Jesus Of Nazareth: Does Jesus Exist?

Some scholars argue that evidence of Jesus of Nazareth 's existence can only be found within the writings of the New Testament. They believe that the New Testament is a biased and unreliable source for the existence of Jesus. They therefore claim that Jesus did not exist. The historical existence of Jesus is necessary to demonstrate the truth of Christianity. While Christian scholars do not discount the reliability of the New Testament as a historical document, they are also able to point to other historical documents and consider non-Christian writings which support the existence of Jesus. In this paper I will argue that Jesus the Nazarene was an actual, historical person and that this can be demonstrated through extra-Biblical resources.

Jesus, a name known by billions throughout the world. To each, this name means something different; savior, friend, philosopher, prophet, teacher, fraud, fake, liar. Some even believe that He is just an imaginary character from the minds of those who wrote about Him. The Westminster Dictionary of Theology describes apologetics as, "Defense, by argument, of Christian belief against external criticism or against other worldly views" (Apologetics 31-32). Though there are still many mysteries that surround the ongoing debate about Christianity, evidence can now prove some of what Christians took by faith before. Now, more than ever, there is information to prove the existence of this man that walked

In regards to Christology from above, I agree that Faith in Christ is not contingent on rational proof. It seems absurd to me that theologians have tried to isolate and separate the proclamation of Christ from the historical account of His life as well as regarding the Book of John over the Synoptic Gospels for study. (Erickson, 608) Christology from below asserts the need to study the kerygma with the historical record and to approach them in the same way as ordinary history and Wolfhart Pannenberg’s conclusion of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ had enough proof to be considered historical fact. Erickson’s Augustinian approach purports this model begins with faith, but it does not remain autonomous of reason. He proposes that faith and reason can work in conjunction on the concept that the more understanding the researcher receives toward the kerygmatic Christ, the more he will appreciate and incorporate additional historical research. (Erickson 614-615)

Here are a few of the challenges Christians face about this topic. The first is some claim that the only document he is written in is the New Testament. This is false as he is included in several other writings including Suetonius and Tacitus. It is much easier for people to question his existence 2,000 years after his death because he is not here to prove them wrong, but he was there to prove them wrong 2,000 years ago. Not once was the question ever brought up if Jesus existed 2,000 years ago. This is because they were there with him with proof in front of them. Another reason to support the claim he did exist is the way the Jews described Jesus in the Gospels. He was depicted as weak and as infamous to the Jews by being hung on the cross. Jews wouldn’t logically depict their God this

There is a lot of evidence which point to the truth of Christianity. If the resurrection of Jesus truly occurred, then Jesus is God the son. If the resurrection did not occur, then he is not God the son.

In Jesus of Nazareth, Paula Fredriksen seeks to answer one pressing question about the historical Jesus: Why was Jesus crucified? Through an exploration of written sources, including the Gospels, Paul’s letters, works by pagan authors, works by Jewish authors like Josephus, and Second Temple Judaism sources, as well as archeological evidence, Fredriksen attempts to pull different understandings of Jesus, the society in which he lives, and the Christian movement that followed him into an historical image of Jesus. His message, journey, and impact are all topics of Fredriksen’s discussion, but her emphasis is on the information we know for certain: Jesus was crucified and none of his followers experienced the same fate. Fredriksen introduces the book with background information about historical Jesus research. She is careful to outline significant amounts of disagreement among scholars because there are so many different research methods, sources, and interpretations involved in the process.

A quote from Sherri Sheared, an article writer, Says, “I believe that Jesus died for my sins, and rose again, and that's my belief” (1). Jesus was a giving man and he lead religion in a positive way for many people. In this article surveys say that Jesus really did exist on this earth at one time. The statistics say that he was a healer just like the bible said. Jesus was also a helper to anyone in need; therefore, he was the child of God. Although some people do not think Jesus is real, research shows that he did exist and he walked the earth at one point changing the perspective of how people saw him.

There are many things about Jesus that Dr. Ehrman and Dr. Bird do not debate in these books. They both recognize that Jesus was a real historical figure that was born in Galilee. They both believe that: the Gospels are the earliest writings we have of Jesus, Jesus was crucified, died on the cross, and some of Jesus’ disciples truly believed he rose from the dead (Robert Bowman). In class, Dr. Ehrman talked about veridical vs non-veridical vision. He believes that they may have had visions, or hallucinations, of Jesus after his crucifixion. It is nearly impossible to prove if Jesus truly appeared to them or not. It would be amazing if new evidence could be found for these types of discussions.

Much of the historical evidence points to a historical Jesus who did many supernatural acts throughout his lifetime. As Boyd says, "Jesus is not a symbol of anything unless he's root in history. " Those who state that the Jesus of faith was merely

Gary Habermas in The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus calls this the minimal facts approach. “The minimal facts approach considers only the data that meets two criteria: 1. The data are strongly evidenced 2. The data are granted by virtually all scholars on the subject, even the skeptical ones.” On the basis of this approach, four different arguments will be examined for the resurrection of Christ in this paper.

We all know the story of Jesus. He was born to Mary the virgin and was raised to adulthood. Then, through a turn of events, became targeted and eventually, after immense pain and suffering, died on the cross. He then returned, to life, walked on water, and more. To non-believers it does seem like an extreme story that cannot possibly be factual. To believers, it is

Yancey provides many clear pieces of evidence supporting his idea that the Jesus he grew up with is different than the actual Jesus who lived over two-thousand years ago. He proves how different Jesus’ birth was than how people make it out to be in this day and age. Yancey points out how his birth was amid a time of great religious conflict and scandal, and would have been much different than Christmas cards and stories would have some believe. When Mary was given the news that she would be the mother of Jesus, Joseph did not accept it as truth. Joseph thought Mary had committed adultery, and Yancey even states, “Matthew tells of Joseph magnanimously agreeing to divorce Mary in private rather than press charges, until an angel shows up to correct his perception of betrayal.” (Yancey 31) Only when an angel came to Joseph, did he believe Mary would give birth to Jesus. This part of the birth of Jesus is not one that is told to anyone learning the Christmas story. It is one part of many that are overlooked because they do not fit with the calm, yet miraculous, birth told of in church. Yancey uses arguments such as the one above to convince his reader there is more to Jesus than what most Christians think. His arguments are backed up by facts from the Bible, and because of this, he successfully creates a strong basis for his

The quest for the knowledge on the historical Jesus started as a protest against the traditional dogma of Christianity, but when the neutral historians joined the movement, all they saw was Jesus without features. Even when these scholars decided that other biblical figures such as John the evangelist, John the Baptist, Paul, and others were at home in a symbolic and richly storied world. Jesus himself

First, The facts ABOUT JESUS were recorded by eyewitnesses, who gave firsthand testimony the what they had seen and heard. The apostles are the closest that we will get to verifiable truths. Where it can be argued that I as 21st centrury pastor , I am believing a lie that can be argued against the apostles, for they were in a position to verify the existence of Jesus, and willing to die for him. Now people die for lies all the times, however no one dies for a lie that they can easily verify as a lie. In other words The writers were all living at the same time these events transpired, and they had personal contact with the events or with people who witnessed the events. Many people that we assume as historical, is assumed as such with things with far less evicence. We don’t have anything close to eye witness testimony on Julius Caesar. I thnk the olderst document is written something like 300 years after his death, and I think I am being generous with that, if I remember correctly… 1) Plato has about 1250 manuscript evidence, Caesar has about 950 much of them comes from Rome. BUt the bible we have

My opponent has claimed that Jesus is historical. That he performed many miracles including raising himself from the dead. That we have good reason to believe these miracles happened due to so called eyewitnesses. He concludes that accepting those things prove that the Jesus is God. I maintain