Why I Believe

As a physical being, Jesus was born into the family of a carpenter of Nazareth (Mt.13:55) somewhere between 7-4 BC. This was probably a subsistence living. The Apostle Paul said Jesus was poor (2Co.8:9). We know that he had both a mother (Mary) and a father (Joseph) through his twelfth birthday (Lk.2:41-52). His father is never mentioned after Jesus’ twelfth year, which leads most to believe Joseph probably died somewhere between Jesus’ twelfth year and his thirtieth year when he started his public ministry (Lk.3:23). Scholars believe Jesus’ public ministry only lasted about 2½ or 3½ years (depending on how many Passovers you think you see in the Gospel of John), at which time he was crucified and buried in a tomb (Mt.27:27-66; Mk.15:16-47; Lk.23:26-56; Jn.19:16-43), somewhere between AD 30-33. Jesus is clearly a historical figure. I’m not sure that I ever doubted this, but my research over the years has made this very clear. The 27 documents of the New Testament, written from 18 to 70 years after the death of Jesus in the first century AD, were written by eight or nine authors most of whom, if not all, lived contemporaneously with Jesus. Some were people who walked and talked with Jesus. The others were people who interacted with people who walked and talked with the physical Jesus. We call the collection of these 27 documents - the New Testament. Some discount the writers of these 27 documents because they all come from a Christian perspective. One might argue that “Of course they wrote favorably about Jesus. They were all Christians.” But that is looking at things backwards. It is almost certain that none of the New Testament writers were born into Christian families. The reason they became Christians is because of their interaction with Jesus and his followers. They saw something that compelled them to believe. Their interaction with Jesus and his immediate followers gave them the incentive to write about the amazing things they saw and experienced. In the New Testament we have eight or nine people who wrote about what they had seen, heard, and researched. The correct way to see this is that the writers of the New Testament became Christians because of what they saw in Jesus. In addition to the 27 New Testament documents, the Apostolic Church Fathers also wrote about Jesus. These men were Christians who wrote a few decades to a few centuries after Jesus’ death burial and resurrection. Clement, Bishop of Rome, wrote at the end of the 1st century AD, about the same time the Apostle John was writing his Gospel, letters, and the Revelation. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35 – c. 110) and Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 69 – c. 155) both learned from the Apostle John. Papias of Hierapolis heard John speak and was a companion of Polycarp. Papias’ writings are dated between AD 90-120. Justin Martyr of the early 2nd century AD wrote the earliest most complete description of the Christian assembly. There were many Christian writers who wrote about Jesus from the late 1st century through the 2nd century AD. But it isn’t only Christian writers. The Jews and pagans also wrote about Jesus. • Thallus, a pagan historian who wrote a history of the Eastern Mediterranean, mentions there was darkness the day Christ died (AD 50). • Mara Bar-Serapion, an Assyrian Stoic philosopher in the Roman province of Syria, compared Jesus to Socrates (AD 70). • Flavius Josephus, who was a Jew and the official Roman historian, wrote about Jesus with deep respect (AD 93). • Rabbis referenced to him. • The Babylonian Talmud, a central writing of rabbinical Judaism, included several references to Jesus and Christianity (AD 70-200). • Pliny the Younger, a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome, wrote to the Emperor Trajan and described the Christians and Christ (AD 110). • Tacitus, a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire, wrote about Jesus (AD 115-117). • Suetonius, a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire, identified Jesus as the cause of problems with the rule of his followers (AD 120). All this ancient attention is amazing when one considers that Jesus had no political power, no military might, no monetary wealth, no Roman royal blood, and nothing that would ordinarily inspire so many writings. There is more, better, and earlier evidence for the existence of Jesus than for the existence of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all put together. Our earliest physical manuscripts (copies of the originals that we have in hand) in existence today referencing Jesus come from about a hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The manuscripts (copies) we have in existence for Socrates, Plato and Aristotle come more than a thousand years after their deaths, and the manuscripts are very small in number compared to the number of documents which discuss Jesus. It is clearly not the objective historian who questions the historical existence of Jesus.