Sources about Jesus

This article should be with Historicity of Jesus (section)

The written sources about Jesus' lifetime are used in modern scholarship to investigate the information about his life. This task is complicated by the fact that no contemporary writings about Jesus's life are known to exist. The Biblical Gospels were written in large part some 30-100 years after Jesus' death, based on the estimates of scholars. There are a few mentions of a person named "Christus" in the Roman historians, but there is not complete agreement about what information is provided by these references. Information can also be found in Gnostic or other non-canonical works.

The Biblical Gospels

Some of the best existing sources for the life of Jesus are the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John. These present a narrative of Jesus' life and death, and most scholars agree that they contain at least some historically reliable information about the life of Jesus. According to modern scholarship large parts of the Synoptic documents were written within a span of time from about 30 to 70 years after the crucifixion of Jesus (i.e., within 60 - 100 AD). This is important to historians because it means the original documents may have been written within living memory of the events. In addition, the Gospel of John is thought to have been written some time between 60 and 120 AD, though there is no concensus as to the exact date.

Also, some details of Jesus' life and teachings are attested prior to the writing of the Gospels, in the letters of Paul, which were written in the 50s and 60s, about 20 to 30 years after the crucifixion.

The gospels of Matthew and Luke also present narratives of Jesus's childhood, but these are considered by modern scholars not to be reliable historical evidence because they include different details and in some places appear to contradict each other and are believed to have been written at a later date than the remainder of the Gospels.

The Gospels themselves are sometimes seen to disagree on the order of events and the dating of the events. This limits their historical value in the eyes of some critics, at least on points of disagreement, such as the date of the crucifixion, which is the 1st day of the Passover in the Synoptic Gospels and the day before the Passover in the Gospel of John.

The Gospel of John, with its very long sermons, which seem to be specifically chosen to explain the miracles presented, combined with its presumed late date of composition (making it unlikely that the author could have remembered the long texts), is often rejected as a historical source. Christian supporters of the book, while granting that many sections are theological in nature, generally accept the historical details of the book, although there is discussion about the actual order of the events depicted.

Non-canonical early Christian sources

From the late 20th century non-canonical and Gnostic Christian sources for Jesus have been increasingly cited as historical sources for the life of Jesus and his teachings. Similar objections are raised against these works as against the Gospels. Previously, non-canonical Christian writings had been fragmented and limited in quality owing partly to the fact that some of their esoteric teachings were secret, but largely due to a series of campaigns by the orthodox Church and Roman Empire from the fourth century (Council of Nicaea) to repress various alternative early Christian sects and their writings, which according to orthodox belief were heretical.

Most knowledge about Gnostic and other alternative early Christian sects had been transmitted through the secondary source of polemics against heresy. The most famous and valuable of these polemics is Against Heresies by Irenaeus of Lyons, an orthodox Christian bishop, which descibes in some detail a number of different alternative Christian doctrines and systems of teaching current in the second century.

Archaeological finds and reappraisals of ancient libraries have led to a rediscovery of a number of non-canonical Christian texts. The first major discovery was an incomplete copy of the Gospel of Peter, found in a monk's grave at Akhmim in Upper Egypt in the late 19th century. Although clearly a Docetic work, it preserves a version of the Passion that some scholars argue is independent of the gospels.

The major find of the 20th century was a library of gnostic and Christian materials discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945. Once the Nag Hammadi library was fully translated in the 1970s it provided a deeply fascinating discovery for those interested in early Christian and Gnostic beliefs about Christianity and the spiritual teachings of Jesus. Dating the Nag Hammadi material places them in A.D 350-400.

However, scholars disagree about dating the original texts, which is important to Christians and historians, because the earlier the dating the more likely the teachings can be attributed to Jesus himself. Debate among scholars and Christians has tended to become more narrowly focused on the reliability of the Gospel of Thomas, probably because it shows the least obvious gnostic influence, and great simililarity to the theorised second source of Matthew: Q.

A number of scholars have suggested that it is an independent transmission of teaching from Jesus created at approximately the same time as the Biblical Gospels within living memory of Jesus in the second half of the 1st century, while scholars on the other extreme dismiss it as derivative development of the 2nd century AD. Others have focused more specifically on the question of which of the 114 sayings can be reliably attributed to Jesus and which may be later creations or adaptations.

Even with the find of the Nag Hammadi library it is difficult to know what the Gnostic Christian sects actually believed, or if there was any consistent core of teachings; but it is clear that the Gnostic Christians fundamentally disagreed with the orthodox Christians in their understanding of Jesus. Their writings represent a far more private and "Eastern" perspective on Jesus' teachings, producing a diversity of views and practice, compared to which the current differentiation between the main Christian denominations is minor. These writings have proved attractive among liberal Christians and New Ageists in modern times.

Besides these gnostic writings, other non-canonical Christian writings that are used to either reconstruct the life of Jesus (or the early tradition of his teachings) include:

• The Protevangelion of James
• The Gospel of Nicodemus
• The Epistles of Jesus Christ and King Abgarus of Edessa
• The Correspondence of Paul the Apostle with Seneca the Younger
• The Acts of St. Paul and Thecla
• The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
• The General Epistle of Barnabas
• The Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp
• The Writings of Justin Martyr

While these works are not part of the New Testament canon, they were circulated among various Christian communities in the early centuries of the Church; most are available in some form today, although original manuscripts are not available for all of them.

Other sources

Historical sources cited as evidence for the life of Jesus include Josephus, Suetonius, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger, written between 93 and 112. None of these authors provide first-hand accounts. Also, a few minor details of Jesus' life and teachings are attested prior to the writing of the Biblical Gospels, in the letters of Paul, which were written in the 50s and 60s, about 20 to 30 years after the crucifixion. This was a contemporary, but not a first-hand, account.

Christians believe these sources affirm the existence of Jesus; skeptics say that some affirm only the existence of Christianity at that time.

Josephus

Josephus made reference to Jesus in Jewish Antiquities which is a history of the Jewish people. There is a reference to Jesus and a separate reference thought to be James the Just (Jesus' disciple, brother, and leader of Jesus' followers in Jerusalem after his death) and some of his followers being killed by stoning for blasphemy.

Some historians consider the reference to Jesus by Josephus to have been the subject of alteration by a Christian transcriber, opinions vary along the continuum from it being subject to only minor alteration to that of it being a completely spurious entry. The reference to James is generally considered to be reliable by all. See Eusebius.

Letters of Herod

There are copies of a few "letters of Herod and Pilate connecting Roman history with the death of Christ at Jerusalem" found in a sixth or seventh century Syriac manuscript, copies of correspondence between the two and reports sent from them to the emperor concerning Jesus. However, their authenticity is considered doubtful by some scholars. Aside from these, there is no evidence of any record of Jesus generated by the Roman bureaucracy. Some take this to be simply due to the lack of significance of Christians at the time, while others point out the bible's claims that the Jewish Authorities considered him a significant troublemaker.

Eusebius

Another important source is The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine written by Eusebius of Caesarea in 324. He writes that he compiled it to preserve "only those events which may be useful first to ourselves and afterwards to posterity." (Vol. 8, chapter 2). The great value of Eusebius' History lies in the quotations which it contains from earlier ecclesiastical writers. The works of many of them are lost, and are known to us only through the extracts made by Eusebius. Most notably Hegesippus (who is quoted giving detailed reference to James the Just in 165-175 [1] (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/hegesippus.html)) and Sextus Julius Africanus. Eusebius was able to make use of the Christian libraries of Caesarea and Jerusalem.

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger's testimony about Jesus comes in a letter written to the emperor Trajan (61-115), asking for advice on how Christians should be dealt with. He says that they lead blameless lives, but cannot be shaken from their belief in Christ, whom he says they worship as a god in their morning meetings (Ep. X, 97, 98): "carmenque Christo, quasi deo, dicere" (sing a song to Christ as a god). This is significant because it indicates belief in Jesus' divinity possibly during the lives of the apostles, or at least in the first few generations after the apostles.

Other non-Christian sources

Lucian (third century) writes scoffingly of the Christians and alludes to Christ's crucifixion, to his miracles and the love among his followers. Origen cites several pagan sources in his "Contra Celsum", saying that Numenius wrote of him, Galerius mentions his parables, and that Phlegon alludes to the earthquake at the crucifixion. Origen also cites Celsus himself, indicating that most of the historical passages of the Gospels were accepted as true as of the second century. Unfortunately, the sources cited by Origin are lost (all copies of Celsus' work were destroyed, though Origen apparently directly quotes almost 3/4 of it).

In classical rabbinic literature

See Yeshu for a discussion of the various characters named as "Yeshu", and their relation to Jesus and Jesus-like figures.

See also

• Historicity of Jesus
• Tacitus on Jesus
• Josephus on Jesus

References

• The Jesus Puzzle. Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? : Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus by Earl Doherty, 1999, ISBN 0968601405
• The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ by Gary R. Habermas, 1996, ISBN 0899007325
• The Jesus Myth by by G. A. Wells, 1998, ISBN 0812693922
• Deconstructing Jesus by Robert M. Price, 2000, ISBN 1573927589
• Can We Trust the New Testament?: Thoughts on the Reliability of Early Christian Testimony by G.A. Wells,2004 ISBN 0812695674
• The Christ Myth (Westminster College-Oxford Classics in the Study of Religion) by Arthur Drews, C. Deslisle Burns, 1998, ISBN 1573921904
• The Fabrication of the Christ Myth by Harold Leidner, 2000, ISBN 0967790107
• The Historical Evidence for Jesus by G.A. Wells, 1988, ISBN 087975429X

External links

• CNN - 'The Mystery of Jesus' (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/03/29/mystery.jesus/)

• Ancient Evidence for Jesus from Non-Christian Sources (http://www.probe.org/docs/ancient.html)

• Extra-Biblical Historical Evidence for the LIFE, DEATH, and RESURRECTION of JESUS (http://www.westarkchurchofchrist.org/library/extrabiblical.htm)

• Apologetics (http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0001.html)

• Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Christ: (http://www.xenos.org/classes/papers/doubt.htm)

• HISTORY AND THE NEW TESTAMENT (http://www.historian.net/NTHX.html)

• Messianic Expectations in 1st Century Judaism--Documentation From Non-Christian Sources (http://www.christian-thinktank.com/messiah.html)

• Christian Evidences - PROBLEMS WITH THE DENIAL OF CHRIST'S CLAIMS (http://www.grmi.org/Richard_Riss/evidences/34prob.html)

• Proving the historic Jesus (http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/rhjesus.html)

• Sejanus and the Chronology of Christ's death (http://www.xenos.org/essays/sejanus.htm)

• THE VERIFIABILITY OF HISTORY (http://www.grmi.org/Richard_Riss/evidences/6verify.html)

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