Historical Evidence

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST?

"Christianity is a historical religion. It claims that God has taken the risk of involving Himself in human history, and the facts are there for you to examine with the utmost rigor. They will stand any amount of critical investigation..." (ref.2, p.61).

THE BIBLE AS A HISTORY BOOK

No historic fact in the Bible ever has been shown to be in error. The Bible text has been used time and again by archaeologists to locate long-lost sites of cities and towns mentioned in the Bible by geographical references made to them. One archaeological discovery, the Ebla site, contained rich archives of clay tablets, an ancient "library" if you will. In these tablets were references to ancient Biblical characters (i.e., Abraham) and sites (i.e., Sodom and Gomorrah) (ref.8, p.83).

The ancient city of Babylon of the famous king Nebuchadnezzar yielded 2500-year-old cuneiform tablets (now located in the British Museum) that contained the name of Jehoichin King of Judah who, along with the inhabitants of Judah, was deported to Babylon as a prisoner after the conquest of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. The tablets dated and described the conquest itself. This discovery substantiates the story recorded in the Bible in 2 Kings, chapter 24 (ref.8, pp.301-304). Any historical statement made in the Bible that has archeological, geographical, or scientific references that have come to surface has been verified by the physical evidences provided by discoveries in these different areas.

JESUS: A REAL PERSON IN HISTORY

"What then, does a historian know about Jesus Christ? He knows, first and foremost, that the New Testament documents can be relied upon to give an accurate portrait of Him. And he knows that this portrait cannot be rationalized away by wishful thinking, philosophical presuppositions, or literary maneuvering" (ref.9, p.40).

Non-Biblical Historical Confirmations:

Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman historian, born A.D. 52-54. He was Governor of Asia in A.D. 112 and son-in-law of Julius Agricola, the Governor of Britain, A.D. 80-84. Writing of the reign of Nero he says, "But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the boundaries that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also" (ref.10).

Lucian, a Satirist of the second century, spoke scornfully of Christ and the Christians. He connected them with the synagogues of Palestine and alluded to Christ as: "...the man who was crucified in Palestine because He introduced this new cult into the world...Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they were all brothers one of another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist Himself and living under His laws" (ref.11).

Flavius Josephus, born A.D. 37, a Jewish historian, became a Pharisee at age 19; in A.D. 66 he was the commander of Jewish forces in Galilee. After being captured, he was attached to the Roman headquarters. He says, "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 principle 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" (ref.12).

"In the whole story of Jesus Christ, the most important event is the resurrection. Christian faith depends on this. It is encouraging to know that it is explicitly given by all four evangelists and also by Paul. The names of those who saw Him after His triumph over death are recorded; it may be said that the historical evidence for the resurrection is stronger than for any other miracle anywhere narrated; for as Paul said, ‘If Christ is not risen from the dead, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also in vain’" (ref.5, p.18).

In his book, "Who Moved the Stone?" (ref.6), Frank Morison, a lawyer, "tells us how he had been brought up in a rationalistic environment, and had come to the opinion that the resurrection was nothing but a fairy tale happy ending which spoiled the matchless story of Jesus. Therefore, he planned to write an account of the last tragic days of Jesus, allowing the full horror of the crime and the full heroism of Jesus to shine through. He would, of course, omit any suspicion of the miraculous, and would utterly discount the resurrection. But when he came to study the facts with care, he had to change his mind, and he wrote his book on the opposite side. His first chapter is significantly called, ‘The Book that Refused to be Written.’ The rest of his volume consists of one of the shrewdest and most attractive written assessments I have ever read..." (ref.2, pp.54-55).

Professor Thomas Arnold, for fourteen years the famous headmaster of Rugby, author of the famous three-volume "History of Rome," appointed to the chair of Modern History at Oxford, was certainly a man well-acquainted with the value of evidence in determining historical facts. This great scholar said in his work, "Sermons on the Christian Life--Its Hopes, Its Fears, and Its Close" (6th ed., London, 1859, p.324):

"The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as every judge summing up a most important cause. I myself have done it many times over, not to persuade others, but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead" (ref.7, pp.425-426).

On the Sunday morning following Jesus' burial, almost 2,000 years ago, something happened that changed the course of history from BC (before Christ) to AD (Latin Anno Domini--the Year of our Lord). That something was so dramatic it completely changed 11 men’s lives so that all but one died a martyr's death, and it turned the world upside down. That "something" was an empty tomb. An empty tomb that a 15-minute walk from the center of Jerusalem would have confirmed, or disproved!

Jesus Christ went through six distinct trials--three Jewish and three Roman. The Roman authorities punished not only the individual who incited the people against the Romans, but the leaders of the people as well. Many Jewish leaders, by circumstance of the political conditions, had to act as informers against some of the dissenters and revolutionaries among their own brethren in order to save their own lives.