Evidence enough… What is actually known about Jesus?

Evidence enough… What is actually known about Jesus? – Lee Strobel, former court reporter for the Chicago Tribune newspaper, has written a book (1998) in which he investigates whether the stories about Jesus in the Bible are fables or based on fact. He questions 13 top scientists about ‘the case of Jesus’. In fact, he repeats in a structured manner the spiritual quest he had begun twenty years earlier. It is an easy to read book with a wealth of information.

Evidence enough…

• Evidence enough… What is actually known about Jesus?
• Beguine
• Son of man
• Early dating Gospels
• Historical Reliability of the Gospels
• Gospels reliably transmitted
• Additional evidence
• Archaeological supporting evidence
• Did Jesus exactly match the identity of the Messiah?
• Some Old Testament prophecies that apply to Jesus
• Finally

 

Evidence enough… What is actually known about Jesus?

• Author: Lee Strobel
• Title: Evidence enough… What is actually known about Jesus? A journalist interviews thirteen top scientists
• Publisher: Gideon, Hoornaar
• Year: 1998
• ISBN: 978-90-6067-858-9
• Pages: 313

 

Beguine

In 1979, Lee Strobel’s wife said she had become a Christian. The atheist Lee was shocked and a ghost appeared before his eyes: ,I had married someone named Leslie – the funny Leslie, the carefree Leslie, the adventurous Leslie – and now I was afraid that she would turn into a sexually inhibited beguine, that she would exchange our increasingly mobile way of life for all-night prayer vigils and volunteer work in dirty soup kitchens., But he became fascinated by the fundamental changes in her character. He began a search for the facts of Christianity.

The former court reporter knows from experience that convincing evidence does not always lead to the correct verdict. In this book he lists all the facts about the life and work of Jesus and leaves the judgment to the reader, as if he were part of a court jury. It is the reader’s task to come up with a statement. The reader will not get 100% certainty, Strobel warns, as we have absolute proof of nothing in this life.

Below are some highlights from the book.

Son of man

He interviews New Testament scholar Dr. Craig L. Blomberg about the historical reliability of the four Gospels, or the biographies of Jesus. It is indisputable that Matthew is the author of the first Gospel in the New Testament, Mark of the second, and Luke of the third. There is some doubt about the authorship of the last Gospel. Is the writer John the Apostle or another John? With one exception – the testimony of Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor in about 125 AD. – the rest of the early testimonies are unanimous in their opinion that Johannes is the author.

The first three Gospels are also called the Synoptic Gospels, because of their mutual coherence and similar construction and structure. The Gospel after John diverges, although every major theme in John returns in some way in the Synoptic Gospels, albeit in slightly different form or in more veiled terms. For example, John claims that Jesus is God. Some attribute this to the fact that John was written later and he began to embellish and color things theologically. Yet the divinity of Jesus is also reflected in the other Gospels. In the story of Jesus walking on water (Matthew 14:22-33 and Mark 6:45-52), Jesus literally says in Greek: ,I am , do not be afraid., Here we see a parallel with Exodus 3:14, with the self-description with which God introduces Himself to Moses: the ‘I am’, thus emphasizing that He is God.

Furthermore, in the first three Gospels, Jesus uses the title ‘Son of Man’, which is an allusion to Daniel 7:13-14:

• ,I watched in the night visions, and behold, one like a son of man came with the clouds of heaven; and he went to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him before him; and there was given to him dominion and honor and kingship, and all peoples, nations, and tongues served him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away: and his kingdom is an incorruptible kingdom., (NKJV)

 

Early dating Gospels

The Gospels were not, as evil tongues sometimes claim, written so late that myth and legend formation have corrupted the real story. Scientific dating places Mark in the 1970s, Matthew and Luke in the 1980s and John in the 1990s. Blomberg rightly claims that Marcus was probably written in the late 1950s or around the 1960s. Several witnesses who had experienced Jesus were still alive at the time, making it unlikely that fables were written down. Biographies of Alexander the Great were written more than four hundred years after his death and yet they are considered reliable.

There is much older information to be found in the New Testament, which can make the gap between Jesus’ life and what was written down even smaller. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 contains the most important statement of faith regarding the historical Jesus:

• ,For I delivered to you first of all that which I myself have received: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at the same time, the majority of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, but lastly He also appeared to me appeared, as to one born untimely.” (NIV)

About 35 AD Paul must have recorded this pre-existing confession that circulated in the early church from the apostles, including a list of people to whom Jesus had appeared after his death. A testimony that was extremely verifiable at the time.

Historical Reliability of the Gospels

There are numerous reasons to assume the reliability of the biographies. We mention ten:

1. The writers of the Gospels intended to convey the events as faithfully as possible. (Luke 1:1-4)
2. In oral culture it was very common to memorize and transmit texts. They also used all kinds of mnemonics and techniques for this, such as harmony in the sentences, parallels, etc.
3. The writers report the words and actions of Jesus and they were willing to imitate Jesus even to death: ten of the eleven remaining disciples were put to death in a gruesome manner. You are not willing to do that unless you have integrity and believe in what you preach.
4. Regarding the coherence of the Gospels, legal scholar Simon Greenleaf, of Harvard University law school, said: ,There is enough difference to show that there was no prior consultation between them [the Gospel writers], and at the same time enough similarity to show show that they were all independent narrators of the same great cause.,¹
5. Humanly speaking, the disciples had nothing to gain from proclaiming the Good News.
6. The four Evangelists also recorded painful material. Just as was the case in the Old Testament with, for example, the story of David and Bathsheba. We can think of the words of Jesus on the cross: ,My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?, Peter is also not exactly portrayed as a tower of strength. He denies Jesus three times.
7. There is more and more additional evidence from archeology that supports what is described in the Gospels.
8. There are no known critics from the days after Jesus’ death and resurrection who accuse the Jesus movement of lies and deception, while they had every opportunity to do so and would have taken it if the followers of Jesus had given reason to do so. The disciples could not risk inaccuracies or even deliberate distortions of the facts. They would have been exposed immediately and exposed as liars. They not only said, ‘we are witnesses of these things’ but also, ‘as you yourselves know’ (Acts 2:22). They appealed to the knowledge of their listeners, who could confirm or refute what they said.
9. The Bible presents many witnesses when it comes to the resurrection. This is not scientific evidence, but it is important legal-historical evidence. The soldiers who experienced it were told to remain silent by the spiritual leaders (Matt. 28:12-15), but it doesn’t stop there. Jesus appeared to many people after his resurrection. (Luke 24:33; Acts 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:6)
10. There is debate about the dating of the Gospels. Even with a later dating of the Gospels, it can nevertheless be said that the first three Gospels were written when there were still countless people who could have remembered the words and actions of Jesus. And there must have been a handful of people still alive when the fourth gospel was written. That is a boost from a historical point of view. It can therefore be said that there is not much time between the events described in the Gospels and their writing down. Moreover, the written sources of the Synoptic Gospels appear to have originated no later than 60 AD: ,some can even be shown to date back to notes taken while our Lord was addressing people. The oral sources date back to the earliest beginnings of Christian history. We are in almost constant contact with the testimony of eyewitnesses.,²

 

Gospels reliably transmitted

The second interview with Dr. Bruce M. Metzger (died 2007), addresses two fundamental questions:

1. Are the biographies of Jesus reliably transmitted?
2. is it not true that other (competing) biographies have been withheld by the church?

No originals of the New Testament have been preserved . This is also the case with other documents from antiquity. However, many more copies of the New Testament have been preserved. 5,664 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament have been catalogued. The most important and oldest of these are the Beatty Bible papyri discovered around 1930. The oldest manuscript discovered to date is very small and contains a fragment of John’s Gospel, chapter 18. It contains five verses and is six by nine centimeters and it dates from 100-150 AD. In addition, thousands of other classical manuscripts have been handed down in other languages. There is an abundance of manuscripts and good textual material of the New Testament. This is unparalleled in classical literature. Moreover, the New Testament is 99.5% pure and the variations that occur are of minor importance. How did the early Church leaders determine which books

should be considered authoritative, canonical? Three criteria were used:

1. The books were to have apostolic authority; they must have been written by apostles since they had been witnesses to what they described, or by direct followers of the apostles.
2. Furthermore, there was the ‘rule of faith’; did the manuscript agree with the basic statement of faith?
3. The document also had to be generally accepted and used by the municipalities.

Certain books such as the Gospel of Thomas were not previously excluded by a church council. According to Metzgers, what councils and synods did in the fifth century and after was to reinforce what was already generally accepted among the (early) Christians. The Apocrypha are not excluded, but have excluded themselves.

Additional evidence

Is there extrabiblical evidence for the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus? Dr. Edwin M. Yamauchi, a professor of history at Miami University, says in the book that the Gospels are ,in fact the most reliable and complete sources about Jesus., The additional sources do not add much, but they are valuable as additional evidence.

First of all, there is the Jewish historian Flavius Jos ephus (37 – circa 100), who refers to Jesus and his brother James in his writings. He is considered a fairly reliable historian. In the Testimonium Flavianum he writes:

• “At that time lived Jesus, a wise man, as far as it is lawful to call him a man. For he performed deeds that were thought impossible, and he was a teacher of people who joyfully accepted the truth. And many Jews and many of the Greeks he brought to himself. He was the Christ. Even after Pilate, at the direction of the first men among us, had imposed the punishment of the cross on him, those who had first started living in love did not give up. For he was appeared to them on the third day, alive again. The divine prophets had said these things and countless other wonderful things about him. To this day the group of Christians named after him has not disappeared.,

Today, scholars are convinced of the piece’s authenticity, although there may be some interpolations.

The Roman historian Tacitus also writes about the crucifixion of Jesus and the persecution of his followers. The crucifixion of Jesus is the most despicable way to die. How is it possible that there is a religion that is based on the imitation of a man who died on the cross? This cries out for an explanation, especially if He had not risen from the dead.

Archaeological supporting evidence

Archaeologist Dr. John McRay clearly states that spiritual truths can never be proven or disproved by archaeological discoveries. Archaeological discoveries have shown that Luke is very accurate as a historian. Research has also shown that other writers like John were very accurate. For example, John 5:1-15 tells the story of the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. He mentions that the bath had a five-columned aisle. This pool was excavated not so long ago. The Bible, according to John McRay, is a very accurate sourcebook.

John McRay also addresses the following issues: the census in the birth story of Jesus; the existence of Nazareth; the infanticide in Bethlehem; the riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Did Jesus exactly match the identity of the Messiah?

The Jewish Scriptures, the Old Testament, contain hundreds of prophecies and references to the coming Messiah, translated in Latin as ‘Christ’ which means ‘the Anointed One’. About forty of these prophecies are very specific and concrete. The Messiah would be sent by God to redeem His people. According to Lee Strobel, these predictions metaphorically form a fingerprint that only fits the real messiah. The striking thing is that Jesus fulfilled all these predictions.

For this theme he interviewed Louis S. Lapides, a Messianic Jew who was raised Jewish and came to Yeshua (the Jewish name of Jesus) through a spiritual quest and accepted Him as savior. This did not happen without a fight. He was very skeptical of Christianity and the New Testament, which he considered an anti-Semitic lampoon. But Lapides discovered through reading the Bible that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah and that Jesus had fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. He also gradually came to realize that the Gospels depict the interaction between Jesus and the Jewish community and that in the book of Acts the Jews brought the gospel to the Gentiles and not the other way around!

Some Old Testament prophecies that apply to Jesus

In Isaiah 53 we find the image of the Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of His people Israel and the world, more than 700 years before Jesus walked the earth:

1 Who can believe what we have heard? To whom belongs the power of revealed to the LORD?2 He grew up like a shoot in the sight of God, like a root that grows in the dry ground. His appearance was inconspicuous, he lacked all beauty , and
his sight did not please us.3 He was despised and shunned by men ,he was a man who knew suffering and was familiar with illness, a man who hid his face from us, despised, reviled and despised by us.4 But it was he who bore our diseases,
who took upon himself our suffering.We but they saw him as an outcast, beaten and humiliated by God.5 He was pierced for our sins, broken for our misdeeds. For our good he was chastened, and his stripes brought us healing .
6 We went astray like sheep, every man went his own way, but the LORD brought down on him the iniquities of us all. 7 He was mistreated, but he did not resist or open his mouth. Like a sheep led to the slaughter, like a ewe that is silent before her shearers,
he opened not his mouth.8 By an unjust sentence he was taken away. Who of his contemporaries noticed? He was banished from the land of the living, because of the sins of my people he was beaten.
9 He was buried with the wicked, and his final resting place was with the rich; yet he had never done any wrong, nor spoken deceitfully. 10 But the LORD was willing to break him, and he made him sick, and he sacrificed his life for their guilt . to
see his descendants and to live long. And through him the will of the LORD came to pass.11 After the suffering he endured, he saw the light and was filled with knowledge.

My righteous servant vindicates many, He takes upon Himself their wrongs.
12 Therefore I place him among many, and he will share in the spoil with the mighty, because he gave his life to the dead, and was counted among sinners. But he bore the guilt of many, and took up the cause of sinners. (NIV)

In Psalm 22:15-19 we find the image of Gogoltha:

15 I am poured out like water, my bones fall asunder, my heart is like wax, it melts within my flesh.16 My strength is dry as a potsherd, my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth, You honor me in the dust of death.

17 Dogs surround me, a fierce mob surrounds me, they have pierced my hands and feet. 18 I can count all my bones. They watch with glee, 19 dividing my clothes among themselves, and casting lots for my cloak.( NIV)

Psalm 34:20-21 continues:

20 Though nothing is spared for the righteous, the LORD will deliver him again and again.21 He is the keeper of his bones, and not one of them will be broken.(NBV)

In Amos 8:9 it says: On that day, declares the LORD God, I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the land in broad daylight. (NIV)

And there are countless other predictions that apply exactly to Jesus. Coincidence is excluded.

 

Finally

Other scientists, including a physician and a psychologist, address questions such as: is the Jesus of history the same as the Jesus of the Christian faith? Was Jesus convinced to be God’s Son? Was Jesus crazy when He claimed to be God’s son? Did He meet the characteristics of God? Was Jesus’ death a sham and his resurrection a fraud? Did Jesus’ body really disappear from the grave and was He still seen alive after His death on the cross? These questions concern the quintessence of the Christian faith. Without Jesus’ death and resurrection, you can throw the Christian faith in the garbage.

This book is easy to read and is a good start for further study and research. At the end of each chapter there are literature references to less popular books and sometimes even detailed studies. Unfortunately, most of the books referred to have never been translated into Dutch. Each chapter also concludes with questions for reflection or group study, making it suitable for both individual and group use.

Read the book and make your own judgment about the case of Jesus.

Notes:

1. Simon Greenleaf: The Testimony of the Evangelists; Grand Rapids, Baker, 1984, VII.
2. Prof. Dr. FF Bruce: The Reliability of the New Testament Writings, nd. Can be read at: http://www.verhoevenmarc.be/PDF/Betrouwbaarheid-NT.pdf

 

read more

• Messianic psalms point to person/office Messiah (Jesus)
• Messianic texts: Purpose, profession, importance of Messianic prophecy
• Prophecies of Jesus Old Testament: descent and birth
• Prophecies Old Testament (Bible) fulfilled by Jesus
• Joseph: a symbol or type of the coming Savior (Jesus)