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The Life of Christ

Other essays.

The life of Christ, though only 30-some years long and only containing three years of public ministry, proclaimed to the whole world that God had come to live among us and to lead us all to pursue holy lives of love by following him, a claim that was vindicated through the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

While Jesus only lived into his mid-thirties and carried out only three years of public ministry, his claims to divinity and authority have spread around the world and shaped our culture more than any other figure. Although hesitant to speak publicly about his Messiahship for much of his ministry, Jesus made clear in multiple ways that he carried with him both the presence and authority of God, making himself equal to God and igniting the tempers of the Jewish leaders. Jesus came to form a people who loved God and reflected him to a needy world by a different kind of life and love that stands out in a needy world, establishing himself as the lord of that people. All of Jesus’s claims and teachings were vindicated by his resurrection from the dead. Because God raised him from the dead, we ought to believe all that he claimed and taught.

THE LIFE OF CHRIST

Summarizing the life of history’s most dominant and unique figure is a challenge. The importance of Jesus is shown by the fact that his life is the dividing point in our calendar between the era before Christ and that which followed the life of our Lord. We proceed in four steps. First, we look at the broad chronological and geographical outline of his ministry. Next we consider what he said about himself and his kingdom program. Then, we look at what that call means for people. Finally, we consider how God vindicated this life and its claims.

The Outline of Jesus’ Ministry

The dates of Jesus’s ministry are tied to the timing of his crucifixion and the ministry of John the Baptist. Two options for the date of his crucifixion are the years AD 30 or 33. Our uncertainty revolves around being able to pinpoint exactly when in the time of Pontius Pilate’s rule as procurator Jesus was executed. Evidence for Jesus’s existence and his death during Pilate’s reign extend even to non-Christian writings, prominent of which is the testimony of Josephus, who noted that Jewish leaders and Pilate were responsible for Jesus’ death ( Antiquities of the Jews, 18.63-64)

The Synoptic Gospels tell us that Jesus’s birth just preceded the death of Herod the Great. He died around 4 BC according to details Josephus supplies for us about the circumstances of his death. (The idea that the Christ was born before the end of the BC era comes from a mathematical error made in figuring the calendar dating from medieval times and now properly adjusted.) All of this means Jesus likely lived into his mid 30’s.

The Synoptic Gospels do not give us enough chronological information to be able to determine the length of Jesus’ ministry as they only record one trip to Jerusalem. John’s Gospel gives us more help here as he mentions up to four trips to Jerusalem (Passover texts; John 2:13, 23; 5:1 [not called a Passover]; 6:4; 11:55) and also notes the beginning of Jesus’s ministry in Perea, a detail the Synoptics lack. The Synoptics focus on his ministry primarily in the Galilean region with a key final trip to Jerusalem as he sensed what his ultimate fate would be there. This means that Jesus’s ministry likely lasted just over three years. This is an extremely short time to have made the impact Jesus’s life had. That raises the question of what he did and taught that made such an impression.

What Jesus Said about Himself and His Kingdom Program

An important precursor to Jesus’s life that sets up his ministry and frames its importance is a remark made by John the Baptist that appears in Matthew, Mark and Luke about the one coming after him baptizing with the Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11-12; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:15-17). Luke’s version tells us that this remark came in response to speculation that John might be the Christ. HIs answer is a denial of that possibility and explains how to know if the Messiah and new era has come. To bring the Spirit is to bring the new era the prophets proclaimed (Jer. 31–34; Ezek. 34–36). The point is that the one who brings the Spirt and the new era can be identified as the Christ. The sign of the new era is the arrival of the Spirit of God for God’s people. That Spirit cannot be placed in God’s people without a provision of forgiveness, something the New Covenant promised.

John and Jesus also both announced the kingdom coming and the need to repent (Matt. 3:2; Mark 1:3, 15). Repentance leads to forgiveness and the kingdom coming introduces the program Jesus will bring with him as God’s sent one.

Interestingly, Jesus was hesitant to speak about being the Messiah in public. He did not often do so openly until his final visit to Jerusalem. In fact, at several points in his ministry, he told people not to speak of this (most famously in Mark 8:30). This was because his role as the Christ was likely to be misunderstood as a challenge to Rome and as lacking any suffering. We see the latter issue in Peter’s initial hesitation when Jesus first announces he will suffer after Peter has confessed him as the Christ (Matt. 16:21–23). Only when it becomes important to press the matter to a decision does Jesus declare himself in public. Interestingly, he does so more by action than by a statement as he rode into Jerusalem the final time on the back of a donkey, a messianic act that also pointed to a humble Messiah (Matt. 21:1–11; Mark 11:1–10; Luke 19:28–40; John 12:12-19; cf. Zech. 9:9). This emphasis on action fits with Jesus’s response when John the Baptist sent messengers to confirm if Jesus was the one to come. Jesus did not answer with a direct affirmation but instead pointed to what he was doing as his reply (Matt. 11:2-6; Luke 7:18–23). The activity he engaged in pointed to the new era of restoration and to who he is. Just so, the bulk of Jesus’s activity was designed to reveal his role.

Jesus’s self-designation of choice was Son of Man. It only appears on his lips in the Gospels. It is an interesting choice. This title is both an idiom and has contact with the Old Testament in Daniel 7. The expression simply means a human being; just like one is a son of David or Sue, so the Son of Man is the son of a human. The idiom means “someone” or, more debatably, “I.” Jesus clearly used it as a self-reference, which would make it in effect, “this someone.” The connection to Daniel 7 means it refers to that unique figure who rides the clouds, something only divinity does in the OT. That figure receives authority from the Ancient of Days, who signifies God. So the title uniquely combines humanity and divinity, which is likely why it was Jesus’s title of choice.

So what was this authority Jesus bore? That points in part to two ideas: the kingdom itself and the kinds of things Jesus did to show who he is. The kingdom announced in the NT is the promised kingdom of restoration. With Jesus it comes in an already/not yet manner as its benefits, such as forgiveness and the Spirit, come now while the judgment that brings full kingdom authority comes later. This latter part of the kingdom is wrapped up in sayings Jesus gave about the returning Son of Man in passages like the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21). While some of what Jesus did here might mirror what a prophet might do, some of his actions mirror divine authority. Whether one thinks of Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath, his ruling on the law in general, the changed imagery of the Passover to his death, the temple purging, exorcisms, raising people from the dead, controlling the creation, or forgiving sin—Jesus is doing things that God does and/or exercising authority over things God has set up. These acts disclose who he is. They point to his central role in the kingdom. Thus, when John’s Gospel emphasized believing in the one God has sent, it is these characteristics that are being underscored (John 1:12; 3:16; 17:3). Jesus is the person who brings the unique time of kingdom promise and with it comes the salvation that permanently connects the one who responds to God. All of this raises the question, What does this response ask of us who come to him and receive this forgiveness?

What Does Jesus’ Life Call for from People and for God’s People?

The role of the Holy Spirit in God’s program was the subject of Jesus’s Upper Room discourse (John 14–16). Jesus said he had to depart so he might send the Paraclete. The consummate gift in salvation is eternal life and that life is driven by the presence of God’s Spirit within God’s people. The Spirit gives a teaching and enablement that people lack without his presence.

A second key discourse is the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7). This teaching makes several points. First, Jesus’s role is to make sure that what the law sought is fulfilled and developed in God’s people. In his exposition, he shows the intent of the law was not merely to provide an external standard for righteousness but to develop and cause us to examine how people respond internally. In a series of antitheses, he makes clear the issue is not murder but anger, not adultery but lust, not divorce but keeping vows, not taking an oath but being truthful, not living eye for eye but turning the cheek, and not loving some and hating enemies but loving your enemy. Jesus also goes on to highlight the importance of caring for those in need through alms without drawing attention to oneself, the role of dependent prayer and fasting, storing up treasure in heaven not on earth, and trusting God for one’s care. Jesus stresses a mutual accountability that does not involves judging or failing to note one’s own flaws. Jesus urges followers to pray to God and trust he will give what is good to them. He reminds people the way is narrow and that they can tell the heart by its fruit, and that the way is seen by those who know him. Failure to heed his teaching is like building a house that will collapse. All this teaching reminds us that Jesus is not only presenting a call to live righteously before God but that knowing him and his teaching is central to such a life.

Jesus describes his own call in Luke 4:16–30: to call the poor to life and release the captives, to declare a time of forgiveness that he compared to the year of Jubilee. The restoration the kingdom brings changes people and how they relate to each other. When Paul wrote about the impact of Jesus’s life and death, he described it as a ministry of reconciliation, not only in one’s relationship to God but also of people to each other (2 Cor. 5:17–21; Eph. 2:11–22).

Jesus spent much time warning that excessive attachment to this world and the pursuit of things in it would be an obstacle to spiritual well-being. One cannot serve God and money (Matt. 6:24). The rich fool dealt with riches in ways that were selfish and left him with nothing (Luke 12:13–21).

The moral call is summed up in the Great Commandment: love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love one’s neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:28–34). This ethical triangle of God, self and others fits with earlier biblical teaching as the Ten Commandments come in two parts: some dealing with how one relates to God and then how one treats others. That also coheres with what John the Baptist’s mission was in preparing a people for God’s coming: to turn the people back to God, fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just (Luke 1:16–17).

When Jesus gathered his disciples for the last time at the Lord’s Supper, he reconfigured what had been the celebration of Passover to describe the point of his coming death. His death was his body and blood given for those who recognized their need for what Jesus was offering. The death offered by substitution life with God through the forgiveness it provided. It frees the way to a full life. This connects to what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, where the call was to shine as light so people could see their good and be drawn to the Father. This community of people Jesus was forming became the church. Much of the rest of the New Testament seeks to instruct this community on what life with God and righteousness looks like, not just in individual terms but as a corporate entity dedicated to walking with God and reflecting his image as we live.

Finally, Jesus made it clear that all are accountable to him and that one day, when the Son of Man returns, he will judge all for their response to the call of the kingdom (Mark 13:24-27; Luke 10:13-16).

In sum, Jesus sought to form a people who loved God and reflected him to a needy world by a different kind of life and love that stands out in a needy world. This life honors God and reflects his character. It is rooted in a contrast to how the world lives and is nurtured in a community that encourages a faithful life of love and service to God and others.

God’s Vindication of the Life of Christ

When Jesus stood before the Jewish leadership and was asked if he was the Christ, he replied positively and then noted he would be seen as the Son of Man riding the clouds and seated at God’s right hand (Matt. 26:62–66; Mark 14:61–65; Luke 22:66–71). He was affirming that whatever they did to him, God would vindicate him and show him to be what he had claimed. The dispute was between the leader’s view of Jesus as a blasphemer and Jesus’ view that God would vindicate him as the one who sits with God and shares in the execution of the divine program. Who was right? The resurrection, so central to Christian teaching and Jesus’s life, was an act of God that vindicated Jesus’s claims, showing who he is (Rom. 1:4). The resurrection was God’s vote in this dispute. It underscores that what Jesus’s life was did reflect the way and will of God. It also underscored that the call of Jesus to people is what God desires of us.

In summarizing Jesus’s life, we also address the question of the historical Jesus. This portrait indicates that the so-called gap between the historical Jesus and Christ of faith does not exist. Although the early church’s treatment of Jesus develops the significance of his life, that portrait is aligned with the life and teaching of Jesus and what he called people to be.

Further Reading

• Darrell Bock, Jesus according to Scripture . See an author interview here .
• Darrell Bock, Jesus, the God-Man
• Harold Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ
• Mark Strauss, Four Portraits, One Jesus
• Robert Stein, Jesus the Messiah

This essay is part of the Concise Theology series. All views expressed in this essay are those of the author. This essay is freely available under Creative Commons License with Attribution-ShareAlike, allowing users to share it in other mediums/formats and adapt/translate the content as long as an attribution link, indication of changes, and the same Creative Commons License applies to that material. If you are interested in translating our content or are interested in joining our community of translators,  please reach out to us .

This essay has been translated into French .

Get to Know Jesus Christ, the Central Figure in Christianity

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Jesus Christ (circa 4 BC - AD 33) is the central figure and founder of Christianity. His life, message, and ministry are chronicled in the four Gospels of the New Testament .

Who Is Jesus Christ?

• Also Known as : Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Anointed One, or the Messiah of Israel. He is Immanuel (of Emmanuel from the Greek), meaning “God with us.” He is the Son of God, the Son of Man, and Savior of the World.
• Known for : Jesus was a first-century Jewish carpenter from Nazareth in Galilee. He became a master teacher who performed many miracles of healing and deliverance. He called 12 Jewish men to follow him, working closely with them to train and prepare them to carry on the ministry. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word of God, fully human and fully divine, Creator and Savior of the World, and the founder of Christianity. He died on a Roman cross to give his life as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world to accomplish human redemption.
• Bible References: Jesus is mentioned more than 1,200 times in the New Testament. His life, message, and ministry are recorded in the four Gospels of the New Testament : Matthew , Mark , Luke , and John .
• Occupation : Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, was a carpenter, or skilled craftsman by trade. Most likely, Jesus worked alongside his father Joseph as a carpenter. In the book of Mark, chapter 6, verse 3, Jesus is referred to as a carpenter.
• Hometown : Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea and grew up in Nazareth in Galilee.

The name Jesus is derived from the Hebrew-Aramaic word Yeshua , meaning “Yahweh [the Lord] is salvation.” The name Christ is actually a title for Jesus. It comes from the Greek word “Christos,” meaning “the Anointed One,” or “Messiah” in Hebrew.

Jesus Christ was crucified in Jerusalem by order of Pontius Pilate , the Roman governor, for claiming to be the King of the Jews. He resurrected three days after his death, appeared to his disciples, and then ascended into heaven .

His life and death provided the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. The Bible teaches that humankind was separated from God through Adam 's sin but was reconciled back to God through Jesus Christ's sacrifice.

In the future, Jesus Christ will return to earth to claim his Bride, the church. At his Second Coming , Christ will judge the world and establish his eternal kingdom, thus fulfilling messianic prophecy .

Accomplishments of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ's accomplishments are too numerous to list. Scripture teaches that he was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life. He turned water into wine , healed many sick, blind, and lame people. He forgave sins, he multiplied fish and loaves of bread to feed thousands on more than one occasion, he delivered the demon-possessed, he walked on water , he calmed the stormy sea, he raised children and adults from death to life. Jesus Christ proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God .

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He laid down his life and was crucified . He descended into hell and took the keys of death and hell. He resurrected from the dead. Jesus Christ paid for the sins of the world and purchased the pardon of men. He restored man's fellowship with God, opening the way to eternal life . These are just a few of his extraordinary accomplishments.

Although difficult to understand, the Bible teaches and Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate , or Immanuel , "God with us." Jesus Christ has always existed and has always been God (John 8:58 and 10:30). For more information about Christ's divinity, visit this study of the doctrine of the Trinity .

Scripture reveals that Jesus Christ was not only fully God, but fully man. He became a human being so that he could identify with our weaknesses and struggles, and most importantly so that he could give his life to pay the penalty for the sins of all humankind (John 1:1,14; Hebrews 2:17; Philippians 2:5-11).

Life Lessons

Once again, the lessons from Jesus Christ's life are far too numerous to list. Love for mankind, sacrifice, humility, purity, servanthood, obedience, and devotion to God are some of the most important lessons that his life exemplified.

Family Tree

• Heavenly Father - God the Father
• Earthly Father - Joseph
• Mother - Mary
• Brothers - James, Joseph, Judas and Simon (Mark 3:31 and 6:3; Matthew 12:46 and 13:55; Luke 8:19)
• Sisters - Not named but mentioned in Matthew 13:55-56 and Mark 6:3.
• The Genealogy of Jesus : Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-37.

Key Bible Verses

Isaiah 9:6–7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (NIV)

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (NIV)

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (NIV)

• Meet Joseph - Earthly Father of Jesus
• 7 Things You Didn't Know About Jesus
• The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
• Meet Thaddeus: The Apostle With Many Names
• Philip the Apostle - Follower of Jesus Christ
• Chronology of the Birth and Life of Jesus Christ
• The Gospels
• Facts About the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
• What Is the Nativity of Jesus?
• Introduction to the Gospel of Matthew
• Who Is God the Father Within the Trinity?
• Introduction to the Gospel of Mark
• The Role of Anointing Oil in the Bible
• Meet John the Baptist: The Greatest Man to Ever Live
• What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

Search Journey with Jesus Website

Translate journey with jesus website.

• Everyone Born of God Overcomes the World

Poem for upper right module: https://www.journeywithjesus.net/poemsandprayers/672-prudentius-of-the-fathers-love-begotten

Image for upper right module home page: https://149508434.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Aurelius-Clemens-Prudentius-400x400.png

Teaser text for upper right home page module: Aurelius Prudentius' earliest poems are the twelve hymns contained in the Cathemerinon (for use in the morning, at meals, and at night, from which the collection took its name).

RCL Scriptures for the week

Acts 10:44-48 1 John 5:1-6 John 15:9-17 Psalm 98

From Our Archive

Debie Thomas, "It's All About Love" (2021) and "As I Have Loved You" (2018).

For Sunday April 28, 2024

Lectionary Readings ( Revised Common Lectionary , Year C)

This Week's Essay

THANK YOU to Michael Fitzpatrick for a six-week series of lectionary essays from Easter to Pentecost. Michael was a regular staff writer for JWJ from 2020 to 2023. He is a U. S. Army veteran and philosopher. He served five years in the Army as a Chaplain's Assistant, which included two deployments to Iraq during 2004-05 and 2006-08. Michael is finishing his PhD at Stanford University.

Plato’s telling of the trial and death of Socrates is quite paradoxical. The Athenian Senate, providing all the trappings of a show trial, condemns Socrates to suffer the death penalty for “corrupting the youth” and “preaching false gods,” yet he says they can do him no harm. Socrates’ disciples are so distraught some of them try to break him out of prison, but he refuses to go. On the day of his execution, Socrates assures those who gather to say their goodbyes that his destiny is the land of the blessed, and it is those who condemned him to death who should be pitied.

In later writings, Plato defended Socrates’ perspective that even a cruel and unjust death as a good person is better than living with riches and happiness gained through cruelty, deception, and exploitation. In one of his dialogues, the Gorgias , Plato imagines Socrates telling a couple notable Greek intellectuals that “it is better to suffer wickedness than commit it.” His interlocutors, Polus and Callicles, are utterly flummoxed by this assertion. They cannot understand how someone who has a successful career in politics or military command or trade by taking advantage of others to get ahead has a worse life than someone who is never cruel or unkind or seeks power over others and who, because of their gentleness, is abused, harassed, and perhaps even murdered by those with power.

Plato’s notion that it is always better to be good and just even if it doesn’t get you ahead in life and even if you suffer injustice for your principled stance (think Dr. King in the Birmingham jail) has significant resonance with the lives of those who earnestly follow God.

David Brooks has recently told the story of Etty Hillesum, a young Dutch Jewish woman living in the Netherlands in the 1940's when Nazi Germany invaded and occupied her country. Although initially a non-observant Jew, Etty found herself compelled into prayer during this time. Her restless searching for God led her to read deeply from the Psalms and later from the Gospels. As she pressed into the presence of God in her life, she discovered how much beauty in the world around her she had been missing, from the radiance of the flowers in the fields to the textures of a friend’s clothing. She was surrounded by one of the most awful moments in Dutch history and yet she inexplicably found the joy of God welling up inside her.

In 1942 when the Nazi incarceration of Jews reached the Netherlands, Etty refused to flee the country, instead going to work at Westerbork where she served Jewish prisoners in transit to Nazi concentration camps. She provided meals and medical care, assisted in squaring away affairs, and she mailed letters for her Jewish sisters and brothers before they were sent off. Those who survived the war and remembered her described her as a person of inexplicable warmth and compassion amidst a godforsaken scene.

A year later, her own name came up for internment, and Etty was shipped off to Auschwitz. When she left, she wrote on a piece of paper, “The Lord is my high tower,” quoting Psalm 18. Those were her last recorded words.

From a worldly perspective, it would seem that Etty had a terrible life that ended with her unjust murder as part of the Holocaust. Yet from the perspective of faith, Etty lived for that which rust and moth and Nazi executioners cannot destroy. If Plato’s maxim is that it is better to die doing what is good than live committing wickedness, Jesus adds in our Gospel reading that it is better to lay down our lives for our friends than to live only for ourselves. For that is what love is, Jesus tells us. Etty was loving her Jewish neighbors in their hour of greatest need, even though she knew doing so would be fatal. In her love, she had victory over her captors, even when they executed her.

These stories illuminate the full meaning of St. John’s remarkable claims in 1 John 5. He tells his readers that loving God is keeping God’s commands. Think of God’s commands as what Etty was doing in serving imprisoned Jews at her transit hub. She seemed like a slave, a pawn in a nightmarish political snare tightening around her and her people. Yet by obeying God’s commands, she loved God, and so had “a victory that overcomes the world.” How can this be? How could Etty’s life be one of victory over the powers dominating her people?

Jesus’ story is quite similar to the stories I’ve been retelling. Jesus, venerated by his followers as the long-awaited Jewish messiah, not only fails to liberate Judea and Samaria from Roman occupation, he also gets himself crucified! Yet within weeks of his ignominious public execution Jesus’ followers were running around Jerusalem proclaiming that God had raised Jesus from the dead, and over the next few years they insisted that Jesus had been exalted by God to be Lord over the whole earth and the cosmos!

In our previous Eastertide readings John has taught us that, by his death, Jesus has purified us from all sin (1.7). By his resurrection Jesus has destroyed the devil’s work (3.8). Because Jesus has first loved us we are free to love others utterly and completely (4.11). Although Jesus’ life and death seems like a failure by worldly standards, Jesus actually accomplished the ultimate act of love that allows us to pass from death to eternal life (3.13).

Rooted in Jesus’ victory, those who love God and love others invoke a power that is greater than any earthly government or military. Etty’s Nazi jailers held all the physical power over her life, yet all they could achieve was a culture of death and paranoia. No matter how hard they tried to demoralize Etty her joy and willingness to love wastefully only grew.

Etty’s life embodies John’s most extraordinary claim, that “God’s commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world” (5.3–4). Although it can seem like Etty was an exceptional person, a moral “Sabrina Ionescu” capable of doing impossible acts of love that the rest of us will never achieve, John’s message implies that in one sense, her acts of devotion weren’t difficult at all. If God in Jesus has already overcome the worldly powers, then we are free to just do what God commands unfettered. Etty found herself serving as if it was breathing. She laid down her life in love because God had already overcome the world for her.

Not just anyone can become an Etty Hillesum. John is clear that those who “overcome the world” are “born of God.” If we have only a worldly birth, then the commands of God are burdensome, because we are acting from our own strength alone. But when we are born again — that is, when we participate in Christ’s death and resurrection to become new people living within Jesus’ eternal life — then we are living and loving by the strength of God first loving us.

There can be no compromise between a perspective that says the lives of Socrates, Jesus, and Etty Hillesum (and saints like her) are failures, and the perspective of God that says they have overcome the world. We must study the scriptures, pray to our God, and with the Church seek the perspective of God so that we too can participate in the victory that overcomes the world. We must be born of God, just as Christ was born of God.

The lesson here is not that we are all to seek out monumental moral acts like that of Etty Hillesum so that we can prove our love for God. For most of us, obeying God’s commands means something as simple as letting the garbage disposal woman know how grateful we are that she has picked up our waste, or changing a bed pan for an aging parent. All these acts of laying down our lives for another are not burdensome if we do them with God. We are not the source of such moral courage. Instead, in every moment we simply focus on the God who first loved us, who sent Jesus as an atoning sacrifice to overcome the world for us, so that we might be free to lay down our lives for others — even when we do not want to, and especially when the world thinks us mad for doing so.

Weekly Prayer William Boyd Carpenter (1841–1918) Before Thy Throne, O God, We Kneel Before thy throne, O God, we kneel: give us a conscience quick to feel, a ready mind to understand the meaning of thy chastening hand; whate'er the pain and shame may be, bring us, O Father, nearer thee. Search out our hearts and make us true; help us to give to all their due. From love of pleasure, lust of gold, from sins which make the heart grow cold, wean us and train us with thy rod; teach us to know our faults, O God. For sins of heedless word and deed, for pride ambitions to succeed, for crafty trade and subtle snare to catch the simple unaware, for lives bereft of purpose high, forgive, forgive, O Lord, we cry. Let the fierce fires which burn and try, our inmost spirits purify: consume the ill; purge out the shame; O God, be with us in the flame; a newborn people may we rise, more pure, more true, more nobly wise.

Michael Fitzpatrick cherishes comments and questions via [email protected]

Image credits: (1)  Fine Art America ; (2)  Wikimedia.org ; and (3)  Wikimedia.org .

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Interpreting Jesus: Essays on the Gospels (Collected Essays of N. T. Wright) Hardcover – July 14, 2020

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Draws together the most important articles on Jesus and the gospels by distinguished scholar and author N. T. Wright.

Interpreting Jesus puts into one volume the development of Wright's thought on this subject over the last three decades. It collects the essays—written for a wide variety of publications—that led up to his groundbreaking book Jesus and the Victory of God , and it includes such wide-ranging themes as:

• The Biblical Roots of Trinitarian Theology
• The History, Eschatology, and New Creation in John's Gospel
• The Evangelists' Use of the Old Testament as an Implicit Overarching Narrative
• And The Public Meaning of the Gospels

Interpreting Jesus displays Wright's engaging prose, his courage to go where few have gone, and his joy to bridge the work of the academy and the church.

Here is a rich feast for any serious student of the Bible, especially of the New Testament. Detailed, incisive, and exquisitely nuanced exegesis, this collection will reward you with a clearer, deeper, and more informed appreciation of the recent advances in Jesus studies, and their significance for theology today.

Many of the included studies have never been published or were made available only in hard-to-find larger volumes and journals.

• Book 2 of 3 Collected Essays of N. T. Wright
• Print length 368 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Zondervan Academic
• Publication date July 14, 2020
• Dimensions 6.25 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches
• ISBN-10 0310098645
• ISBN-13 978-0310098645
• See all details

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Zondervan Academic serves the needs of Christian scholars, pastors, and students. Since 1931, we have been privileged to partner with the scholarly community to develop Christ-honoring resources in service of the academy and the church worldwide.

Together we produce works in various areas of biblical-theological studies that exhibit faithfulness to historic Christian faith, cultural relevance, excellence, and innovation.

From the Publisher

Praise for the Collected Essays of N.T. Wright

“Just when I wondered what N. T. Wright might write next we get a 3 volume circus of revolving themes and perspectives and worldviews that illustrate why Wright is the most influential biblical scholar in the English-speaking world: Wright is one of the few who shapes conversations in both Gospels studies and Pauline studies. These essays bring to the front Wright's engaging prose, his undeniable courage to go where few have gone, and his joy to bridge the work of the academy and the church. Another treasure trove of studies.”

—Rev. Canon Dr. Scot McKnight, Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary

“N. T. Wright’s collection of essays on Jesus, Paul, and Scripture are a brilliant trilogy of Wright’s miscellaneous works. It is not only convenient to have them all together in one literary deposit, but they deserve reading as Wright waxes eloquently and with wisdom about who is Jesus, why is Paul so controversial, the atonement, the church, and how the Bible is authoritative today. An important part of the Wrightonian corpus for present and future generations or for anyone who wrestles with Jesus, Paul, God, and Scripture."

—Rev. Dr. Michael F. Bird, Academic Dean and Lecturer in Theology, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

“Few, if any, modern biblical scholars have written with the depth and breadth of N. T. Wright. These essays, from a wide variety of settings and publications, are full of treasures, old and new—even some modifications of earlier positions. They will delight Wright enthusiasts, challenge his critics, and educate all readers. No biblical scholar, theologian, or theological student should be ignorant of the most recent Wright perspectives on so many aspects of Scripture, Jesus, and Paul.”

—Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Chair in Biblical Studies and Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary & University, Baltimore

“A trilogy of N. T. Wright’s seminal essays on Scripture and hermeneutics, Jesus and the Gospels, and Paul and his Letters with a number of brand-new contributions thrown in for good measure? Count me in! For roughly three decades now, Wright’s voice has been among the most valuable and valued by both the church and the academy. Rightly so! This three-volume collection—which will prove to be a treasure trove for serious students as well as for scholars of Bible, history, and theology—reveals why time and again.”

— Todd D. Still, Charles J. and Eleanor McLerran DeLancey Dean & William M. Hinson Professor of Christian Scriptures, Baylor University, Truett Seminary

All essays are preceded by brief reflections written by N. T. Wright; these reflections serve to contextualize the writing of each essay and to highlight their place and significance within Wright’s voluminous corpus.

Get the Complete Set:

• Interpreting Scripture
• Interpreting Paul
• Interpreting Jesus

COLLECTED ESSAYS OF N.T. WRIGHT

N. T. WRIGHT has been called the most prolific biblical scholar in a generation, perhaps the most important apologist for the Christian faith since C. S. Lewis. Interpreting Jesus brings together his most important articles on Jesus and the Gospels over the last three decades. Many of the included studies have never been published or are only available in hard-to-find larger volumes and journals.

Each essay will amply reward those looking for:

• Detailed, incisive, and exquisitely nuanced exegesis
• A clearer and deeper understanding of Scripture
• A more informed appreciation of Scripture's application to Christian life and thought

You may also enjoy these books by N.T. Wright:

Editorial Reviews

About the author.

N. T. Wright is the former bishop of Durham and senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. He is one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars and the award-winning author of many books, including? After You Believe ,? Surprised by Hope ,? Simply Christian ,? Interpreting Paul , and? The New Testament in Its World , as well as the Christian Origins and the Question of God series.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zondervan Academic (July 14, 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0310098645
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0310098645
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches
• #2,634 in New Testament Criticism & Interpretation
• #6,592 in History of Christianity (Books)
• #8,195 in Christian Church History (Books)

About the author

N. t. wright.

N.T. WRIGHT is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world’s leading Bible scholars. He is now serving as the Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. For twenty years he taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. As being both one of the world’s leading Bible scholars and a popular author, he has been featured on ABC News, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air. His award-winning books include The Case for the Psalms, How God Became King, Simply Jesus, After You Believe, Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian, Scripture and the Authority of God, The Meaning of Jesus (co-authored with Marcus Borg), as well as being the translator for The Kingdom New Testament. He also wrote the impressive Christian Origins and the Question of God series, including The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, The Resurrection of the Son of God and most recently, Paul and the Faithfulness of God.

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There was no Jesus

How could a cult leader draw crowds, inspire devotion and die by crucifixion, yet leave no mark in contemporary records.

by Gavin Evans   + BIO

Most New Testament scholars agree that some 2,000 years ago a peripatetic Jewish preacher from Galilee was executed by the Romans, after a year or more of telling his followers about this world and the world to come. Most scholars – though not all.

But let’s stick with the mainstream for now: the Bible historians who harbour no doubt that the sandals of Yeshua ben Yosef really did leave imprints between Nazareth and Jerusalem early in the common era. They divide loosely into three groups, the largest of which includes Christian theologians who conflate the Jesus of faith with the historical figure, which usually means they accept the virgin birth, the miracles and the resurrection; although a few, such as Simon Gathercole, a professor at the University of Cambridge and a conservative evangelical, grapple seriously with the historical evidence.

Next are the liberal Christians who separate faith from history, and are prepared to go wherever the evidence leads, even if it contradicts traditional belief. Their most vocal representative is John Barton, an Anglican clergyman and Oxford scholar, who accepts that most Bible books were written by multiple authors, often over centuries, and that they diverge from history.

A third group, with views not far from Barton’s, are secular scholars who dismiss the miracle-rich parts of the New Testament while accepting that Jesus was, nonetheless, a figure rooted in history: the gospels, they contend, offer evidence of the main thrusts of his preaching life. A number of this group, including their most prolific member, Bart Ehrman, a Biblical historian at the University of North Carolina, are atheists who emerged from evangelical Christianity. In the spirit of full declaration, I should add that my own vantage point is similar to Ehrman’s: I was raised in an evangelical Christian family, the son of a ‘born-again’, tongues-talking, Jewish-born, Anglican bishop; but, from the age of 17, I came to doubt all that I once believed. Though I remained fascinated by the Abrahamic religions, my interest in them was not enough to prevent my drifting, via agnosticism, into atheism.

There is also a smaller, fourth group who threaten the largely peaceable disagreements between atheists, deists and more orthodox Christians by insisting that evidence for a historical Jesus is so flimsy as to cast doubt on his earthly existence altogether. This group – which includes its share of lapsed Christians – suggests that Jesus may have been a mythological figure who, like Romulus, of Roman legend, was later historicised.

But what is the evidence for Jesus’ existence? And how robust is it by the standards historians might deploy – which is to say: how much of the gospel story can be relied upon as truth? The answers have enormous implications, not just for the Catholic Church and for faith-obsessed countries like the United States, but for billions of individuals who grew up with the comforting picture of a loving Jesus in their hearts. Even for people like me, who dispensed with the God-soul-heaven-hell bits, the idea that this figure of childhood devotion might not have existed or, if he did, that we might know very little indeed about him, takes some swallowing. It involves a traumatic loss – which perhaps explains why the debate is so fraught, even among secular scholars.

Secondo Pia’s photograph of the Shroud of Turin (May 1898), digital print from the Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne. Courtesy Wikipedia

When I’ve discussed this essay with people raised as atheists or in other faiths, the question invariably asked goes something like this: why is it so important for Christians that Jesus lived on earth? What is at stake here is the unique aspect of their faith – the thing that sets it apart. For more than 1,900 years, Christianity has maintained the conviction that God sent his son to earth to suffer a hideous crucifixion to save us from our sins and give us everlasting life. Jesus’ earthbound birth, life and particularly his death, which ushered in redemption, are the very foundation of their faith. These views are so deeply entrenched that, even for those who have loosened the grip of belief, the idea that he might not have been ‘real’ is hard to stomach.

Y ou’d think that a cult leader who drew crowds, inspired devoted followers and was executed on the order of a Roman governor would leave some indentation in contemporary records. The emperors Vespasian and Titus and the historians Seneca the Elder and the Younger wrote a good deal about 1st-century Judea without ever mentioning Jesus. That could mean simply that he was less significant an actor than the Bible would have us think. But, despite the volume of records that survive from that time, there is also no death reference (as there was, say, for the 6,000 slaves loyal to Spartacus who were crucified along the Appian Way in 71 BCE), and no mention in any surviving official report, private letter, poetry or play.

Compare this with Socrates, for example. Though none of the thoughts attributed to him survive in written form, still we know that he lived (470- 399 BCE) because several of his pupils and contemporary critics wrote books and plays about him. But with Jesus there is silence from those who might have seen him in the flesh – which is awkward for historicists like Ehrman; ‘odd as it may seem,’ he wrote in 1999, ‘[i]n none of this vast array of surviving writings is Jesus’ name ever so much as mentioned.’ In fact, there are just three sources of putative proof of life – all of them posthumous: the gospels, the letters of Paul, and historical evidence from beyond the Bible.

Christian historians base their claims for a historical Jesus on the thinnest mentions of early Christians by the Roman politicians Pliny the Younger and Tacitus (who write of Christians they interviewed early in the 2nd century – in Pliny’s case, a tortured female deacon – all followers of ‘The Way’ who talked about Jesus) and by Flavius Josephus, a Romanised Jewish historian. Josephus’s 20-volume Antiquities of the Jews , written around 94 CE, during the reign of Domitian, contains two references to Jesus, including one claiming that he was the Messiah crucified by Pontius Pilate. This would carry some weight if Josephus actually wrote it; but the experts, including evangelicals like Gathercole, agree this reference was likely forged by the 4th-century Christian polemicist Eusebius. The other reference is to ‘the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James’. Some scholars say the ‘called Christ’ bit was a later addition, but it hardly matters when Josephus was drawing from stories told by Christians more than six decades after Jesus’ assumed crucifixion.

If the crucifixion was prophesied, then how can it have been embarrassing?

The earliest evidence testifying to a historical figure comes not from contemporary records, but from the letters of Paul, which date broadly from 50 to 58 CE (of the 14 letters originally attributed to Paul, only half are now thought to be mainly his writing, with the rest thought to be written sometime in the 2nd century) . The problem with Paul for proof-seekers is how little he says about Jesus. If Jesus lived and died in Paul’s lifetime, you might expect he’d refer to Jesus’ ministry on earth – to his parables, sermons and prayers – and that his readers would want this crucial life story. But Paul offers nothing on the living Jesus, such as the stories or sayings that later appear in the gospels, and he provides no information from human sources, referring only to visionary communication with Jesus and to messianic Old Testament quotes.

Which brings us to the gospels, written later, and not by those whose names they bear (these were added in the 2nd and 3rd centuries). The gospel of Mark, which borrows from Paul, came first and set the template for the gospels that followed (Matthew draws from 600 of Mark’s 661 verses, while 65 per cent of Luke is drawn from Mark and Matthew . ) The first version of Mark is dated between 53 CE and around 70 CE, when the Second Temple was destroyed, an event it mentions. The last gospel, John, which has a different theology and stories that contradict those of the three ‘synoptic’ gospels, is dated at around 100 CE. All four gospels include sections written in the 2nd century (among them, two different virgin birth narratives in Matthew and Luke), and some scholars place the final 12 verses of Mark in the 3rd century. Several historians assume that Matthew and Luke had an earlier source they call Q. However, Q has never been found and there are no references to it elsewhere. Barton suggests that a belief in Q may serve a ‘conservative religious agenda’ because to say these gospels drew from an earlier source ‘is an implicit denial that they made any of it up themselves’.

Taken together, what can the gospels tell us about the historical Jesus? Secular scholars agree that much of their content is fictional, and note, as Ehrman puts it, that ‘these voices are often at odds with one another, contradicting one another in minute details and in major issues’. And yet Ehrman is convinced that Jesus existed; he contends that the gospel writers heard reports about Jesus and ‘decided to write their own versions’. A few basic facts, like the dates of Jesus’ birth and death (gleaned from their mention of various rulers), are widely accepted, and several of Jesus’ sayings are said to be close to his real words. To separate the factual wheat from the fictional chaff, they employ ‘criteria of authenticity’ – stories and words that ring true. The three main criteria are: embarrassment (are those details out of step with 1st-century Judaism and, if so, why would the gospel writers invent things that would cause problems?); multiple attestation (the more sources, the better); and coherence (are details consistent with what we know?)

However, there is good reason to interrogate this approach. With regard to the criteria of multiple attestation and coherence, we know the gospel writers borrowed from each other, so we’d expect them to include the same stuff. The gospel of Luke, for instance, borrowed Matthew’s ‘consider the lilies of the field’ speech, but if Matthew’s tale is fabricated, Luke’s repetition hardly adds credibility. In addition, the ‘embarrassment criterion’ relies on our knowing what went against the grain. But the Church was diverse when the gospels were written and we can’t be sure what might have embarrassed their authors . It’s often argued, for example, that the gospel writers went to such great lengths to show that the crucifixion was predicted in the Hebrew scriptures in order to make it palatable to an audience convinced that no true messiah could be thus humiliated. But this argument can be turned on its head if we accept that the crucifixion tale was included because the gospel writers – pace Paul – believed it was required to fulfil prophesy. If the crucifixion was prophesied, then how can it have been embarrassing?

On the subject of the crucifixion, it’s worth noting that, while the four accepted gospels have Jesus sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, in the non-canonical gospel of Peter it is Herod Antipas who does the deed. The gospel of Thomas, meanwhile, makes no mention of Jesus’ death, resurrection or divinity at all. According to the 4th-century theologian Epiphanius, the Torah-observant Nazorean Christians (thought to have descended from the first group of believers), held that Jesus lived and died during the reign of King Alexander Jannaeus (10- 76 BCE) – a century before Pontius Pilate. And the Babylonian Talmud agrees, claiming that Jesus was executed by stoning and ‘hanging’ in the town of Lydda (not Jerusalem) for ‘immorality, sorcery and worshipping idols’. So, even when the ‘criteria of authenticity’ are met, historical consensus is hard to establish.

T he most concerted effort to separate fact from fiction started in 1985 when a group of mainly secular scholars were drawn together by the lapsed Catholic theologian Bob Funk. Funk’s ‘Jesus Seminar’ met twice a year for 20 years to ‘search for the historical Jesus’. At its launch, Funk said the group would enquire ‘simply, rigorously after the voice of Jesus, after what he really said.’ These scholars (eventually numbering more than 200) used the ‘criteria of authenticity’ to assess the deeds and words of Jesus as reported in the gospels. Many seminars later, following much debate, they concluded that Jesus was an iconoclastic Hellenistic Jewish preacher who told stories in parables and spoke out against injustice; that he had two earthly parents; and that he did not perform miracles, die for people’s sins or rise from the dead. The veracity of his sayings and deeds was decided by a group vote. Scholars were invited to place plastic beads in a box: red (three points) if Jesus said it; pink (two points) if he probably said it; grey (one point) if he didn’t, but it reflected his ideas; black (zero) if invented. When tallied, there were black or grey beads for 82 per cent of Jesus’ Biblical sayings, and 84 per cent of his deeds.

Such methods are regarded as quaint, at best, by scholars researching non-Biblical historical figures. One of those I canvassed was Catharine Edwards, professor of classics and ancient history at Birkbeck, University of London, who said that some historians of the ancient world tend towards scepticism – ‘for example, we can’t really know anything about the earliest stage of Roman history beyond what is gleaned from archaeological evidence’ – while others tend towards ‘extreme credibility’. But, even among those, ‘criteria of authenticity’ are not a familiar tool. She added that the coloured-beads approach ‘sounds naive and on the credulous end of the spectrum where scholars make assumptions about the character of a particular ancient individual and on that basis decide what they think he (invariably) may or may not have said.’

Hugh Bowden, professor of ancient history at King’s College London, said that there was more evidence for the existence of Socrates and Pericles than for Jesus, but ‘much less hangs on it’. The focus on the historicity of Jesus has ‘no real equivalent in other fields, because it is rooted in confessional preconceptions (early Christianity matters because modern Christianity matters) even when scholars claim to be unaffected by personal religious views. Historians in other fields would not find the question very important.’

The sceptics believe that Jesus was a mythical figure who was subsequently historicised

If we remove those preconceptions, it seems commonsensical to apply caution to the historicity of the gospels and let doubt lead our interrogations. The first gospel, Mark, was begun nearly half a century after Jesus’ ministry (and its final verses much later). Jesus’ Aramaic-speaking followers were probably illiterate, and there were no reporters taking notes. The likelihood of Jesus’ words being accurately reproduced by writers who’d never met him, and were elaborating on increasingly fanciful tales passed down through the decades, seems remote.

One scholar who was part of the Jesus Seminar and yet harboured such doubts, is Robert Price, a respected New Testament professor with a PhD in ‘Systematic Theology’, and a former Baptist pastor turned atheist. Price came to query the methodology used to establish historicity, prompting him to doubt whether Jesus ever lived. ‘If there ever was a historical Jesus there isn’t one anymore,’ he said, later writing: ‘There may have been a real figure there, but there is simply no longer any way of being sure.’

Price became the heavyweight figure for a fringe group of ‘Christ myth’ sceptics – historians who propose that early Christians, including Paul, believed in a celestial messiah and that he was placed in history by the gospel writers in the next generation. So, while most of the 200 believe Jesus was a historical figure mythologised by the gospel writers, the sceptics believe the opposite: he was a mythical figure who was subsequently historicised.

Such ideas have been around for centuries. Thomas Paine was an early adopter but it was the 19th-century German philosopher Bruno Bauer who advanced the theory most assiduously. Bauer, an atheist, recognised the gospel themes as literary rather than historical, arguing that Christianity had pagan roots and that Jesus was a mythical creation.

I n recent decades, it has become widely accepted by secular scholars that the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is more myth than history. In particular, the Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein and his American colleague Neil Asher Silberman have written in The Bible Unearthed (2002) that none of the patriarchs, from Moses and Joshua backwards, existed as historical figures; that there was no record of Jews having been enslaved in Egypt (instead, they descended from the Canaanites); that David and Solomon were warlords rather than kings; and that the first temple was built three centuries after Solomon. But the view that the Christian Bible is similarly lacking in veracity has, until recently, been drowned out by those arguing for a flesh-and-blood Jesus. One reason for the consensual chorus may relate to the fact that tenured positions in departments dealing with Bible history tend not to be offered to those who doubt that Jesus was real. So the revival of the ‘doubters’ camp’ owes much to the internet, as well as to the missionary zeal of its key proponents.

Momentum began to gather in the 1990s with a series of books by Earl Doherty, a Canadian writer who became interested in scripture while studying ancient history and classical languages. Doherty claimed that Paul and other early Christian writers did not believe in Jesus as an earthly figure, but instead as a celestial being crucified by demons in the lower realms of heaven and then resurrected by God. His views (ironically, on the face of it, the most ostensibly religious, in being so thoroughly spiritualised) were rejected by historical Jesus scholars who claimed that Doherty lacked the academic nous to understand ancient texts. But the next wave, which included Price, was more firmly rooted in academia.

Price believes that early Christianity was influenced by Middle Eastern myths about dying and rising deities that survived into the Greek and Roman periods. One was a Sumerian legend, ‘The Descent of Inanna’, which tells of the queen of heaven who attends an underworld funeral only to get killed by demons and hung from a hook like a piece of meat. Three days later, however, she’s rescued, rises from the dead, and returns to the land of the living.

For ‘Christ myth’ scholars, the Jesus story fits the outlines of the mythic hero archetype

Another is the Egyptian myth of the murdered god-king Osiris. His wife, Isis, finds his body, restores it to life and, via a flash of lightning in one version, conceives his son, Horus, who succeeds him. Osiris goes on to rule over the dead. In Plutarch’s Greek version, Osiris is tricked to lie in a coffin, which floats out to sea before washing up at the city of Byblos. There, Isis removes Osiris’ body from a tree and brings it back to life.

Several Jewish texts in circulation at the time reinforced the messianic aspects of these narratives. For instance, 1 Enoch (a book written mainly in the 2nd century BCE, and particularly revered within the Essene community, thought to be responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls) refers to the ‘Son of Man’ (a phrase used for Jesus in the gospels) whose name and identity will be kept secret to prevent evildoers from knowing of him until the appointed time.

The favourite ‘Christ myth’ source is the Ascension of Isaiah , written in bits and pieces in the 1st and 2nd centuries. It includes a section dealing with a journey through the seven heavens by a non-human Jesus who is crucified in a lower heaven by Satan and his demonic ‘archons’ who are the rulers of that realm and yet do not know who he is. Again, the story ends with Jesus rising from the dead.

‘Christ myth’ scholars believe that ancient tales of death and resurrection influenced the gospel writers, who also borrowed from Homer, Euripides and the Hebrew Bible. For them, the Jesus story fits the outlines of the mythic hero archetype of the time – a spiritual saviour killed by ‘archons’ before rising triumphant. They contend that later Christians rewrote Jesus as a historical figure who suffered at the hands of earthly rulers.

The rock star of scepticism is Richard Carrier, a Bible scholar with a very modern aptitude for using social media (some of his lengthy YouTube videos have attracted more than a million viewers). He enters into fervent debates with rivals, lectures, and writes acerbic, clinical and fact-laden books . With his PhD in ancient history from the University of Columbia and his record of publishing in academic journals, his credentials are less easily dismissed than Doherty’s. Ehrman, for instance, acknowledges Carrier and Price are serious New Testament scholars.

At one time, Carrier accepted the historicity of Jesus but he became contemptuous of the mainstream position because of what he saw as the parlous state of scholarship supporting it. He and the Australian Bible historian Raphael Lataster use Bayes’ theorem, which considers historical probabilities based on reasonable expectations (weighing up the evidence and attaching mathematical odds to it), to conclude that it is ‘probable’ that Jesus never existed as a historical person, although it is ‘plausible’ that he did.

T he ‘Jesus myth’ advocates get plenty of airplay, but the fringe label has stuck, and not just because religious studies departments freeze them out. Their own methodology has been criticised, not least their use of Bayesian methods. Bizarrely, Carrier offered odds to his readers, concluding that the likelihood of a real-life Jesus was no better than 33 per cent (and perhaps as low as 0.0008 per cent) depending on the estimates used for the computation, which illustrates the wooliness of this use of Bayes’ theorem.

Carrier and his comrades do a fine job poking holes in the methods of historicists but what they offer in exchange seems flimsy. In particular, they have found no clear evidence from the decades before the gospels to show that anyone believed Jesus was not human. Each reference in the epistles can be explained away as referring to a celestial saviour, but it all feels like a bit of a stretch. Paul frequently refers to the crucifixion and says Jesus was ‘born of a woman’ and ‘made from the sperm of David, according to the flesh’. He also refers to James, ‘the brother of Christ’. Using these examples, Ehrman says there’s ‘good evidence that Paul understood Jesus to be a historical figure’. Which was certainly the view of the writer/s of Mark, a gospel begun less than two decades after Paul’s letters were written.

Like the grain of sand that begat Robin Hood, the Jesus story developed fresh layers over time

If we accept this conclusion, but also accept that the gospels are unreliable biographies, then what we are left with is a dimly discernible historical husk. If Jesus did live at the time generally accepted (from 7- 3 BCE to 26- 30 CE) rather than a century earlier as some of the earliest Christians seemed to believe, then we might assume that he started life in Galilee, attracted a following as a preacher and was executed. Everything else is invention or uncertain. In other words, if Jesus did exist, we know next to nothing about him.

One way of looking at it is to think of a pearl, which starts as a grain of sand around which calcium carbonate layers form as an immune response to the irritant until the pearl no longer resembles the speck that started it. Many legends have developed in this way, from the tale of the blind bard Homer onwards.

The outlaw and thief Robert Hod was fined for failing to appear in court in York in 1225 and a year later he reappeared in the court record, still at large. This could be the grain of sand that begat Robin Hood, whom many people assumed to have been a historical figure whose legend grew over the centuries. Robin started as a forest yeoman but morphed into a nobleman. He was later inserted into 12th-century history with King Richard the Lionheart and Prince John (earlier versions had Edward I), along with his ever-expanding band of outlaws. By the 16th century, he and his Merry Men had mutated from lovable rascals to rebels with a cause who ‘tooke from rich to give the poor’.

The Jesus story likewise developed fresh layers over time. At the start of the common era, there may well have been several iconoclastic Jewish preachers, and one of them got up the noses of the Romans, who killed him. Soon his legend grew. New attributes and views were ascribed to him until, eventually, he became the heroic figure of the Messiah and son of God with his band of 12 not-so-merry men. The original grain of sand is less significant than most assume. The interesting bit is how it grew.

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Who Is Jesus Christ And What Was His Mission - Jesus Essay Example

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Christians , Children , Childhood , Family , God , Jesus Christ , World , The World

Published: 11/13/2019

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Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was in existence prior to the creation of the world. He came into the world veiled in human flesh through the womb of a virgin, Mary of Nazareth, who was engaged to be married to Joseph at the time. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and His birth was announced by an angel of the Lord to shepherds who spread the word to others. When he was eight days old, Jesus was dedicated in the Temple in accordance with Jewish custom. At twelve years, He went to Jerusalem, accompanied by his parents, to observe the Feast of the Passover. On the return trip, his parents could not find Him. They returned to Jerusalem and found him three days later in the temple courts, listening to the teachers and asking them questions. His understanding and answers amazed everyone. Jesus Christ came into the world so that mankind may have eternal life. His mission was to save the world and to preach repentance and the love of God. The son of God came to minister, to serve others and to give himself as a ransom to humanity [CITATION All 11\l 1033 ]. Those who heard Jesus’ teachings were convicted, challenged, and encouraged. Some were however angered by His message and the fact that He claimed to be the Messiah. While on earth, Jesus performed many miracles, healed the sick and raised the dead. Jesus Christ was holy and He wanted mankind to be as holy and live sinless lives. The Bible says that He was tempted in many ways yet was without sin. Jesus came to redeem mankind from captivity and to bring truth in a world of false values.

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104 Jesus Christ Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on jesus christ, ✍️ jesus christ essay topics for college, 👍 good jesus christ research topics & essay examples, 💡 simple jesus christ essay ideas, ❓ questions about jesus christ.

• Jesus Christ’s Ministries and Chaplain Behaviors
• Jesus Role in Fulfilling God’s Plan to Save the World
• The Healing Ministry of Jesus
• Jesus and Confucius Comparison
• Is Jesus God? Critical Evaluation, Arguments for and Against
• Jesus’s Teaching Methods and Messages
• The Crucifixion of Jesus in Old and New Testament
• Lead Like Jesus: Critical Book Review by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges In the book Lead Like Jesus, the authors Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges develop an entirely new approach to leading and influencing servant leadership.
• Transformational Leadership of Jesus Christ Christ’s view of leadership is expressed in leadership in service, which is the desire to enrich and improve the lives of guided people through unselfish service.
• Is Jesus Both Human and Divine? The Old and New Testaments contain the evidence about the divine nature of Jesus and his life as a human. The biblical facts suggest that Jesus was a man.
• The Deity of Jesus Christ in New Testament Jesus deity is expressed in New Testament with links from the Old Testament. Monotheism renders any form of claim to be blasphemous.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church on Jesus Christ The only one lord Jesus had a paramount duty to serve and suffer for man, born of a virgin woman through the power of the Holy Spirit as such one substance with God the father.
• Jesus’ Teaching About the Kingdom and About Himself Faith and religion are very personal concerns that could be treated in different ways depending on what a person wants to see, understand, and believe in.
• In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? by Charles Sheldon “In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?” carries the message for everyone: before doing something, it is necessary to consider whether this action is virtuous.
• “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament” by Christopher J.H. Wright Dr. Christopher J.H. Wright Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament is a complete analysis of the roles of prophets and law had in Jesus’ experiences with self-reflection.
• The Transfiguration of Jesus – Literary Criticism The paper presents literary criticism of a passage on the Transfiguration of Jesus, including context and structure analysis, redaction criticism, as well as theological analysis.
• How the Jesus Movement Became The Church The paper relates to the Jesus movement and responds to why the action continued and flourished; people’s faith in Jesus was strong, and they wanted to unite with Jesus Christ.
• The Figure of Jesus in Islam and the Quran This paper discusses the figure of Jesus in the Islamic religion by highlighting His reference in the Quran, specifically his birth, death, and return.
• The Salvation of Humans by Jesus Christ The history of our salvation and redemption in Jesus Christ makes it easier to understand who people are in this world and what they were created to be.
• Jesus Christ’s Natural Divinity The divinity of Christ is vital for Christians because it shows that the deification of the human body is possible, as well as the divine embodiment in the personality.
• “Sharing Jesus Without Fear” by William Fay William Fay has done remarkable work as an evangelist, seeking out to reach the masses to invite and arouse their interest in the words of the Gospel.
• Christian Evidences of Jesus in the Bible There are references to him in historical documents from the time period in which he lived, including Roman census records and letters written by first-century historians.
• Jesus Christ in “Resurrected as Messiah” by Ortlund Article “Resurrected as Messiah: The Rise Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King” by Ortlund is about the rise of Christ in three different forms, as a prophet, a priest, and a king.
• The Gospel of Matthew: The Temptation of Jesus One’s personal growth is accompanied by various distractions of the present-day world, which prevent them from achieving important goals and having meaningful lives in general.
• Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and Jesus’ Teachings In Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is the last of the Four Noble Truths. The principles laid out in the Eightfold Path find some reflection in Jesus’ teachings.
• The Core of Christian Belief: Where Is Jesus? The Creeds not only teach Christians that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and a divine man but also propose the meaning of authentic kingship or leadership.
• Role of Jesus Christ in Religion Jesus Christ, revered as a prophet and religious leader, established Christianity and is recognized as the Son of God in certain denominations or as a physical manifestation of God.
• Jesus’s Parables in Modern Settings In the Bible, Jesus tells his followers a number of parables. These parables were aimed at explaining God’s plan to the common folk based on examples they could understand.
• Principle of Utility and Golden Rule of Jesus This paper discusses the principle of utility and how it relates to maximizing social goods, higher and lower pleasures, and Mill’s empirical method.
• Overcoming Racism in “The Blood of Jesus” Film Belittling the status of a person based on his gender or race is impossible and terrible in modern society, but it is the tendency of the present time.
• The Exhibition Christian Sorrow: Panorama of the Crucifixion of Jesus The exhibition Christian Sorrow: Panorama of the Crucifixion of Jesus shows the saddest scenes of Jesus’s life, who suffered due to his immense love for people.
• Jesus and Expectations of Messiah Through the Jews’ expectations, three significant types of messiahs could be defined: the prophet, the priest, and the King.
• Qureshi’s Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus Book Nabeel Qureshi transformed from a devout Muslim into a confident Christian. His book “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” offers a reevaluation of Muslim beliefs.
• Education for Truth and Service: Jesus and Martin Luther King Jesus and Martin Luther King insisted on service delivery to the poor, aware of their impending deaths; Jesus was sacrificed, and King was assassinated.
• “Jesus’ Son” and “The Lame Shall Enter First” Comparison Despite the apparent differences in style and the approach, Johnson and O’Connor’s stories bear a resemblance one should acknowledge.
• King James Bible: Did Jesus of Nazareth Actually Exist? One significant point mentioned is that God knows the hearts of men, and there is no point in expecting that people will come to Christ when we expect them.
• Discussion of Jesus as a Servant Leader The paper argues Jesus is an undoubted servant leader who wanted not to be served like a king but rather to serve others.
• Christianity: Afterlife and Relationship With Jesus Theoretically, having a personal relationship with Jesus is enough to keep a person spiritually right with God according to Christianity.
• Comparative Analysis of Socrates and Jesus of Nazareth Jesus and Socrates were considered a threat to society due to their uniqueness, and the knowledge they brought helped everyone understand their shortcomings.
• Comparison of Jesus and Mohammed This paper intends to compare and contrast the two Religious personalities (Jesus and Mohammed) in terms of history and influential capacities on their followers.
• Deviations in the Perception of the Personality of Jesus Christ of Nazareth The issue regarding the veracity of the claim that Jesus is the Son of God will only affect those who are brought up in a monotheistic faith.
• Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman The book Jesus and the Disinherited written by Howard Thurman is devoted to the religious and race aspects and their positions in the modern world.
• On the Death of Jesus in Early Christianity This writing reflects on the book ‘The Death of Jesus in Early Christianity’ by Carroll and Green and proposes a unique approach and interpretation of the primary text.
• In the Name of Jesus: Critical Review Nouwen’s thesis is that the historical situation on the eve of the 21st century necessitated the reinvigoration of Christian leadership
• Jesus’ Concerns for the Women and Sick Jesus demonstrated his concern for the women and attended to them. He also had a great concern for the sick and told the Jews to lend a hand to the sick.
• “How God Became Jesus?” a Book by Michael Bird How God became Jesus is Michael Bird’s book that deconstructs claims by Bart Ehrman in his How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.
• Jesus’ Identity: God, Man, or Both? The Gospel of Matthew poses to us and say that Jesus is a divine creature who came to us as a human being and showed the way to save our souls and find the way to God.
• The Gospel of Matthew: Jesus Christ’s Thinking This paper observes chapters 3-5 of the Gospel of Mathew in the New Testament to narrate the author’s insights into Jesus’ thinking as he moved from baptism to Sermon.
• Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. This paper tries to tell about Jesus and what the Gospel writer attempts to say to his audience by putting the parables together.
• The Evidence That Proves the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
• How does Jesus Christ answer Prayers From the Story of Lorraine?
• The Importance of Seven Deadly Sins and Jesus Christ
• How Jesus Christ Fulfilled the Covenants God Made With?
• Jesus Christ: Scripture’s Most Controversial Bachelor
• Jesus Christ: Fully Human and Fully Divine
• How Practical Are Jesus Christ‘s Teachings Today‘s World?
• The Holy Eucharist: The Metaphorical Cannibalism of the Body of Jesus Christ Justified
• How the Novel Godhanger Is an Allegory for the Life of Jesus Christ?
• Problems Associated With Determining the Birthplace of Jesus Christ
• The Biblical Prophecies and the Coming of Jesus Christ
• Dealing With Death Penalty in the Trials and Death of Socrates and Jesus Christ
• The Divine and Human Nature of Jesus Christ
• Suffering Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
• Why the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ Are Significant for Christianity?
• Contemporary World and Jesus Christ’s Wisdom
• Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ According to the Gospels of John and Mark
• Comparing the Death and Burial of Jesus Christ
• Solace and Peace Through Our Jesus Christ
• Preachers Should Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• Jesus Christ and Functionalist and Conflict Theory
• The Different Encounters With Jesus Christ in the Four Gospels of the New Testaments
• Jesus Christ for Eternal Life Through His Death and the Power
• The About Attending the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
• Communicating the Good News Through the Message of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit
• How Many Times Is Jesus Christ Mentioned in the Quran?
• Why Was Jesus Christ Crucified Under Roman Law?
• Did Jesus Christ Walk on Water?
• What Are the Strongest Biblical Arguments for the Divinity of Jesus Christ?
• Was Jesus Christ Buried in the Shroud of Turin?
• Can Jesus Christ Be Considered the Messiah?
• Is There Any Historical Evidence of Jesus Christ?
• Is Yeshua Hamashiach the Proper Hebrew Name of Jesus Christ?
• What Were the Key Events in the Life of Jesus Christ?
• Where Was Jesus Christ for the Three Days Between His Death and Resurrection?
• How Can Jesus Christ Be Both God and Man at the Same Time?
• Has the Lost Tomb of Jesus Christ Been Discovered?
• What Does It Mean That Jesus Christ Is the Lamb of God?
• What Trials Did Jesus Christ Face Before His Crucifixion?
• What Language Did Jesus Christ Speak?
• What Does It Mean That Jesus Christ Is the “First-Born” Over Creation?
• How Is Jesus Christ Different From Other Religious Leaders?
• What Is the Meaning and Importance of the Ascension of Jesus Christ?
• What Does It Mean That Jesus Christ Is God’s Only Begotten Son?
• At What Age Did Jesus Christ Die?
• What Are the Different Names and Titles of Jesus Christ?
• Is Jesus Christ Just a Copy of the Pagan Gods of Other Ancient Religions?
• Do the Narratives of Jesus Christ’ Birth Contradict Each Other?
• What Was the Significance of Jesus Christ Being Dead for Three Days?
• What Are Some of the Most Famous Sayings of Jesus Christ?
• What Does It Mean That Jesus Christ Is Prophet, Priest, and King?
• Why Did Jesus Christ Curse the Fig Tree?
• What Is the Meaning of the Crown of Thorns on the Head of Jesus Christ?
• Why Is Jesus Christ Often Referred to as Jesus of Nazareth?
• How Did Jesus Christ Interact With Children?

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These essay examples and topics on Jesus Christ were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 8, 2024 .

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Who Was Josephus? (And What He Wrote About Jesus)

Written by Marko Marina, Ph.D.

Author |  Historian |  BE Contributor

Verified!  See our editorial guidelines

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

The name Flavius Josephus always reminds me of my first encounter with him and his writings. In the first lecture of my graduate course on Early Christianity, a fierce debate emerged between my professor and one of the students about the importance of Josephus' testimony in establishing the historicity of Jesus.

The intensity of that discussion underscored the pivotal role Josephus plays in the study of Early Christianity and the broader field of ancient history.

Flavius Josephus , a name that stands at the crossroads of Judaism and early Christianity, offers a unique perspective on the tumultuous era that saw the rise of both these faiths against the backdrop of Roman dominion. Born into a priestly Jewish family in the first century C.E., Josephus found himself amid political upheaval, war, and cultural transformation.

This article aims to shed light on the life of Josephus , delving into his birth, upbringing, and the dramatic turn of events that led him to adopt Roman citizenship and a new name. 

We’ll touch upon his major works, including “The Judean War” and “Antiquities of the Jews”, with a particular focus on his references to Jesus and other figures from the New Testament.

Join us as we embark on this journey through the life and legacy of Flavius Josephus, whose writings continue to intrigue, inform, and inspire debate among historians and scholars across the world.

But, wait a minute! Before we begin, I must invite you to consider joining a captivating course “ Paul and Jesus: The Great Divide ” by a renowned scholar of early Christianity Bart D. Ehrman . In it, Dr. Ehrman explores the key theological differences between two pivotal figures of the world’s most popular religion! 

Josephus: Early Life Set in the Historical Context

Born Yosef ben Matityahu in Jerusalem, in 37 C.E., Josephus lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in Jewish history. His life spanned the Roman occupation of Judea and the First Jewish–Roman War , events that shaped the socio-political landscape of his time. 

The backdrop of Josephus' early years was marked by increasing tensions between the Jewish population and the Roman authorities, tensions that would eventually lead to the catastrophic Jewish Revolt and the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.

Within this volatile environment, Josephus' family background offered him a unique vantage point from which to observe and later narrate the complexities of Judean society.

Discussing Josephus' lineage in his autobiography, Vita, Frederick Raphael notes, "Since childhood was never a topic in ancient literature, Josephus’ Vita doesn’t describe his early years. He merely lays claim, through a remote ancestor of his mother’s, to ' royal ' blood (that of the 'Hasmonaeans,' as the Maccabees were formally known)... Although Josephus doesn’t give any details of his father’s wealth or property, he takes pride in belonging to a leading, certainly conservative, family. "

Josephus’ Education & Mastery of Greek

This assertion of noble and priestly heritage underscores Josephus' standing within the Judean society—a position that afforded him both privilege and perspective.

As a member of a priestly and noble family, Josephus would have had access to a traditional Jewish education , which included learning Hebrew scriptures and possibly some aspects of Jewish law and traditions. 

In his Vita (2.7.), Josephus, for instance, describes how he, at the age of 16, undertook a journey to learn about the various sects within Judaism . These included the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, as well as a fourth group, led by a man named Banus, who lived in the desert and practiced a lifestyle of purification and asceticism. 

Furthermore, through his writings, he demonstrated a considerable knowledge of the Greek language and literature. However, Josephus himself notes that he didn’t learn Greek until he went to Rome (Against Apion 1.50.) and, sometimes, he used the help of his literary assistants to polish his Greek.

Nevertheless, Josephus possessed significant composition and language skills. But how widespread was this level of education? Should we just assume that Josephus was one of the many educated Jews living in 1st-century Palestine? 

Referring to the customs of Jews, he notes: “We take pride in raising children and make keeping the laws and preserving the traditional piety that accords with them the most essential task of our whole life (Against Apion 1.12.60.).”

In another instance, Josephus mentions that the Jewish children were instructed in reading so that they knew the laws and knew about their forebears and the virtues they stood behind (Against Apion 2.25.204.). 

However, critical scholars acknowledge that Josephus here presents an ideal , formulated from the perspective of well-educated upper-class Jews. In other words, he projects his elite status to all of the Jews.

In reality, literacy rates were extremely low and the majority of people were either illiterate or literary only at the very simplest level. The elite to which Josephus surely belonged, however, had access to both Jewish and Greco-Roman education. 

Josephus’ Significance

Who was Josephus? He wasn’t merely a historian but also a man deeply entrenched in the religious and political fabric of his time. His writings, from this standpoint, do not merely chronicle historical events but also offer a window into the identity, beliefs, and struggles of the Jewish people under Roman rule. 

Josephus' works, therefore, serve as a valuable source for the Jewish world of the Second Temple period , offering insights into the historical context (e.g. Pharisees) of early Christianity and the Judaic traditions from which it emerged.

But his works also provide us with a notable glimpse into the broader currents of the Roman Empire . That brings us to the biggest change in Josephus’ life. How did a Jewish military leader and historian become one of the emperor’s closest associates? Let’s take a look! 

The Turn of the Lifetime: Josephus and the Roman Rule

You might think that Jews were the ones diligently copying Josephus' writings through the ages, but you would be quite off the mark. Despite Josephus' significant contributions to historical writing and our understanding of the Judeo-Roman world, his standing among his fellow Jews in late antiquity and beyond was, to put it mildly, less than stellar. 

Josephus, once a dedicated Jewish priest and a leader in the Jewish revolt against Rome, became "persona non grata" (an unwelcome person) among his people for reasons that are as complex as they are intriguing.

Josephus' journey from a Jewish rebel to a Roman historian is a tale of survival, adaptation, and transformation. During the First Jewish-Roman War (66-70 C.E.), Josephus served as the commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee. However, after the Roman forces besieged and captured Jotapata, Josephus and his companions were taken prisoner.

It was here, in captivity, that Josephus' life took a dramatic turn. According to his account, he provided the Romans with intelligence and, after a prophecy that Vespasian would become Emperor, ingratiated himself with the Roman leaders.

Per Bilde describes the event that unfolded right after Josephus surrendered: “On the way, the Romans gathered around him to get a glimpse of the Jewish general, and many Roman officers, among whom was Titus (Vespasian’s son) took pity on him. Therefore, Titus appealed for Josephus, and this is the main reason why his life was spared.”

Vespasian, upon becoming Emperor, granted Josephus his freedom, after which Josephus assumed the Flavian family name, becoming Flavius Josephus.

This act of survival, however pragmatic, was seen by many Jews as an outright betrayal. Josephus' transition from a Jewish commander to a historian under the patronage of the Flavian dynasty (the very rulers who crushed the Jewish revolt and destroyed the Second Temple) solidified his reputation as a traitor among his people. 

As a Roman citizen and a client of the Flavian emperors , Josephus wrote extensively about Jewish history, the Jewish War, and other topics from a perspective that many contemporaries and later Jewish readers found uncomfortably reconciled with Roman viewpoints.

Navigating the delicate line between historical record and personal allegiance, Josephus’ life story sets the stage for a deeper exploration of his literary legacy.

As we transition from the controversies of his journey to the contributions of his pen, it’s clear that Josephus' writings, born out of a unique blend of Jewish heritage and Roman patronage, offer a rich tapestry of insights into the ancient world. 

Josephus’ Books: A Brief Overview

Josephus' books provide a comprehensive look into the Jewish world under Roman rule, offering insights that have been pivotal to both historians and theologians. Here, we briefly explore his most significant works, each a cornerstone of ancient historiography and apologetics.

#1 The Judean Wars

This work chronicles the Jewish revolt against Rome from 66 to 70 C.E. , beginning with the events leading up to the conflict and concluding with the fall of Masada in 73 CE. Josephus provides a detailed account of the war, blending historical narration with his eyewitness testimony.

As Steve Mason remarks, "The Judean War deserves its place among the most influential ancient Western texts... Josephus manages the extraordinary feat of meshing his native traditions with Greek political, rhetorical, and historiographical discourses, while yet distancing himself from 'the Greeks' to cement the bond with his host society."

#2 Antiquities of the Jews

Completed in 93 CE, this extensive work traces the history of the Jewish people from the creation of the world as described in the Hebrew Bible to the outbreak of the Jewish revolt in 66 CE. Through 20 volumes, Josephus aims to present the Jewish people and their history in a favorable light to a Greco-Roman audience.

By contextualizing Jewish customs, laws, and beliefs within the broader tapestry of ancient history, Josephus not only seeks to explain Judaism to non-Jews but also to elevate the stature of Jewish history within the annals of the ancient world.

#3 The Life of Flavius Josephus (Vita)

This autobiography defends Josephus' actions during the Jewish revolt and his conduct as a commander in Galilee. It was written as a response to criticisms levied against him, particularly by Justus of Tiberias .

Through "Vita", Josephus presents his genealogy, education, and the philosophical and moral stances that guided his actions, offering readers a glimpse into the personal and intellectual journey that shaped his other works.

#4 Against Apion

This apologetic text is a defense of Judaism as a religion and the Jewish people as a cultural and historical entity, written against the backdrop of Greco-Roman prejudice and misunderstanding. 

Josephus counters the accusations and misrepresentations of the Jewish people made by Apion and other critics, using a blend of historical argumentation, philosophical discourse, and literary analysis. 

John M. G. Barclay’s assessment captures the essence of Josephus' approach: “In this work, we encounter Josephus at his rhetorical best: he displays an impressive cultural range in the knowledge of Greek history, historiography, and philosophy, and his interlocking arguments in defense of Judeans are spiced with acute literary analysis and clever polemics.”

“Against Apion” is thus a testament to Josephus’ skill in navigating and challenging the cultural and intellectual currents of his time.

Each of these works, in its way, contributes to our understanding of the ancient world, offering perspectives that are as enriching as they are essential for grasping the complexities of Jewish history and its interactions with the Greco-Roman world.

Now… Do you recall that spirited debate over Josephus' role in pinning down the historical Jesus I mentioned in the introduction?

It turns out there's more to that classroom clash than meets the eye. As we turn the page from Josephus' vast historical landscape to a particularly contentious patch of textual terrain, let's dive into the heart of that argument.

Josephus’ Description of Jesus: Testimonium Flavianum

Within the extensive writings of Flavius Josephus, a brief passage in "Antiquities of the Jews" has ignited centuries of scholarly debate. Known as the Testimonium Flavianum , this testimony presents a concise account of Jesus, stating: 

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 th e suggestion of the principal men amongst 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 to this day

This passage has long been a cornerstone for those arguing for a non-Christian corroboration of Jesus' historical existence and his early followers. However, the enthusiastic depiction of Jesus has led many scholars to question its authenticity , suggesting that the highlighted parts above are likely later interpolations by Christian scribes . 

In other words, Josephus wasn’t a Christian which makes certain parts of his testimony questionable.

Bart D. Ehrman elucidates this skepticism by highlighting the transmission history of Josephus' works: "It was Christians who copied Josephus' writings through the ages... This reference to Jesus was beefed up a bit by a Christian scribe who wanted to make Josephus appear more appreciative of the 'true faith'.”

Further solidifying this skepticism, John P. Meier offers a critical analysis of the text's flow and tone, noting, "In short, the first impression of what is Christian interpolation may well be the correct impression. A second glance confirms this first impression. Precisely these three Christian passages are the clauses that interrupt the flow of what is otherwise a concise text carefully written in a fairly neutral or even purposely ambiguous tone."

In conclusion, while Josephus' mention of Jesus in “Antiquities of the Jews” continues to be a subject of intense scholarly interest, the consensus leans towards a cautious approach.

The majority of scholars agree that while Josephus likely mentioned Jesus , the more explicit references to his divinity and resurrection are the product of later Christian interpolations , aimed at enhancing the narrative to align with Christian doctrine.

Josephus and Other New Testament Figures

The importance of Josephus is also seen in the fact that he mentions other figures in the New Testament , further bridging the gap between Jewish and early Christian histories.

Beyond the debated testimony about Jesus, Josephus provides accounts of John the Baptist and James, the brother of Jesus , offering invaluable external attestations to their historical existence and roles within the broader narrative of Judea under Roman rule. 

These references, found within the broader tapestry of Josephus' work, lend a small layer of historical credibility to the New Testament accounts, situating these figures within the tumultuous socio-political context of first-century Judea.

For instance, Josephus' portrayal of John the Baptist underscores his significant influence as a religious figure , echoing the New Testament's depiction of him as a prophet and a forerunner to Jesus.

Similarly, Josephus' mention of James' martyrdom not only corroborates the New Testament's depiction of James as a key figure in the early Christian community but also reflects the complexities of religious leadership in a time of political upheaval.

These accounts, while brief, are critical for historians and scholars, providing a “secular” corroboration of certain elements within New Testament narratives.

Through these references, Josephus unwittingly becomes a vital link in the historical chain connecting Jewish history with the emergent Christian tradition, illustrating the intertwined destinies of these communities within the Roman Empire. 

In retracing the life and legacy of Flavius Josephus, we journey through the intersections of Jewish and early Christian histories, witnessing the complexities of a world under Roman rule through the eyes of a singular figure.

Josephus, through his detailed historical accounts, serves not only as a crucial source for understanding the First Jewish–Roman War and the socio-political dynamics of Judea but also as a bridge connecting the Jewish traditions of the Second Temple period with the nascent Christian movement. 

Josephus’ portrayals of key biblical figures and events provide a rare external perspective that enriches our understanding of the historical contexts in which these figures lived and the movements they inspired. 

While his writings have been scrutinized for their accuracy and biases—particularly his references to Jesus, John the Baptist, and James—they remain indispensable for historians and theologians alike, offering insights that transcend the boundaries of religion and scholarship.

And how did that spirited debate that I mentioned at the beginning end? Well, the professor won. Isn't that always the case? 

Marko Marina

About the author

Marko Marina is a historian with a Ph.D. in ancient history from the University of Zagreb (Croatia). He is the author of dozens of articles about early Christianity's history. He works as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Zagreb where he teaches courses on the history of Christianity and the Roman Empire. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball and spending quality time with his family and friends.

Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection Essay

There are several explanations behind the crucifixion of Jesus, some arguing on the side of political matters while others were arguing on religious concerns. Jesus was crucified based on religious matters from people through the ruler’s passage judgment on him, fearing that he could be a threat to their kingdoms. Many misunderstood his teachings, including the very close people to him, and wondered about the authority of his teaching without fearing the government. Jesus’ familiarity with people was one of the reasons that led to his crucifixion. At first, the crowd respected him as a teacher calling him Rabbi, but later everything seemed normal, for instance performing miracles and casting out demons.

Jesus’ crucifixion is paramount for the salvation of mankind. Salvation is the primary aim of Jesus’s crucifixion though none of the people understood it. The result of man’s sins is death but due to Gods love to the human race, he found a way in which the entire human race could be saved and that is through sacrifice of his son to stand on the sins of human beings. Jesus is the son of God sent to save the human race from the power of sins that brings death. Jesus is the martyr of the reign of God’s sins he suffered for the entire human race.

The resurrection of Jesus is important to those who believe in him since he is the perfect example of how we will be transformed upon being resurrected and changed into heavenly beings. Resurrections of Jesus Christ are spiritual even though they occurred a long time. It is worth noting that despite occurring a long time ago, its primary aim still kicks, just like it happened yesterday. Those who view it as a historical event have little understanding of spirituality left in them. All followers of Jesus Christ should believe what happens daily to all newly saved Christians. Death and resurrection are signified by many life events of human beings despite having their final main meaning of resurrecting the dead. For example, a non-believer is considered dead because of being lost in sins. Still, one is considered to have been resurrected upon accepting Jesus Christ as the personal savior and repenting sins.

A person who considers it a historical event signifies that the future resurrection of all human beings does not exist. We all lead examples of Jesus Christ’s life example who came to prove to us that it is possible to lead a perfect life here on earth and get saved in the future through resurrection even if we die. Death is considered a sleep but not disappearing for eternity. Judgment awaits the dead and those who are alive. The bodily nature of Jesus Christ serves as perfect example to the rest of human beings on how to live sinless life. Jesus was God in bodily nature of human beings to show how he truly loved us and determined to save us from the bondages of sins. Moreover, the state of Jesus having a body just like that of human beings and going through all kind of temptations and Baptist is a perfect inspiration to the entire human that they can live a holy life. Lastly, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is a perfect proof of continuous resurrection despite the challenge of death.

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IvyPanda. (2023, April 22). Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jesus-crucifixion-and-resurrection/

"Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection." IvyPanda , 22 Apr. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/jesus-crucifixion-and-resurrection/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection'. 22 April.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection." April 22, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jesus-crucifixion-and-resurrection/.

1. IvyPanda . "Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection." April 22, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jesus-crucifixion-and-resurrection/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection." April 22, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jesus-crucifixion-and-resurrection/.

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• "Jesus Christ Superstar" by Andrew Lloyd Webber
• "Crucifixion with Angels and Mourning Figures"
• The Gospel of Thomas as a Gnostic Text
• The Resurrection in the New Testament
• Early Christian and Jewish Religious Differences
• The Life of the Prophet Muhammad
• Buddha Representations in South and Southeast Asia
• Paul’s Life and Significance for the Church Today
• Evangelical Billy Graham's Life and Ministry
• Analysis of Saint Anthony of Padua