Evidence for Christ
Adapted with permission from: Is The Truth Out There? By Darrick Dean
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The Historicity of Christ
1. The Gospels were all written relatively close to the time of Jesus. Paul’s epistles were written before the Gospels. So plenty of people who had seen, known or encountered Jesus were still alive to verify the writings or serve as sources.
2. Verses in Paul’s epistles have been recognized as coming from early creeds that date within a few years (the first two), if not months, from the death of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 there are various clues that indicate Paul is repeating an early creed, both in the language and style he uses and the underlying Aramaic.
3. If writers were fabricating Jesus's existence, why would they make up events that were so contrary to the culture of the day? For example, they often showed Jesus giving women the respect rarely given to them in those times, treating them as equals to men.
4. Some other ancient, non-Christian sources that attest to Christ’s existence include: Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus in Annals; Suetonius, chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian; Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian in Antiquities; Julius Africanus in Extant Writings refers to the lost works of Thallus who describes the darkness and earthquake at the time of Christ’s death; in Pliny the Younger’s Letters; in letters from Emperors Trajan and Hadrian; Jewish documents the Talmud and the Toledoth Jesu; writings by Lucian, second century Greek satirist.
Evidence for Christ’s Death
1. Some of the ancient non-Christian sources noted above attest to Christ’s execution. At minimum, hundreds would have been witness to the spectacle surrounding the event. In other words, there were many first-hand eyewitnesses.
2. Archaeology also confirms death by crucifixion and the use of nails to “hang” a person. The method is not in doubt.
3. The Romans were quite proficient in crucifying people and did so to many thousands. Crucifixion was very brutal, the term excruciating comes from “out of the cross.” To think the Romans just happened to mess up on Jesus does not make sense. They also had methods to ensure the person was dead (see three points below).
4. Hanging on a cross, one would die of asphyxiation. The hanging position applied pressures to the diaphragm (the muscle that controls breathing) that would require the person to push up with his feet to relieve the pressure and to breathe. This is why they would break the legs of crucified individuals to speed up their deaths. The soldiers did this to the two hung with Jesus, but not Him because they found Him already dead.
5. The soldiers guarding Jesus would have paid for their life if they did not make sure Jesus was dead before taking Him down off the cross.
6. Perhaps the most telling evidence is when John describes “blood and water” coming from Jesus's side when the soldier stabbed with a spear to confirm He was dead. John probably had no idea what this was, but modern science confirms that this “water” was fluid known as the pericardial and pleural effusions surrounding the heart and lungs, respectively. This fluid collects as the result of hypovolemic shock (large blood loss). The spear apparently pierced the heart or lungs or both.
The Empty Tomb
The evidence that Jesus was killed negates the many fantastic theories of Jesus letting himself out of the tomb, or escaping to live in other countries, getting married and so on. Here we will address why the placement in the tomb and its subsequent emptiness was not some sort of fraud or hoax.
1. Once again there is the witness argument. People would have seen Him placed in the tomb.
2. The Bible relates that the tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin. Given that the Sanhedrin was partly responsible for Jesus's death, it is curious that the Gospel writers would claim Joseph of Arimathea had donated his tomb to Jesus if they were writing an imaginary tale. Many people would have been in the position to dispute their claim if it were not true.
3. Given the culture of the day, if the Gospel writers were creating fiction, the last people they would have finding the tomb empty were women. Yet this is who made the discovery.
4. It would be hard to steal the body, which was under guard to prevent theft. The government did not want Jesus's followers to incite further unrest by taking the body. Moving the stone from the tomb is no simple task either.
5. The fact is that the earliest skeptical claims do not deny the tomb was empty, but claim the body was stolen. Yet they, nor any skeptics since, have provided any historical evidence. In other words they admitted the tomb was empty, but did not have an adequate explanation for why it was empty.
Appearances of Christ
1. Again, it would be crazy for writers in that culture to claim that women were the first to see the resurrected Jesus.
2. Remember that the writings of Paul reference materials from shortly after Christ’s death. He was dealing with primary sources, not years of story telling or myth-making. Indeed, that can be applied to all of these categories: There was not time for legends and myths to form and there were too many people alive at the time that could dispute such claims.
3. Paul was in fact a great persecutor of Christians until he encountered Christ after His death. Paul would go on to suffer the same types of persecutions. So it seems curious that he would make up his writings attesting to Christ’s life, death and resurrection. The same can be said of Jesus's half-brother James who was skeptical of Jesus during His life. After his post-resurrection encounter with Jesus (1 Corinthians 15), James became a leader in the church and would eventually be martyred.
4. Hallucinations do not provide an explanation. They are a highly individualistic experience. Only particular people are susceptible to such things. Often it is only at particular times and places. A great variety of people claimed to have seen Christ after He died at different times and places. This makes it hard to claim that they were all hallucinating.
5. It is important to reiterate that there were many witnesses who believed that they had seen and interacted with Christ after He died. These events often happened in public places, not hidden away in a basement or cave. They made such claims in the face of fierce and often deadly persecution. Many died for their beliefs.
Reliability of the Text
1. Skeptics point to “alternate” gospels that were supposedly “suppressed” by the church. On the contrary, works like the Gospel of Thomas are dated much later than the Gospels. The same goes for the “Gospels” of Judas, Peter and Mary. Then there is the Secret Gospel of Mark that has been shown to be a 20th Century fraud. In other words, all were written long after the events of the New Testament to support certain beliefs or movements. It also seems that quite a few people know about these texts which is kind of odd considering they were ruthlessly “suppressed” by agents of the church. In historic reality, these “gnostic” writings faltered in ancient times of their own accord.
2. Pseudo-scholars claim there are hundreds of thousands of variants between New Testament manuscripts. In reality, most of these variants are spelling variations, using different synonyms or language-to-language translation issues. What you are left with are a few verses like John 7:53-8:11 that are not in early manuscripts and Bibles denote them as such. These verses, and none of the variants, do not impact the orthodox beliefs of Christianity.
3. Some claim the virgin birth and resurrection are copied from pagan myths. When one actually reads these myths, one discovers that they do not say the things skeptics attribute to them. Or the myths, or changes to the myths, post-date the New Testament. Some of the myths have been influenced by Christianity itself! Again, realize that simply because some pagan beliefs predate Christianity it does not logically follow that Christianity stole ideas (again the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy which means “after this, therefore, because of this”). After all, Judaism predates paganism, but no one claims pagans stole ideas from the Jews.
4. Prophecy in the New Testament has been proven accurate, including: The destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 21:20) and the temple (Matthew 24:1-2) were recorded before the events happened in 70 A.D. As was the prediction that Israel would be ruled by Gentiles (Luke 21:24) and its people scattered.
5. The New Testament fulfills Old Testament prophecy. What was the chance of someone trying to fulfill them on their own in a scam? None. For example, the Old Testament predicts Christ’s birthplace (Micah 5:2), when it would occur in history (Daniel 9:26) and by whom (Isaiah 7:14).
Recommended Reading for Further Evidences for Christ:
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel
The Historical Jesus by Gary Habermas
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