Was Jesus Christ a Real Person in History?

Was Jesus Christ a real person in history, or was he a myth? Did the Jesus described in the New Testament of the Holy Bible really exist or was he a creative invention, a legend that developed over the years out of fiction and fable?

What The Real Historians And Scholars Say

 

What do experts on the matter of whether or not Jesus was a historical real life person say? Does professional non-Christian research, archaeology and scholarship agree that Jesus Christ really existed? 

“Most modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed,”  (Wikipedia: Historicity of Jesus)

“In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship, Bart Ehrman (a secular agnostic) wrote: "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees" B. Ehrman, 2011 Forged : writing in the name of God ISBN 978-0-06-207863-6. page 285”

“Michael Grant (a classicist) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." in Jesus by Michael Grant 2004 ISBN 1898799881 page 200”

“Richard A. Burridge states: "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more." in Jesus Now and Then by Richard A. Burridge and Graham Gould (Apr 1, 2004) ISBN 0802809774 page 34”

“The Gospels and Jesus by Graham Stanton, 1989 ISBN 0192132415 Oxford University Press, page 145 states : "Today nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed".”

The truth is that anyone who has any sort of professional credentials in the study of history and scholarship concerning the time of Jesus agrees that Jesus Christ absolutely existed. There is great debate over exactly what he did and said, but even atheists who have studied the history admit that the man described in the Bible’s New Testament really lived.

The historical evidence, even if you completely exclude the Bible and ancient (early) Christian writings, says that Jesus was a real man from Galilee, widely known as a teacher and healer, and that he was executed on a cross by the Romans at the behest of the Jewish religious leaders on account of heresy, because he claimed to be God. All this happened in the early part of the first century AD and was the cause of Christianity’s birth and rapid spread.

Evidence From Non-Christian Sources

There are records and writings from Roman officials, from Jews, from historians at the time, tons of writing from Christians, and even writing from people who hated and attacked the rising tide of Christianity. Even those people who wanted to kill all Christians admitted and believed that Jesus of Nazareth was a real person for which this new belief system, Christianity, was based. They did not, and could not deny the reality of Jesus Christ.

Josephus, a Roman-Jewish historian from the time of Jesus, mentioned him a few times in his historical work “Antiquities of The Jews”. It was written around 93-94 AD, less than a hundred years after Jesus’s death on the cross (around 30-35 AD), and the same time period as all of the Bible’s New Testament writings (the gospels, etc.).

Tacitus was a Roman historian and senator who wrote “Annals” around 116 AD and mentioned Jesus Christ as a real historical person in reference to both the Jews and the hugely expanding Christian presence throughout the Roman Empire. He hated and despised this “new religion”, but even he says Jesus was a real man from Judea who the Romans executed on a cross. Tacitus’ writing also agrees with a number of other things mentioned in the gospels, such as the fact that Pontius Pilate was the overseer of Judea at the time of Christ’s execution and officiated over it.

Josephus and Tacitus are the most obvious non-Christian sources of direct reference to the real life and death of Jesus, but many other references exist from that direct time period as well. Many references to Christ exist in quick passing as having been the originator and basis for Christianity, with Christ’s own disciples (the men who walked with and lived with Jesus for the five years of his ministry) being the founding fathers of the Christian church as a whole. All of these men, who were firsthand witnesses to Christ’s life, teaching, miracles, death and resurrection went out into the world spreading the gospel mere days after Christ’s death and resurrection, and ALL of them were killed for doing so. These men believed the reality of what they preached so strongly that they gladly faced death for the personal witness and testimony of Jesus. Some of them were even bringing jailors and fellow prisoners in jail to Christ days before being executed for preaching and spreading an “illegal” religion.

The Bible And Christian Sources

The four gospels of the Bible’s New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are firsthand accounts of the life of Jesus Christ, and have been shown to be incredibly accurate in almost every historical detail (even to the names and positions of officials like Pontius Pilate and religious leaders of the Jews at the time). These gospels, as well as tons of other pieces of writing concerning Jesus and Christianity all existed within a hundred years or less of Jesus’ life. No other historical figure in ancient history has as much written about him so soon after his life and death as Jesus. None! Yet we consider tons of historical figures to be authentic and real based on writings and references many hundreds of years removed from their origins, or based on a single fragment of writing or archaeology. The testimony of Jesus’ life and death overwhelms all other ancient historical figures in the proof of his existence, both in the miniscule time difference between the writings and life of Christ, and in the number of references to his historical life. Nothing else comes anywhere close! There was so much written about Jesus and so many references and quotes from the gospels and New Testament letters within the first few centuries after Christ’s life and death, that you could reconstruct most of the New Testament based on quotations alone.

Josh McDowell is a Christian writer who was originally an atheist who went on a research quest during his university days to challenge and destroy the historical argument for Christ’s existence. He dug into the history of Christ and the church and found himself unable to deny its reality and authenticity. He ended up becoming a Christian based in part on the irrefutable historical evidence he found. Before his research, he’d assumed that the whole story of Jesus was a myth with little or no proof to back it up, and that most Christians were complete idiots for having been so completely hoodwinked by “fake religion”. When Christians at university challenged him to really look for himself, his life was changed forever.

In his book, “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” (1979), McDowell describes the incredible plethora of ancient manuscript copies of the New Testament and how nothing else comes anywhere close to comparing.

“There are now more than 5,300 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Add over 10,000 Latin Vulgate and at least 9,300 other early versions [of the Biblical writings] and we have more than 24,000 manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament in existence today. No other document of antiquity even begins to approach such numbers and attestation. In comparison, the Iliad by Homer is second with only 643 manuscripts that still survive.” 

(To get the latest print of Josh McDowell’s book about the evidences for Jesus Christ, check out his more recently updated version, “New Evidence That Demands A Verdict”)

Another great source of information on the historical evidence for Jesus comes from another former atheist (Lee Strobel), a journalist who took on the challenge of studying the historical evidence for Christ and came away from it shocked and transformed. He too became a Christian upon researching this subject. Check out his two books about Jesus, “Case ForThe Real Jesus”, and “Case For Christ”.

If you want even more detail about this subject and the specific references and quotes mentioned in this short write up, check out “Apologetics Press – The Historical Christ: Fiction or Fact?”. 

 Jesus Was Real!

It is absolutely impossible to deny that Jesus Christ was a real man in history. What exactly he did and said, and whether or not he really was the Messiah and Son of God is another (though obviously very important) matter entirely. However as a real man in history, Jesus Christ is one of the most attested to historical figures of the ancient times. No one else comes anywhere close, yet this doesn’t stop us from believing those countless other important famous people of ancient history actually existed. Specific Kings, Queens, religious leaders, army commanders, and so many other people significant and insignificant from ancient history are all accepted as fact, and yet none of them compare to the hard factual proof and evidence (in number of different sources and the minimal time period between the sources and the man) that exists for the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus stands high above the rest.

The reason Jesus Christ gets ignored and denied by some people, is the fact that they either have no clue about the evidence, or they have a heavily biased agenda against Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity. In truth, the denial of Christ’s existence says far more about the mindset and attitudes of the deniers than it does about whether or not Christ really lived. These people need to take a step back and ask themselves why they, despite the overwhelming evidence, so badly want to reject Christ’s existence. It’s not based on proof or truth. So what is it based on?