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Debunking Christian Circular Arguments and Assumptions
Argument # 6:
The
Historicity of Jesus Argument.
Sometimes
stated as:
“There is more historical evidence for the existence of Jesus
Christ than even
for Julius Caesar.”
This is a strange
argument
that is very lacking in evidence and seems to be more of a rhetorical
mantra
than anything else. Nevertheless, I have heard this argument
uttered by
preachers, Youth Pastors, Christian authors, etc. The only
supporting evidence
given for this argument is that there are more manuscript copies of the
Bible
than for any other book in history. However, just because
many copies
exist for a particular book or story doesn’t mean that the
original copy is a
factual historical account. Anyone should be able to deduce
that.
For example, there are millions of copies of the movie “Star
Wars” on video
tape and DVD, but that doesn’t mean that the story itself is
a true
story. Therefore, this is a very silly argument.
Also, the existence
of
Julius
Caesar is documented by many historical documents, accounts, and the
writings
of secular historians of his time. On the other hand, there
is no such
evidence for the existence of Jesus, so the two analogies are not even
comparable
in the slightest.
Despite Christian
rhetoric,
here are the facts regarding the historicity of Jesus:
1) His existence
has not even been historically
proven. None of the secular historians of
(See
Did
Jesus Christ Really Live? by
Marshall Gauvin, and Did
a
historical Jesus exist? by
Jim Walker. For a scholarly analysis of the subject, see The
Jesus Puzzle by
James Doherty.)
2) The historians
Christians usually cite as
evidence for the existence of Jesus, such as Josephus, Tacitus,
or Pliny, lived long after Jesus lived and never even met him, so they
were
only going by what they heard. Also, Josephus’
famed passage citing Jesus
in his works of Antiquities of
the Jews, Book 18, has been
hotly
contested among scholars. Here is the passage in question:
“Now
there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if
it be lawful to call him a
man, for he was a
doer of wonderful works, a
teacher of such men
as receive the truth with pleasure.
He drew over to him both many of the
Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He
was the Christ, and when Pilate,
at
the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the
cross,
those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for
he appeared to
them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold
these and
ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.
And the tribe of
Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.”
There
are three scholarly positions on this passage. Some scholars
believe it
to be a genuine passage of Josephus. Others believe it to be
interpolation or a forgery added in by Christians. The third
group
considers the passage to be genuine in a simpler form, with the words
in
italics above added in later by Christian copyists. But there
are many
problems with this, and I will only list the main ones.
First, Josephus
did not live in the time of Jesus nor did he meet him. He was
simply
writing what he had heard from others that was passed on.
Second, this
passage was not even mentioned by the Church fathers until 300 years
after
Josephus lived! The Church fathers were fond of quoting
passage that
supported the Christian faith, so it would be odd that they never
mentioned
this one for 300 years, if Josephus had indeed written it.
The first
Church father to mention is was Eusebius, and this man also said that
it is
permissible to lie for the Christian faith! Therefore, it is
feasible
that Eusebius could have embellished or forged this passage.
In addition,
Church fathers such as Origen
quoted Josephus often
but never this passage, which would indicate that it didn’t
exist at the time,
since it would have had enormous apologetic value had it did.
For
a more in-depth analysis of this passage and others claimed to support
the
historicity of Jesus, see Historicity
Of Jesus and Josh
McDowell's "Evidence" for Jesus -- Is It Reliable?
Also check out
Earl Doherty’s Josephus
Unbound: Reopening the Josephus Question. Archarya S, author of The Christ
Conspiracy: The Greatest Story
Ever Sold also has a
helpful page on this subject: The
Jesus Forgery: Josephus Untangled
For
a list of articles and books on the subject, see these compilations:
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theism/christianity/historicity.shtml
http://www.truthbeknown.com/christcon.htm
3) Despite all
this though, the consensus of
most non-religious historians is that there was a historical Jesus
Christ who
lived, but that he was probably not the same Jesus as described in the
Gospels. In other words, the Jesus of the Gospels may have
been based on
a real Jesus, but most likely the historical Jesus was not the
legendary Jesus
of the Gospels. That conclusion was also made by the famous Jesus
Seminar as well, which consisted
of hundreds of Bible scholars from around
the world. In spite of this objective historical view of
Jesus, most
Christians have no knowledge of its existence. In fact, this
historical
view of Jesus is not even acknowledged by the Christian community, and
is never
even addressed or dealt with in Evangelistic books and literature,
oddly
enough.
More on the Jesus
Seminar’s research
and findings can be found at: http://religion.rutgers.edu/jseminar/jsem_b.html
and also at http://www.jesusseminar.com/Jesus_Seminar/jesus_seminar.html
(To
learn about the secular historical view of Jesus, see the website of
PBS’s
Frontline series, From
Jesus to
Christ: The First Christians at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/
or you can check your local public library to see if the video of this
series
is available for rent. I have seen all episodes and found it
a great
informative program filled with vivid pictures, scenery and music.)
Some non-Christians
who
believe in a historical Jesus maintain that the historical Jesus may
have just
been an executed criminal or martyr, and that it was Paul who created
and
promoted the legend of him as a risen savior. (See Paul
and Christian Origins) For
example, George Bernard Shaw said:
"The
conversion of Paul was no conversion at all: it was Paul who converted
the religion
that has raised one man above sin and death into a religion that
delivered
millions of men so completely into their dominion that their own common
nature
became a horror to them, and the religious life became a denial of
life."
George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950)
Although most
historians and
scholars believe that a historical Jesus existed, there is a growing
number who
now argue for his non-existence. Though they are in a
minority, one
cannot discount their arguments honestly, because the arguments and
evidence
they cite is quite convincing and thorough. One proponent of
this new
theory on the leading edge is a woman who goes by the pseudonym Archaya
S (http://www.truthbeknown.com/) Her
book The
Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
is
very acclaimed, scholarly, and informative.
It argues that the Jesus story was created from ancient Pagan myths
with dying
savior themes and motifs. From its book description on
Amazon.com:
“Controversial
and explosive, The Christ Conspiracy
marshals an enormous amount of startling evidence that the religion of
Christianity and Jesus Christ were created by members of various secret
societies, mystery schools and religions in order to unify the Roman
Empire
under one state religion! This powerful book maintains that these
groups drew
upon a multitude of myths and rituals that already existed long before
the
Christian era and reworked them into the story the Christian religion
presents
today-known to most Westerners as the Bible. Author Acharya
makes the case that there was no actual person named Jesus, but that
several
characters were rolled into one mythic being inspired by the deities Mithras,
Heracles/Hercules, Dionysus and many others of the
Another great work
out there
is Earl Doherty’s The
Jesus Puzzle. Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ?:
Challenging the
Existence of an Historical Jesus.
It is also very scholarly and
informative. The publisher’s introduction on
Amazon.com raves:
“During three
years of exposure on the World Wide
Web, where he has presented convincing evidence, on a half a million
word
website, that no historical Jesus existed, to enthusiastic (and not so
enthusiastic) reaction from around the globe, Earl Doherty's first
published
book has been eagerly awaited. The wait will not disappoint. In a
highly
attractive product (the cover itself is stunning), the author presents
all the
details of his argument in an immensely readable and accessible format.”
One
of Doherty’s shocking
discoveries is that Paul never even referred to Jesus as a historical
figure,
but only in spiritual form, and therefore the idea of a historical
Jesus didn’t
exist until later. Therefore, Paul may not have even believed
that Jesus
was ever a real man on Earth!
Here are some
colorful-looking sites on this topic as well:
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/
Whoever Jesus was,
and
whether he existed or not, he is definitely one of the most
controversial
figures in history. In fact, there are more interpretations and views
on who Jesus
was than you can imagine. They range from the tradition
Christian version
of Jesus, to the secular version where he was just a great moral
teacher or executed
criminal whom Paul deified somehow, to the New Age version where Jesus
was a
self-actualized being who achieved cosmic consciousness but his words
were
twisted around to mean other things. There are even theories
that
speculate on Jesus being an ancient astronaut or
extraterrestrial. (e.g.
Erich Von Daniken’s “Ancient Astronauts
Theory”) Perhaps a CNN program on
Jesus I saw entitled The
Mystery of Jesus put it
best at the end when
it concluded: “There
is so little known about who Jesus was that everyone sees what they
want to
see.”
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