DID JESUS REALLY EXIST?

8 Copyright 2018, John H. Davidson M.A. (Cantab)

John H. Davidson M.A. (Cantab)

Adapted from The Gospel of Jesus – In Search of His Original Teachings,

John Davidson, 2004.

Available from:
http://www.scienceofthesoul.org/product_p/en–176–0.htm

Over the last two hundred years, Christian scholars who have researched
the subject with an open mind have concluded that there are question
marks over the authenticity of almost everything in the New Testament.
Considering the results of this scholarly research, some accredited
scholars have taken a further step and asked, “Is there really any evidence
that Jesus actually existed?” This is by no means a ridiculous question.

Who Knew Jesus?

The name of Jesus is known to almost every person on the planet. Throughout the world,
there are many millions of people who reverence his name, professing a belief in
Christianity, from which they presume that they are followers of Jesus’ teachings. Yet
how do we know that the teachings ascribed to Jesus in the gospels really originated with
him? Is there any historical evidence that corroborates the gospel stories of his life and
links them with Jesus’ teaching? If Jesus generated so much interest during his own
lifetime, surely some contemporary historian would have recorded something of him, as
they did of other well-known personalities of the time?

Such questions all arise from one common fact: the amount of available historical
information concerning Jesus and the sum of his recorded sayings is astonishingly little.
Indeed, so little is known of the one in whom billions of Christians have placed their
faith, that scholars and others have interpreted what there is to mean almost anything,
according to their own beliefs and bent of mind. Jesus has been portrayed as a political
agitator, a social reformer, a libertine, a Jew, a Pythagorean, an Essene, a Greek
philosopher and more.

Even if his ministry did last for only three or four years, the words of such a great teacher
would have filled a book in only a few days or even less. So even if everything that is
written in Jesus’ name did actually originate with him – which Christian scholars believe
is most unlikely – we would still have only a fraction of his teachings and even less of
his life story. In fact, New Testament scholar, Canon Streeter, once calculated that the
stories told of Jesus in the four gospels could be compressed into no more than three
weeks, if the forty days and nights said to have been spent in the wilderness were
discounted. That is no life story. What exists in the gospels is hardly a biography in the

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sense that Plutarch, Suetonius, and other historians of the day would have understood it.
It is little more than a collection of unrelated anecdotes, many of which appear to have
been invented or elaborated, for one reason or another, so that the same stories told in the
different gospels differ from each other in numerous, often incompatible ways. The
process of modifying and inventing stories or incidents can even be observed in action as
Luke and Matthew copy Mark and the conjectured source of Jesus’ sayings commonly
known as Q. Yet the details of some of these stories have become fundamental to
Christian belief, even though many of the inconsistencies are irreconcilable.

According to Matthew, for example, Jesus is born in Bethlehem where Joseph and Mary
actually lived before the birth of Jesus. Only after fleeing to Egypt from Bethlehem in
Judaea (to escape the murderous intentions of Herod the Great) do they return to Judaea,
settling in Nazareth after the death of Herod. Matthew, therefore, has no record of a
census or of Joseph and Mary travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Luke, on the other
hand, has Joseph and Mary living in Nazareth, and it is necessary for him to present a
plausible reason for their undertaking a hazardous journey to Bethlehem when Mary is
heavily pregnant.

Outside the gospels, there are only four early historical references to Jesus. They are
found in the works of the Jewish historian, Josephus, in the writings of the Roman
historians, Tacitus and Suetonius, and in the letters of Pliny the Younger, a Roman
governor of Bithynia. But together, they cover little more than half a page of a modern
book.

Josephus was born the son of a Jewish priest in 37 or 38 AD, around the time of Jesus’
crucifixion. Taking part in the Jewish uprising, culminating in the siege and eventual fall
of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, Josephus was appointed
commander of Galilee. He was captured, however, and subsequently changed sides,
spending some considerable effort in the attempt to convince his fellow countrymen that
revolt against the might of the Roman Empire was foolhardy. From a practical point of
view, he was probably right, but feeling ran strong against him in the steamy hot-house of
Jewish politics and when the war was over he betook himself to Rome, where he lived a
comfortable life under the protection of successive Emperors. During this period, he
wrote two monumental books of detailed Jewish life and history: The Jewish War, which
he completed in 77 or 78 AD, and Antiquities of the Jews, which took him a further
fifteen years.

These two invaluable books are the sole source of information on many aspects of Jewish
life at this time and Josephus is of particular interest because he came from Galilee. Yet
his reference to Jesus, found in the Antiquities, covers no more than a few lines for, in his
day, the Christians were seen as just a minor sect, one amongst many in the wide-ranging
Roman Empire. In fact, this short reference is considered by most scholars to have been
tampered with by later Christian editors. Attempting to separate the original from later
Christian editorial insertions, scholars have tried to recover something approximating to
the text of Josephus. Placing probable Christian interpolations in angle brackets, the
passage reads:

At about this time lived Jesus, a wise man, <if indeed one might call him a
man>. He performed astonishing feats and was a teacher of such people as
are eager for novelties. He attracted many Jews and many of the Greeks.
<He was the Messiah.> Upon an indictment brought by leading members
of our society, Pilate condemned him to the cross, but those who had

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 loved him from the very first did not cease to be attached to him. <On the
third day he appeared to them, restored to life, for the holy prophets had
foretold this and myriads of other marvels concerning him>. The
brotherhood of the Christians, named after him, is still in existence to this
day (Antiquities).

Josephus was not a Christian, nor did he demonstrate much interest in or knowledge of
them. He is unlikely, therefore, to have called Jesus the “Messiah”, imply that he was
something more than a man or endorse the view that he had risen from the dead. These
are all tenets of the later Christian faith, and the “on the third day...” is a tell-tale pointer
to the editorial hand of a later Christian.

Apart from evidence derived from the passage itself, there is additional evidence of its
adulteration by Christian editors. The early third-century Christian teacher, Origen,
mentions this passage of Josephus in his writings, also indicating the existence of a
further passage in which Josephus’ expresses his disbelief in Jesus’ Messiahship. But this
latter passage has clearly been deleted by later Christian copyists, for it no longer exists
in any of the extant manuscripts of Antiquities. Instead, it has been replaced by an
affirmation of the point that Josephus once denied.

Scholars who support the view that Jesus never existed consider that everything in
Josephus concerning Jesus is a Christian interpolation, but it is difficult to explain why a
Christian editor would have invented a passage casting doubt on Jesus. In any event, the
passage tells us nothing of the life of Jesus nor of his teachings.

The remaining historical references to Jesus are equally unsatisfying. The Roman
historian, Tacitus (c.55–120 AD), writing towards the end of his life, mentions the
Christians in his portrayal of the Roman Emperor Nero (54–68 AD) and his part in the
great fire of Rome in 64 AD. He asserts that it had been a common belief at the time that
the conflagration had been started under the express orders of Nero. Then, in order to
divert public attention from this imputation, the Emperor had singled out the Christians to
take the blame, seeing that there was already considerable prejudice against them. Under
his orders, they were tortured and executed in a variety of excessively cruel ways. The
Christians says Tacitus, were named after a certain Christus who, in the reign of Tiberius,
was put to death under Pontius Pilate:

They got their name from Christus, who received the death penalty in the
reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate. That
checked the pernicious superstition for a short time, but it broke out
afresh – not only in Judaea, where the plague first arose, but in the capital
itself (Rome), where all things horrible and shameful in the world collect
and find a home (Annals).

Modern historians, however, have questioned Tacitus’ accuracy, pointing out that there
may not have been sufficient Christians in Rome by the year 64 AD, only 30 years or so
after the crucifixion. Others have suggested that the entire passage is a Christian
interpolation, though it is hard to conceive of even a devious Christian editor using such
strong language concerning his own faith.

Suetonius (75–150 AD), writing in his Lives of the Caesars at about the same time as
Tacitus, also refers to Nero’s persecution of the Christians, saying:

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 Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of people given to a
new and noxious superstition.

He also reports that in the reign of Claudius (41–54 AD), certain Jews were banished
from Rome due to their persistent rioting:

Since the Jews were constantly causing disturbances at the instigation of

Chrestus, he (Claudius) expelled them from Rome.

The question naturally is, who was Chrestus? For not only was Chrestus a common
slave-name, but it was also a frequent Roman misspelling of Christus or Christ.
Consequently, there is some disagreement as to whether this passage refers to the
Christians or not. Presumably, the riots – if the Christians were indeed involved – arose
from an anti-Christian feeling amongst the Jewish community. But once again there is the
problem of the early date and whether there would have been sufficient Christians at that
time to become a cause for Jewish concern. Scholars have also deliberated over whether
Suetonius copied from Tacitus or Tacitus embellished a brief statement from Suetonius.

Pliny the Younger (c.62–113 AD), Roman governor of Bithynia during the reign of the
Emperor Trajan (98–117) is the last source of contemporary information on the
Christians. In his diligent though fastidious fashion, Pliny wrote to Trajan in 112, eighty
years or so after the death of Jesus, asking for advice concerning the treatment of
Christians. Basically, he says that he gives suspected Christians every opportunity to state
and demonstrate their allegiance to the Emperor and the Roman gods, but if they still
persist in their allegiance to Christ, he orders their execution since their “contumacy and
inflexible obstinacy deserved chastisement”. Some chastisement! –

The method I have observed towards those who have been denounced to
me as Christians is this: I interrogated them whether they were Christians;
if they confessed it, I repeated the question twice again, adding the threat
of capital punishment; if they still persevered, I ordered them to be
executed. For whatever the nature of their creed might be, I could at least
feel no doubt that contumacy and inflexible obstinacy deserved
chastisement. There were others also possessed with the same infatuation,
but being citizens of Rome, I directed them to be carried thither.

These accusations spread (as is usually the case) from the mere fact of the
matter being investigated and several forms of the mischief came to light.
A placard was put up, without any signature, accusing a large number of
persons by name. Those who denied they were, or ever had been
Christians, who repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered
adoration, with wine and frankincense, to your image, which I had ordered
to be brought for that purpose, together with those of the gods, and who
finally cursed Christ – none of which acts, it is said, those who are really
Christians can be forced into performing – these I thought it proper to
discharge. Others who were named by that informer at first confessed
themselves Christians, and then denied it; true, they had been of that
persuasion but they had quitted it, some three years, others many years,
and a few as much as twenty-five years ago. They all worshipped your
statue and the images of the gods and cursed Christ.

They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was that

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 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. Even this practice, however, they
had abandoned after the publication of my edict, by which, according to
your orders, I had forbidden political associations. I judged it so much the
more necessary to extract the real truth, with the assistance of torture, from
two female slaves, who were styled deaconesses: but I could discover
nothing more than depraved and excessive superstition (Letters of Pliny).

Though the letter is not without human and historical interest, it only tells us that there
were Christians in the time of Pliny and Trajan, and reveals something of their rituals.
But it tells us nothing of Jesus – neither of his life nor of his teachings.

The fact is, then, that early historical information outside the gospels is virtually
non-existent and whatever history is recorded is more likely to have actually originated
from stories related by the early Christians themselves. But whatever they may have
known, particularly in the early days, is now lost, except the somewhat dubious portion
relayed in the gospels. The gospels, however, as a source of history, immediately present
us with enormous difficulties, as Christian scholars have observed. They are full of
inaccuracies and incompatibilities.

It is clear, then, that we cannot hope to verify any of the details of the life of Jesus from
the gospels or from any other source. From the point of view of a Christian, this may be
disconcerting. But from the standpoint of one who is interested in the actual teachings
attributed to Jesus, it matters little. For although the content of the gospels is
fragmentary, disjointed and has suffered at the hands of Christian editors, there is still
plenty there to help us understand his real teachings. Moreover, while there is little or no
history of Jesus to be gleaned from other sources, there is a great wealth of
extra-canonical literature – orthodox and unorthodox – which supplements the gospels,
helping us determine what he actually taught. But that, as they say, is another story.

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