Jesus -The Truth
I am very interested in what you could call the search for the ‘Historical Jesus’- in other words what does empirical historical or archaeological evidence show we definitely know about Jesus and his life, compared with what we know and believe through our faith.
Not too long ago a fairly naïve and uninformed writer questioned whether Jesus ever existed, and in the most recent surveys carried out by 'You Gov' and the Church of England around 25% of people in England think Jesus was a fictional, rather than historical figure, which is rather scary.
So, what do we really know and how do we respond to people who question Jesus’ very existence?
Well, historians and archaeologists will generally talk about what they call the ‘Historian’s Creed’, that is to say that they can be sure there is strong corroborative evidence to say the following is true: a) Jesus lived in 1st century Palestine, b) He preached and healed amongst people, c) He gathered followers but also enemies, d) He was executed on the orders of Pontius Pilate and e) within a short period of his death churches and followers of Jesus emerged.
Beyond that, theologians will say that the other things we know happened as recorded in the Gospels- e.g., the Virgin birth, the slaughter of innocents, the feeding of the 5000, the Resurrection etc may have happened but they cannot prove it to a high degree of satisfaction. That is not their fault because they have to be able to say that because for example they found this testimony or that object, then that proves something happened. They are also among the first to make it clear that it would be unreasonable to expect to find much empirical evidence about people living in the 1st century-but clear evidence of Jesus and the impact he had is there.
For me however, the most powerful evidence is that there was an incredible ‘energy’ following Jesus’ crucifixion that demonstrates something extraordinary took place, people started to follow him, churches were set up to worship and praise Him. People -the Christian martyrs- chose to die rather than deny Jesus’ divinity-they knew the Truth and in short, things changed for ever.
Tags: Jesus, church of england, Histroical Jesus, Theology