdalene) being the first to see the risen Christ, and the first to spread the news of the risen Christ

• The jockeying of the Apostles for position (Mark 9:33/34, Luke 9:46)

• Christ asking his Father to "Take this cup from me" before His arrest

• Peter's denial

• Jesus's inglorious reception in his hometown (Luke 4:28/30)

• Many of the skeptics of the veracity of the New Testament postulate that the whole thing was made up by the Apostles. However, if the Gospel writers and the Apostolic writers had made up the Gospels, would they have been willing to die for their lie? Various sources record that all of the original Apostles died violent deaths for their beliefs except John.

The next section focuses on some famous (direct) examples of how archaeology has proved the skeptics wrong about the supposed historical inaccuracy of the Gospels.

Prior to 1961, some skeptics challenged whether Pontius Pilate ever existed. Although Pilate is mentioned in all four Gospels (plus in Acts and 1 Timothy), skeptics claimed that there was no independent, direct verification that Pilate lived.

All that changed in 1961 at Caesarea Maritima. An Italian expedition discovered a 2 foot by 3 foot stone with Pilate's name on it, in the Roman theater. The inscription read:

]S TIBERIEUM

PON]TIUS PILATUS

PRAEF]ECTUS IUDA[EA]E

...Tiberium

Pontius Pilate,

Prefect of Judea

(McRay, p. 204)

The New Testament identifies that Christ was "nailed" to the cross (John 20:25, Acts 2:23, Col 2:14). (Traditional depictions show nails through both the palms of His outstretched hands, and through His ankles). Many historians doubted the accuracy of this statement, feeling, rather, that people that were crucified were probably tied to the cross (and left to die of thirst and exposure), rather than nailed.

In 1968, a man that was crucified c. mid-first century A.D. was discovered by Vassilios Tzaferis in a suburb of Jerusalem called Giv'at ha-Mivtar. Tzaferis (and Nico Haas, who published the data from the dig) concluded:

The Synoptic Gospels identify that Jesus visited by boat a town on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee, identified as "the region of the Gerasenes" (Mark 5:1, Luke 8:26). Traditionally, this has been identified with the towns of Gerasa, or Gerdara, which are (respectively) 37 and 5 miles from the Sea of Galilee. So how could Jesus have stepped ashore from a boat?

In 1970-1974 (also in 1980, and again from 2001 to the present), Vassilios Tzaferis excavated the remains of a Byzantine church, located near an unexcavated city known as Tell el-Kusri, on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee. A nearby breakwater contains the remains of a harbor. Many scholars now believe this is the "Gergesa" (or the "region of the Gerasenes") mentioned in the Bible - exactly where the New Testament says it was.

Luke (Luke 3:1) identifies that when Lysanias was "tetrarch of Abilene", John the Baptist began his ministry. Some historians challenged this statement, because the only known Lysanias was the ruler of Chalcis, 40-36 B.C. However:

Many skeptics doubted that Nazareth existed in the time of Jesus. The doubts are based on the fact that Nazareth is not mentioned in any of the following sources:

• Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament (see, for example, Joshua 19:10-15)

• Josephus (see next section) gives the names of 45 towns and villages in Galilee. Nazareth is not among them!

• The Jewish Talmud mentions 63 towns and villages in the area. Nazareth is not among them.

Excavations by Bellarmino Bagatti in 1955 have shown that there was an agricultural settlement on the site identified in the New Testament as Nazareth. The site dates back as far as 900 years before Christ. Evidence of use during the Roman occupation has been found.

Also, excavations by Michael Avi-Yonah at Caesarea in 1962 unearthed a tablet with the name "Nazareth" contained on it. The tablet demonstrates that Nazareth existed at least as early as first century A.D.

Luke (2:1-3) identifies the following as an historical event occurring at the time of the birth of Jesus:

Many skeptics have doubted the veracity of this statement, given that the only census known by a Quirinius until recently was one dated by Josephus as A.D. 6. (Jesus couldn't have been born later than 4 B.C., because that was the year that Herod the Great died). So, Luke must have been wrong, either about the census, or about Jesus being born when Herod the Great was still alive, right? Wrong!

Further evidence indicates that it is very possible that a census could have been ongoing in Israel at the time of Jesus' birth - it was just a different census (and probably a different Quirinius) than mentioned by the Josephus.

Note also that Luke was aware of the later (6 A.D.) census, which he refers to in Acts 5:37 as "the" census, as opposed to "a" census in Luke 2:1-3).

It is interesting to hear how secular contemporaries of Jesus described Him. In Acts 25:13-20, we get some clues from the New Testament itself. But is Jesus mentioned by contemporary secular sources outside the New Testament? While the number of references are probably fewer than you might imagine, they do exist! The primary source material is from Jewish turncoat-Roman historian Flavius Josephus.

• 37 A.D. (?) - 100 A.D.

• Josephus was a Jewish aristocrat that led rebel troops against the Romans in Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt (66-73 A.D.)

• He later betrayed the Jews, and served the Romans

• He wrote two massive historical works

• "The Jewish War"

• "Jewish Antiquities"

• John the Baptist, James the Just (brother of Jesus), and Christ are all mentioned in "Jewish Antiquities"

Photo from "The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus", translated by William Whiston, 1736

John the Baptist at Mission Santa Clara, CA, photo by Robert Jones

• A 1st century historian (perhaps as early as 52 A.D.) - his works are lost!

• Quoted by several of the Early Church Fathers

• Clearly accepted the historical existence of Jesus, although he tries to find a natural explanation for events described in the scriptures as divinely inspired.

"1. As to His works severally, and His cures effected upon body and soul, and the mysteries of His doctrine, and the resurrection from the dead, these have been most authoritatively set forth by His disciples and apostles before us. On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea 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". (Julius Africanus, c. 221 A.D., "The Chronology of Julius Africanus", 18.1)

• Wrote "Chronicles" c. 140, now lost

• Quoted by Julius Africanus, Origen

• Like Thallus, he clearly accepted the historical existence of Jesus, although, like Thallus, he tries to find a natural explanation for events described in the scriptures as divinely inspired

"Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth — manifestly that one of which we speak." (Africanus, 18.1)

"Now Phlegon, in the thirteenth or fourteenth book, I think, of his Chronicles, not only ascribed to Jesus a knowledge of future events (although falling into confusion about some things which refer to Peter, as if they referred to Jesus), but also testified that the result corresponded to His predictions. So that he also, by these very admissions regarding foreknowledge, as if against his will, expressed his opinion that the doctrines taught by the fathers of our system were not devoid of divine power." (Origen, "Against Celsus", Book 2.14)

"And with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place, Phlegon too, I think, has written in the thirteenth or fourteenth book of his Chronicles." (Origen, 2.33)

• Born c. 52-55 A.D.

• Served as senator, under Vespasian, and later (112-113 A.D.) governor of Asia

• In "Annals" (c. 116 A.D.), he verifies the details of Christ's death at the hands of Pontius Pilate

"Christus, the founder of the name [Christians], had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue." (quoted from McDowell, p. 49)

• × A Roman historian, wrote in c. A.D. 120:

"As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he [Claudius] expelled them from Rome." (quoted from McDowell, p. 52)

• × Sometime after the fall of Jerusalem (70 A.D.), Mara Bar-Serapion (a Syrian) wrote a letter from prison to his son

"What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished...Nor did the wise king die for good; he lived on in the teaching which he had given." (quoted from McDowell, p. 52)

• A.D. 30-100

• May be the Clement mentioned in Phil 4:3

• Bishop of Rome 92 A.D. to 101 A.D.

"Jacob, through reason of his brother, went forth with humility from his own land, and came to Laban and served him; and there was given to him the scepter of the twelve tribes of Israel....From him also [was descended] our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh." (Chapter 32, First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians)

"Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord continually proves to us that there shall be a future resurrection, of which He has rendered the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising Him from the dead." (Chapter 24, First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians)

• Was Martyred in A.D. 117 - thrown to the lions in the Coliseum in Rome

"For this end did the Lord suffer the ointment to be poured upon His head, that He might breathe immortality into His Church." (Ephesians 17)

"For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water." (Ephesians 18)

"...but that ye attain to full assurance in regard to the birth, and passion, and resurrection which took place in the time of the government of Pontius Pilate..." (Magnesians, 1)

"Stop your ears, therefore, when any one speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and did eat and drink. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; He was truly crucified, and [truly] died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. He was also truly raised from the dead..." (Trallians 9)

"...was of the seed of David according to the flesh, by the Virgin Mary; was baptized by John...and was truly, under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, nailed [to the cross] for us in His flesh." (Smyraeans 1)

• Written between A.D. 70 & 135

• The author of this letter is unknown - some people believe that it was written by the Barnabas that traveled with Paul, but most scholars reject this.

"Moreover, when fixed to the cross, He had given Him to drink vinegar and gall." (Barnabas 1)

• Wrote a defense of Christianity to Emperor Hadrian (2nd Century)

"The Christians, then, trace the beginning of their religion from Jesus the Messiah; and he is named the Son of God Most High. And it is said that God came down from heaven, and from a Hebrew virgin assumed and clothed himself with flesh; and the Son of God lived in a daughter of man. This is taught in the gospel, as it is called, which a short time was preached among them; and you also if you will read therein, may perceive the power which belongs to it. This Jesus, then, was born of the race of the Hebrews; and he had twelve disciples in order that the purpose of his incarnation might in time be accomplished. But he himself was pierced by the Jews, and he died and was buried; and they say that after three days he rose and ascended to heaven. Thereupon these twelve disciples went forth throughout the known parts of the world, and kept showing his greatness with all modesty and uprightness. And hence also those of the present day who believe that preaching are called Christians, and they are become famous." (Aristides 2)

• 100 A.D.(?) - 165 A.D.(?)

• Wrote early apologetics

• Was beheaded by the Romans

"Now there is a village in the land of the Jews, thirty-five stadia from Jerusalem, in which Jesus Christ was born, as you can ascertain also from the registers of the taxing made under Cyrenius, your first procurator in Judaea." (First Apology, Chapter 34)

"'They pierced my hands and my feet,' was used in reference to the nails of the cross which were fixed in His hands and feet. And after He was crucified they cast lots upon His vesture, and they that crucified Him parted it among them. And that these things did happen, you can ascertain from the Acts of Pontius Pilate [now lost]." (First Apology, Chapter 35)

Title	Author	Publisher	Year
Against Celsus	Origen (translated by the Rev. Frederick Crombie, D.D.)	Sage Digital Library	1996
Against Heresies	Ireneus	Sage Digital Library	1996
Archaeology & the New Testament	John McRay	Baker Book House	1991
Battling Over the Jesus Seminar	Robert J. Miller	Bible Review	April 1997
Biblical Archaeology: A Generation of Discovery	Siegfried H. Horn	Biblical Archaeology Society	1985
Faith and Archaeology: A Brief History to the Present	Thomas W. Davis	Bible Review	March/April 1993
First Apology of Justyn Martyr	Justyn Martyr	Sage Digital Library	1996
First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians	Clement (trans. by Drs. Roberts and Donaldson)	Sage Digital Library	1996
He Walked Among Us - Evidence for the Historical Jesus	Josh McDowell & Bill Wilson	Here's Life Publishers	1988
The Holy Bible - New International Version		Zondervan	1984
The Holy Bible - New Revised Standard Version		National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.	1989
Is the Bible Right After All?	Hershel Shanks interviewing William Dever	Bible Review	Sept/ Oct 1996
PC Bible Atlas for Windows		Parsons Technology, Inc.	1993
The Man from Nazareth	Harry Emerson Fosdick	Harper & Bros.	1949
The Testimonium - Evidence for Jesus Outside the Bible	John P. Meier	Bible Review	June 1991
The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus	William Whiston, Translator	Sage Digital Library	1996
The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher	Trans. D. M. KAY, B.Sc., B.D.,	Sage Digital Library	1996
The Extant Fragments of the Five Books of the Chronography of Julius Africanus	Julius Africanus	Sage Digital Library	1996
Why Search for the Historical Jesus?	John P. Meier	Bible Review	June, 1993

Thanks also to Ruth Baker for additional information on Kursi/Gergesa.

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