Did anybody see Jesus die?
Allow me to paint the scene…three men are being crucified in the ancient city of Jerusalem, which is controlled by the Romans. These men are criminals, their crimes described on small wooded plaques above their heads. Nailed to crosses made of wood they hang from their arms in agony, blood trickles from the wounds in their hands and feet. A crowd has gathered to witness their suffering.
The man they call Jesus is being persecuted for treason, his charges read “This is Jesus, King of the Jews” (or any of the three other variations of this charge described in the gospels). With nails driven through his hands and feet, blood and sweat pour down his face blurring his eyesight. As his strength weakens he shouts out in defeat, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Soon later, with a final cry of agony, he dies.
At that moment, as if by magic, the curtain in the Temple in Jerusalem was torn in two! Then an earthquake strikes the city splitting earth and rock. Meanwhile tombs break open and the deceased rose from the dead and wandered throughout the city.
Did anybody notice?
Not one word of this was written down by anyone – not for 20-30 years at least (and quite possibly longer). In a day and age when historians and scribes kept records of daily events there is not a single extra-Biblical reference to a man being crucified whose death miraculously coincided with earthquakes. Nor is their any mention of the dead rising and walking through the streets of Jerusalem.
Wouldn’t one think to write this event down?
To make matters more interesting, the scene described above with the curtain splitting, the earthquake and the dead rising from the grave only seemed important enough to one gospel writer – Matthew – for only in Matthew are these event described. It appears nowhere else in the Bible.
History has shown Jesus inspired no one during his lifetime to write down a single word he said, action he performed or event he attended. His death was equally uninspiring — for not a word about it was documented by a anyone who witnessed it or even by anyone alive at the time who may have heard about it secondhand, third-hand or otherwise.
For more information see the intriguing and controversial book “Doubt after Doubt: Doubting the Christian Faith.“
Some people claim that Jesus Christ never existed. Allegedly the life of Jesus and the Gospel are merely myths fabricated by the Church. This claim rests mainly upon their belief that there is no historical record of Jesus.
This lack of secular reports should not be too surprising for modern seekers. First, only a small fraction of the written records survived those twenty centuries. Secondly, there were few, if any, journalists in Palestine during the time of Jesus. Thirdly, the Romans saw the Jewish people as merely one of many ethnic groups that needed to be tolerated. The Romans held the Jewish people in low regard. Finally the Jewish leaders were also eager to forget about Jesus. Secular writers only took notice after Christianity became popular and began to disturb their lifestyle.
Even though early secular reports on Jesus may have been rare, there are still a few surviving references to Him. Not too surprisingly, the earliest non-Christian reports were made by the Jews. Flavius Josephus, who lived until 98 A.D., was a “Romanized” Jewish historian. He wrote books on Jewish history for the Roman people. In his book, Jewish Antiquities, he made references to Jesus. In one reference he wrote:
About this time arose Jesus, a wise man, who did good deeds and whose virtues were recognized. And many Jews and people of other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. However, those who became his disciples preached his doctrine. They related that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Perhaps he was the Messiah in connection with whom the prophets foretold wonders. [Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, XVIII 3.2]
Even though several different forms of this particular text have survived through the twenty centuries, they all agree with the above cited version. This version is considered to be the closest to the original – the least suspected of Christian text-tampering. Elsewhere in this book, Josephus also reported the execution of St. John the Baptist [XVIII 5.2] and St. James the Just [XX 9.1], even referring to James as “the brother of Jesus who was called Christ.” It should be noted that the past tense in the clause, “Jesus who was called Christ,” argues against Christian text-tampering since a Christian would prefer to write instead, “Jesus who is called Christ.”
Another Jewish source, the Talmud, makes several historical references to Jesus. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the Talmud is “the collection of ancient Rabbinic writings consisting of the Mishnah and the Gemara, constituting the basis of religious authority for traditional Judaism.” Although not explicitly referred to by name, later rabbis identify the person as Jesus. These references to Jesus are neither sympathetic to Him or His Church. Also these writings were preserved through the centuries by Jews, so Christians cannot be accused of tampering with the text.
The Talmud makes note of Jesus’ miracles. No attempt is made to deny them, but it ascribes them to magical arts from Egypt. Also His crucifixion is dated as “on the eve of the Feast of the Passover” in agreement with the Gospel (Luke 22:1ff; John 19:31ff). Similar again to the Gospel (Matt. 27:51), the Talmud records the earthquake and the tearing in two of the Temple curtain during the time of Jesus’ death. Josephus in his book, The Jewish War, also confirmed these events.
By the beginning of the 2nd century, Romans were writing about Christians and Jesus. Pliny the Younger, proconsul in Asia Minor, in 111 A.D. wrote to Emperor Trajan in a letter:
…it was their habit on a fixed day to assemble before daylight and recite by turns a form of words to Christ as a god; and that they bound themselves with an oath, not for any crime, but not to commit theft or robbery, or adultery, not to break their word, and not to deny a deposit when demanded. After this was done, their custom was to depart, and meet again to take food… [Pliny, Epistle 97]
Special attention should be made to the phrase, “to Christ as a god,” an early secular witness to the belief in Christ’s divinity (John 20:28; Phil. 2:6). Also it is interesting to compare this passage with Acts 20:7-11, a biblical account of an early Christian Sunday celebration.
Next the Roman historian, Tacitus, who is respected by modern scholars for historical accuracy, wrote in 115 A.D. about Christ and His Church:
The author of the denomination was Christ[us] who had been executed in Tiberius time by the Procurator Pontius Pilate. The pestilent superstition, checked for a while, burst out again, not only throughout Judea…but throughout the city of Rome also… [Tacitus, Annals, XV 44]
Even with disdain for the Christian faith, Tacitus still treated the execution of Christ as historical fact, drawing connections to Roman events and leaders. (cf. Luke 3:1ff)
Other secular witnesses to the historical Jesus include Suetonius in his biography of Claudius, Phlegan recording the eclipse of the sun during Jesus’ death and even Celsus, a pagan philosopher. It must be kept in mind that most of these sources were not only secular but anti-Christian. These secular authors, including the Jewish writers, had no desire or intention to promote Christianity. They had no motivation to distort their reports in favor of Christianity. Pliny actually punished Christians for their faith. If Jesus were a myth or His execution a hoax, Tacitus would have reported it as such. He certainly would not have connected Jesus’ execution to Roman leaders. These writers presented Jesus as a real historical person. Denying the reliability of these sources in connection to Jesus would cast serious suspicion on the rest of ancient history.
Now these ancient secular writings do not prove that Jesus is the Son of God or even the Christ, but that is not the goal of this response. These reports show that a virtuous person named Jesus did live in the early first century A.D. and authored a religious movement (which still exists today). This Person was at least called Christ – the Messiah. Christians in the first century also appeared to consider Him God. Finally these writings support other facts found in the Bible surrounding His life. The claim that Jesus never existed and His life is a myth compromises the reliability of ancient history.
You say that you are open to the truth. Research these things and see if what I am writing is not so. If you are not truly open then what I have written will only be “pearls before swine.”
The point of my post was not to dispute whether or not Jesus existed (although I can see how this could be implied). What I am disputing is his supposedly astounding death and subsequent resurrection.
According to Christian doctrine the destiny of every soul hinges on our acceptance and recognition of Jesus Christ as savior and son of God. My mind is baffled when I consider the recognition of his arrival and time on Earth and subsequent death was more like a small puddle splashing than the expected tsunami. While a cult-like following sprang up decades after his death, not a shred of evidence confirming his existence can be claimed from the period of his life (or even within a decade or two after his death).
I’ve researched many of the works sited above including those of Josephus, Pliny the Younger and Tacitus. I cover each of these, and many of your arguments, in my book, “Doubt after Doubt: Doubting the Christian Faith.”
Without a doubt the words of Josephus are the most highly disputed. The majority of scholars agree the passage you provide above, by Josephus, was tampered with – either a portion of it or its entirety. In my book I argue the case that the entire passage was added.
Rather than recite all my arguments here I’ll treat my blog readers to another excerpt from my book: the section is entitled “The Historical Jesus” and the blog posting “Free Excerpt: The Historical Jesus – from Doubt after Doubt”