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Ian Huyett
Christians believe that a historical person, Jesus of Nazareth,
vindicated his claim to be the Christ [meaning Anointed One], the Son of
the living God1 with a series of miraculous demonstrations culminating in
his public resurrection from the dead. More than any other, it is this
aspect of Christianity the worlds largest religion at the time of this
writing that makes it comparatively unique.
To be sure, other faiths have involved stories of persons rising from
the dead perhaps most famously that of the ancient Egyptians, who
believed that Osiris was restored to life after his wife Isis reassembled his
dismembered body.2 None of these other persons, however, are regarded
by scholarly consensus as historical individuals.
Perhaps the closest story offered by a major world religion is AlMiraj: a journey to and from heaven which Muslims believe to have been
undertaken by their prophet Muhammad: doubtless a historical person.
Notably, after returning from Al-Miraj, Muhammad is said to have
accurately described a distant caravan: something he could not have seen
except from the sky.3 While this report lends some credibility to Al-Miraj,
however, Muslims do not claim that persons other than Muhammad
witnessed his ascent to or return from heaven as such. In contrast, Christ
was executed in public his death was attested to in the Annals of the
Roman historian Tacitus4 and elsewhere5 and was then allegedly seen
alive by more than 500 of his followers.6
Matthew 16:16
See also Dionysus. Encyclopdia Britannica. 2015. (At the direction of Hera, the infant Zagreus/Dionysus was
torn to pieces, cooked, and eaten by the evil Titans. But his heart was saved by Athena, and he, now Dionysus, was
resurrected by Zeus through Semele.).
3
Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah. Ed. Ibn Hisham Abd AlMalik. London: Oxford UP, 1955. 184. See also Rippin, Andrew. Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices.
London: Routledge, 2001. 52 (Such miraculous stories are not abundant in the popular life accounts of
Muhammad, as compared to Jesuss for example, but they do tend to play an important role both in providing a
guarantee of Muhammads status and in supplying a focal point for popular belief.).
4
Annals 15.44.
5
e.g. Celsus, and R. Joseph Hoffman. On the True Doctrine: A Discourse against the Christians. Oxford: Oxford UP,
1987. 72 [hereinafter Hoffman]. (I emphasize that the Christians worship a man who was arrested and died.).
6
1 Cor. 15:6
2
Kummel, Werner Georg, Paul Feine, and Johannes Behm. Introduction to the New Testament. Nashville:
Abingdon, 1966. 202 [hereinafter Kummel]. (The authenticity of 1 Corinthians is not disputed. The Epistle was
already clearly known in I Clem. 37:5; 47:1-3; 49:5; Ign., Eph 16:1; 18:1; Rom 5:1; Phila 3:3.).
8
1 Cor. 15:51-52.
McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006. 65. Thanks to Andrew Rogers for
pointing me towards this source.
10
Id.
11
Id.
12
McGrew, Timothy, and Lydia McGrew. "The Argument from Miracles." Eds. William Lane Craig, and James Porter
Moreland. The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 600 [hereinafter
McGrew].
13
"Nazareth Dwelling Discovery May Shed Light on Boyhood of Jesus." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media,
21 Dec. 2009.
14
McGrew at 600.
15
16
Kummel at 202.
1 Cor. 15:6
Contra Celsus I (my pious Ambrosius, why you wished me to write a reply to the false charges brought by
Celsus against the Christians).
18
Hoffman at 30.
19
Hargis, Jeffrey W. Against the Christians: The Rise of Early Anti-Christian Polemic. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. 22
[hereinafter Hargis] (explaining that, when Celsus imagines what would happen if those who now reign over us
became Christians, his argument involves a hypothetical sequence of rulers; his use of those therefore does
not mean that co-emperors reigned when he wrote).
20
Plinys systematic killing of Christians in 111-113 shows that the persecution to which Celsus refers was well
underway before the 130s. The sophistication of Celsus arguments, used to promote a late date, is not dispositive.
Nor is the fact that Celsus felt the need to write the work at all.
21
Hoffman at 103.
22
Id.
23
Hoffman at 122. Christians, moreover, should not even be permitted to live until marriageable age.
24
Id. at 124. (You are swearing by the man to whom all earthly power has been given: what you receive in life,
you receive from him. And this is what it means to be a god.).
25
Fears, J. Rufus. "Christianity." 2007. Lecture. (The very suspicion of being a Christian was enough to bring you
before a tribunal and with the prospect of death. But instead of breaking Christianity, it only seemed to
strengthen it. And non-Christians who watched these men and women these girls, even, and boys who were
Christians stand up to the Roman bureaucracy and say No, I will not worship your gods: put me to death. There
must be something in this idea that gave it power.).
26
Annals 15.44.
27
Hoffman at 72.
28
Id. at 119.
29
Id. at 68.
30
Id. at 67.
31
Id. at 60. (One wonders why a god should need to resort to your kind of persuasioneven eating a fish after
your resurrection. I should rather think that your actions are those of one hated by God, the actions of a sorcerer.
So says our Jew to Jesus.). Cf. Luke 24:36-42
32
Hoffman at 54.
33
Id. at 72.
Schfer, Peter. Jesus in the Talmud. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2007. 38 [hereinafter Schafer].
35
Id.
36
Id. at 39.
34
learning, he notes.37 Grotius points out that many of these men were
brought up in other religions. Why, he asks, should they be worshippers
of a man that was put to an ignominious death?38 He concludes that the
best explanation for their conversions is that, after a diligent inquiry,
each concluded that the reports about Christ were reliable.
Grotius begins his list with Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus.
Paul of Tarsus, a Jewish lawyer familiar with Greek philosophy, might
also warrant inclusion in such a list. Both, however, are said to have
converted upon witnessing miraculous events themselves. As we now
wish to focus on diligent inquiry into reports of miraculous events, let us
exclude them from consideration. We might nonetheless assemble a list of
educated converts to the early church which includes Luke,39 Justin
Martyr, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian.
Each of these men was a trained physician, philosopher, or lawyer.
Justin Martyr alone had studied under Stoic, Aristotelian, Pythagorean,
and Platonic philosophers prior to his conversion. Critically, none saw the
resurrection or other miracles of Christ firsthand and none claimed to
have converted on the basis of a miraculous sight.
Luke, a physician,40 corroborates Grotius theory at the beginning of
his eponymous text: he has undertaken, he says, to compile a narrative
of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who
from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have
delivered them to us.41 In other words, though Luke did not personally
witness the events he is relaying, the eyewitnesses were there for him to
interview. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, most of [the witnesses] are still
alive.42 Luke writes that he has compiled this evidence so that
Theophilius, to whom he dedicated his text, may have certainty
37
Grotius, Hugo, and Jean Le Clerc. The Truth of the Christian Religion in Six Books. London: William Baynes, 1829.
101 [hereinafter Grotius].
38
Id.
39
Paul, Lukes teacher, is said in Acts 19:11-12 to have performed several miracles: indeed, he performed the
miracle that converted Sergius Paulus in Acts 13:6-12. It is possible that Luke converted because he experienced
one of these miracles. That we are never told as much, however, distinguishes Luke from Paul and Sergius Paulus
and warrants his inclusion in this list.
40
Colossians 4:14
41
Luke 1:1-2
42
1 Cor. 15:6
43
Luke 1:4
Hoffman at 74. (But the call to membership in the cult of Christ is this: Whoever is a sinner, whoever is unwise,
whoever is childishyea, whoever is a wretchhis is the kingdom of God. And so they invite into membership
those who by their own account are sinners: the dishonest, thieves, burglars, poisoners, blasphemers of all
descriptions, grave robbers. I meanwhat other cult actually invites robbers to become members! Their excuse
for all of it is that their god was sent to call sinners: well, fair enough. But what about the righteous? How do they
account for the fact that their appeal is to the lowest sort of person? Why was their Christ not sent to those who
has not sinnedis it any disgrace not to have sinned?).
45
1 Cor. 2:6
46
1 Cor. 3:18
47
Grotius at 101.
44
Deuteronomy 21:23
Craig, William Lane, and Shabir Ally. "Who Is the Real Jesus?" University of Western Ontario. Mar. 2002. Debate.
50
Acts 7-8
51
Acts 8:3
52
Acts 12:2
53
McGrew at 614.
54
Id. at 615.
55
John 7:1-5
56
1 Cor. 15:7, Acts 1:14
57
Antiquities 20.200
49
McGrew at 624.
Id.
60
Matome Ugaki, a Japanese admiral and kamikaze pilot, is one counterexample. My point is not that leaders of
these three groups have never willingly faced death for their respective causes, but that such cases are atypical.
61
1 Cor. 15:55
62
Pliny, Letters 10.96-97
63
Id.
59
hardly secure! You are banished from land and sea, bound and punished
for your devotion to [your Christian demon] and taken away to be
crucified. Where then is your Gods vengeance on his persecutors?64
Christians, he adds, offer their bodies to be tortured and killed to no
purpose when they think that in so doing they are defying the demons and
going to their eternal reward.65
Finally, Lucian an anti-Christian satirist who died in AD 180
says of Christians that The poor devils have convinced themselves that
they are all going to be immortal and live forever, which makes most of
them take death lightly and voluntarily give themselves up to it.66
Probability and Rational Response
In this context, it is ironic that Celsus felt Christians were being
tortured and killed to no purpose: Celsus himself unintentionally helped
to wreath these sacrifices with purpose. Each matyr here referenced paid
the highest price a human being can pay in attestation of an empirical
fact and it is through the testimony of Celsus and his allies that we can
be most confident they did.
Perhaps the two most common theories proffered by non-Christians
to explain the data thus far presented are a mass hallucination and an
elaborate conspiracy. Widespread early attestation to the resurrection
should reduce the probability of each, as hallucinations are often
particular and conspiracies often fragile. Affirmation by independent
inquirers, especially when those inquirers are educated, should decrease
the probability of at least the first: reports of hallucinations are more
likely to possess a vague and feverish quality than to convey an
impression of solid and veridical experience.
Finally, a pattern of martyrdom should do as much to defeat these
two theories as is possible. It helps to vindicate the findings of inquirers
like Justin Martyr, as people are unlikely to die on the basis of received
testimony unless they have good reasons not to think it is hallucinatory. It
does even more to vindicate firsthand witnesses: people are unlikely to die
for something they suspect to have been a hallucination of their own and
even more unlikely to die for something they know to be a lie.
64
Hoffman at 119.
Id. at 122.
66
Id. at 27.
65
Luke 24:36-42
Hoffman at 60.
69
Id. at 74. See footnote 44.
68
him one can hear, in this evidence, God cry: Why will you die, O house
of Israel?70
Paganism and the Works
Christians, of course, believe that Christ died and was resurrected
only after performing a ministry of public healings and other miracles, or
works, all over Israel.71 While establishing the historicity of these miracles
bolsters the probability of the resurrection story, it also constitutes a
strong independent argument for the truth of Jesus claim to be the
Christ, the Son of the living God.72
This, in fact, appears to be the reason Christ did them. Even
though you do not believe me, he said, believe the works, that you may
know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.73
Likewise, Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or
else believe on account of the works themselves.74 Indeed, if the miracles
occurred, a vast majority of those who witnessed demonstrations of
Christs power during his lifetime saw one of these works rather than his
resurrection. This is precisely, as we shall see, what the historical record
reflects. Christs enemies both pagan and Jewish attested not only to
reports of the works, but to their authenticity.
Celsus acknowledges that Christ is reputed to have worked wonders
through magic.75 Unlike in the case of the resurrection, however, Celsus
does not doubt that a great many people witnessed these works. Instead,
he affirms that the works occurred and attributes them to sorcery both
through his Jewish character and in his own voice. Is it not so that you
hired yourself out as a workman in Egypt, the Jewish character demands
of Christ, learned magical crafts, and gained something of a name for
yourself which you now flaunt among your kinsmen?76 Celsus himself,
Leaving our Jew to ponder for a moment, takes up this question and
answers it in his own voice: Is this sort of thing not the very essence of
sorcery and deception? ... Even Jesus admitted there was nothing
70
Ezekiel 18:31
My focus on the works of Christ and of early Christians should not be taken to imply that comparable miracles do
not occur today.
72
Matthew 16:16
73
John 10:38
74
John 14:11
75
Hoffmann at 53.
76
Id. at 57.
71
Id. at 66.
Id. at 99.
79
Id. at 119.
80
Id. at 90.
81
Hargis at 69-70.
82
Schfer at 83. See also Schfer at 85.
78
ruling: From filth they came and to filth shall they go out (= on filth they
should be expended).83 According to Schfer, This is a well argued and
perfectly acceptable Halakha.84 Like Celsus, then, the Talmud claims to
have extrabiblical information about the historical Christ, making its
acceptance of the works all the more remarkable.
The Talmud says that Jesus the Nazarene practiced magic and
deceived and led Israel astray.85 Reporting on Christs execution, the
Talmud says a herald went forth before him 40 days (heralding): Jesus
the Nazarene is going forth to be stoned because he practiced sorcery and
instigated and seduced Israel. Whoever knows anything in his defense,
may come and state it. But since they did not find anything in his defense,
they hanged him on the eve of Passover.86
Like Porphyry, the Talmud also appears to affirm that Christs
followers can work miracles. On one occasion it relates A case story about
R. Eleazar b. Dama who was bitten by a snake.87 Ben Dama wishes to
accept help from the aforementioned Jacob, who has offered to heal him in
the name of Jesus. Rabbi Ishmael interferes, declaring that Ben Dama is
not permitted to accept healing from Jacob. Ben Dama sets out to prove
that he is permitted to accept the healing88 but dies of the snake bite
before he can succeed. Ishmael then declares Happy are you, Ben Dama,
for you have expired in peace and did not break down the prohibition [on
accepting healing from heretics] stablished by the Sages!89
Unlike Celsus attacks, it should be noted, the Talmudic references
to Christ were written down hundreds of years after Christs death. For
this reason, some scholars including Bart Ehrman assert that they
cannot be relied upon to convey any historical information about Christ. I
am skeptical of this assertion: as apologists often note, the earliest
biographies of Alexander the Great were written centuries after his death;
Judaism in particular has historically had a strong tradition of oral
transmission. Even if we do not accept that the Talmud intrinsically
83
testifies to the works, however, there are at least two good reasons to
think that a very early Jewish tradition attacked the works as sorcery.
Firstly, we know from Celsus that such a Jewish tradition predated
even his writing. I do not refer here to Celsus imaginary Jewish
character. Rather, in his own voice, Celsus tells us that, on the question of
whether the Messiah has come or not, The Christians say yes, and cite
the miracles of Jesus as proof of his identity. The Jews say that any
sorcerer could put forward such proofs, and that the circumstances of
Jesus death prove him an imposter. I am slightly inclined to the latter
view myself, since miracles and wonders have indeed occurred everywhere
and in all times.90 However reliable we find the Talmuds reports, then,
the earliest known non-Christian attestations to Christs works are
Jewish. This is to be expected given the time and place in which Christ is
said to have performed the works.
Secondly, the Talmuds statements about Christ appear to draw on
the same early Jewish tradition which Celsus is relaying. In True
Doctrine, Celsus alleges that Jesus was the illegitimate son of Mary and a
Roman soldier named Panthera.91 The Talmud makes precisely the same
claim. In the story of Ben Dama and the snake, in fact, we are told that
Jacob of Kefar Sama came to heal him in the name of Jesus son of
Pantera.92
Although Celsus attacks have a number of similarities with the
Talmuds, this accusation is by far the most conspicuous. According to
Schfer, it is highly probable that both the Talmud and Celsus draw on
common sources (most likely Jewish sources).93 Not only do we know that
Jewish opponents were accusing Christ of sorcery before Celsus, then, but
there is good reason to think that these very accusations are reflected in
the Talmud.
Sorcerer or Savior
Finally, there is evidence of a third and distinct non-Christian
tradition affirming Christs works. Recall the late antique curse inscribed
by the name of Jesus, who conquered the height and the depth by his
cross, as well as Schfers conclusion that the Jewish writer certainly
90
Hoffman at 69.
Id. at 57.
92
Schfer at 54.
93
Id. at 20.
91
knew the name of Jesus and believed in its magical power.94 I do not
claim that this short curse, inscribed on a piece of pottery hundreds of
years after Christs death, is by itself credible evidence of the works. It
does, however, strengthen Acts report that Jewish magicians were
attempting to work wonders of their own by the Jesus whom Paul
proclaims.95 The author of the curse is unlikely to have been inspired by
Acts: the magicians it describes conspicuously failed. In fact, Acts goes on
to say that all the magicians of Ephesus realizing that there was more
power to be had in Christ than in their own pitiful efforts came,
confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had
practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the
sight of all.96
In addition to the pagan and Talmudic criticisms of Christs works,
then, there is evidence that some Jews working outside the Talmudic
tradition invoked the name of Christ, not because they accepted him as
God, but because his name was widely associated with the performance of
miracles. Acts places its report of this practice in the mid first-century. To
say nothing of Gnostics, then, there is at least reasonable evidence of
three early traditions outside Christianity attesting to the veracity of the
works.
Having already said something of the relative probabilities involved,
and the way one should rationally respond to this evidence, I will conclude
by saying something of the way Christ is treated by one particular group
of modern non-Christians. It is a curious phenomenon that those who
identify as former Christians often paint themselves into the clownish
corner of Jesus mythicism.
Though people of other religious backgrounds often affirm Christs
historicity while denying his divinity, and with little apparent trouble,
professed ex-Christians often seem unable to do so excepting, I suppose,
persons who manage to avoid thinking about Christ at all. This trend is
made all the more curious by the fact that Jesus mythicism is a position of
no scholarly credibility, better suited to a rebellious 12-year-old than an
educated adult.
94
Id. at 39.
Acts 19:11-15
96
Acts 19:18-19
95