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I’ve just read an “International
Best-seller” on atheism. The author makes Richard
Dawkins look quite reasonable! I have read a much
bigger academic book on atheism recently and quite
enjoyed the challenge. But this book is a rather
irritating rant – high on emotion and low on rational
argument. Well, he is a journalist rather than a
scholar! He even casts doubt on the idea that Jesus
actually existed, which hardly any scholar would do
nowadays. Graham Stanton, Professor of New Testament
Studies at Cambridge, wrote: “Today, nearly all
historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus
existed and that the gospels contain plenty of valuable
evidence which has to be weighed and assessed
critically.”
But, let’s take the question
seriously for a moment. How do we know Jesus existed?
Firstly:
Non-Christian historians refer
to Jesus
These include the Jewish historian,
Flavius Josephus (AD 37-101), Tacitus, a Roman historian
who was born 52-55AD, Pliny the Younger, Roman Governor
of Bithynia who wrote to the Emperor Trajan about 112AD
and the Roman historian Suetonius (c. 70-160 AD). All
of these writers had cause to be negative towards Jesus
and Christians. Josephus would have agreed with Jesus’
Jewish opponents. The Romans regarded Christianity as a
threat to civil order and peace. Yet they recorded
Jesus’ existence and some facts about him. Secondly:
The New Testament was written
very soon after Jesus died.
This is important because the
closer the accounts are to the events they describe, the
more reliable they are and the less likely it is that
legendary material has been added. Jesus died around
30AD and Paul’s earliest letters were written between 18
and 30 years later, obviously while eye witnesses were
still around.
We know that people in the ancient
world passed on historical accounts by word of mouth
very accurately, as well as writing them down. The
earliest Gospel (Mark) was written only about 30 years
after Jesus died and it was based on earlier written
accounts.
But, have the New Testament books
been altered over the centuries? Are they still
reliable? Yes, they are reliable because:
We have very early copies of New
Testament writings
One of these ancient copies we have
recently discovered was written only 30 years after the
original was written. Other copies we have discovered
were written 130 to 150 years after the original. And
they show that our modern version of the New Testament
is very accurate. In fact we have 25,000 ancient
manuscripts of the New Testament.
This compares with less than 50
(and in many cases less than 10) copies of ancient
manuscripts of non-Christian historians which were made
around 1000 years after the originals were written. Yet
nobody doubts their reliability.
The evidence for the New Testament
being reliable history is overwhelming.
Jesus certainly existed and has had
an amazingly profound impact on the world for 2000 years
now. He’s not just a figure of history: he’d like to
make an impact for good in your life. Why not invite him
to do so? But don’t do it unless you mean it, because he
will take you up on it.
Tony Higton |
Do
We Believe in 3 Gods?
