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Many different people have many different answers to the question, "Who is Jesus?" Over two thousand years after he was born people are still talking about him; who he was and what he did. Of the many answers people may give some of them are just plain wrong. Why? There are unavoidable historical facts about Jesus. Today I will focus on just two.
My references to historical writings and authors have been influenced by, and taken from the research and writing of Gary Habermas, found here.
Jesus Lived. When it comes to the person of Jesus, it is impossible to get around the fact that he lived. He is not a mythical figure. We don't still talk about Jesus today because a conspiracy was hatched to dupe people into a certain religious belief. People keep talking about Jesus because historians like Cornelius Tacitus (a Roman historian), Josephus (a Jewish historian), and Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas (historian and chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian) all wrote about him. So if someone takes the position, "I don't believe Jesus was a real person," history is not their friend, nor is it on their side.
All three historians have accounts of a man referred to as "Chrestus," "Christus," and "Jesus." According to Habermas, the first two are the Latin versions of "Christ." Since none of these authors are Christians, they should be considered to be unbiased spectators. In other words, they did not include Jesus in their writings because they wanted to support or propagate the Christian faith. They wrote about him because they were preserving the history of the times in which Jesus lived, and included him because his presence in history was significant. Since it can be said with great confidence that Jesus Christ lived, the next question should be asked, "What else does history tell us about him?"
Jesus was crucified at the hands of Romans. Tacitus gives an account confirming that Jesus "suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus." Observe that this matches the Gospel accounts of the New Testament (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 18). Josephus also records, "Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die." On a side note, even the Islamic faith book, the Qu'ran, teaches that Jesus was a man and that he was crucified.
At this point, one of the most interesting and telling questions surfaces - "Why was Jesus killed by the Romans?" In the discussion of who Jesus is, many people believe that Jesus was a good man, a good teacher, moral, peaceful, a prophet, etc. None of these qualities particularly line up with a man that would be condemned to suffer the death penalty. If a person doesn't believe in the biblical accounts of Jesus, then they have to find some reason why Jesus was killed.
If he committed a crime deserving of the death penalty then he was neither moral nor a good teacher. If he stirred people up against the government of Rome, forcing them to oppose him, then he was neither a good man, peaceful nor a good teacher. If he was put to death as a blasphemer (one who is not God but claims to be) then he is neither moral, a good man, nor a good teacher - and certainly not a prophet of God.
In closing, it is pertinent to quote Jesus, "Who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:29). I hope you would answer as Peter did, "You are the Christ."
My references to historical writings and authors have been influenced by, and taken from the research and writing of Gary Habermas, found here.
Jesus Lived. When it comes to the person of Jesus, it is impossible to get around the fact that he lived. He is not a mythical figure. We don't still talk about Jesus today because a conspiracy was hatched to dupe people into a certain religious belief. People keep talking about Jesus because historians like Cornelius Tacitus (a Roman historian), Josephus (a Jewish historian), and Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas (historian and chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian) all wrote about him. So if someone takes the position, "I don't believe Jesus was a real person," history is not their friend, nor is it on their side.
All three historians have accounts of a man referred to as "Chrestus," "Christus," and "Jesus." According to Habermas, the first two are the Latin versions of "Christ." Since none of these authors are Christians, they should be considered to be unbiased spectators. In other words, they did not include Jesus in their writings because they wanted to support or propagate the Christian faith. They wrote about him because they were preserving the history of the times in which Jesus lived, and included him because his presence in history was significant. Since it can be said with great confidence that Jesus Christ lived, the next question should be asked, "What else does history tell us about him?"
Jesus was crucified at the hands of Romans. Tacitus gives an account confirming that Jesus "suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus." Observe that this matches the Gospel accounts of the New Testament (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 18). Josephus also records, "Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die." On a side note, even the Islamic faith book, the Qu'ran, teaches that Jesus was a man and that he was crucified.
At this point, one of the most interesting and telling questions surfaces - "Why was Jesus killed by the Romans?" In the discussion of who Jesus is, many people believe that Jesus was a good man, a good teacher, moral, peaceful, a prophet, etc. None of these qualities particularly line up with a man that would be condemned to suffer the death penalty. If a person doesn't believe in the biblical accounts of Jesus, then they have to find some reason why Jesus was killed.
If he committed a crime deserving of the death penalty then he was neither moral nor a good teacher. If he stirred people up against the government of Rome, forcing them to oppose him, then he was neither a good man, peaceful nor a good teacher. If he was put to death as a blasphemer (one who is not God but claims to be) then he is neither moral, a good man, nor a good teacher - and certainly not a prophet of God.
In closing, it is pertinent to quote Jesus, "Who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:29). I hope you would answer as Peter did, "You are the Christ."