Talking with Your Kids about JesusSýnishorn

Day Two: The Identity of Jesus—Is Jesus a Myth?

Scripture: I Corinthians 15:3-14 

When you think of having conversations with your child about Jesus, you’re probably not thinking about explaining how we know He was a real person in history, but that’s where we need to start given the popular claims of skeptics today that we can’t even be sure Jesus existed. Although we can’t travel back in time, we can confidently reconstruct much of history by piecing together the evidence that remains today.

There are three key types of evidence for Jesus’s existence to consider: (1) early references to Jesus by non-Christians, (2) references to Jesus by the apostle Paul, and (3) references to Jesus by the Gospel writers. Let’s look briefly at each type of evidence.

First, we don’t have many non-Christian sources from the first century that reference Jesus, but we wouldn’t expect to—we don’t even have many writings from that time about the rulers of Roman Palestine (the area where Jesus lived). For example, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea from AD 26 to AD 36 and was one of the most important figures during the years he reigned. However, we have no first-century Roman records today that document his rule. Even so, no one doubts his existence. 

From Roman Palestine, writings survive from only one author from the first century—the Jewish historian Josephus, and he mentioned Jesus in his works. Josephus provides us with the only non-Christian reference to Jesus’s existence from the first century, but if we expand our search even thirty years, there are three mentions of Jesus by Roman writers. The most valuable one comes from Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56–c. 117), a Roman historian who places Jesus in history by confirming that the time of his execution was during the reign of Tiberius (AD 14–37) and during the governorship of Pilate (AD 26–36). 

Second, we have multiple New Testament letters written about Jesus by Paul, dating to as early as AD 50. Skeptics sometimes claim that Paul only believed in some kind of “celestial” Jesus (a being living in the spiritual realm) rather than a historical Jesus because he recounts few details of Jesus’s life. However, Paul’s writings are letters, not biographies. We wouldn’t expect them to provide any particular life details. Even so, several passages in Paul’s letters show that he indeed knew Jesus was a real person (Galatians 4:4, Romans 1:3).

Third, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are testimony to the life and teaching of Jesus. A skeptic doesn’t need to accept the truth of everything recorded in the Gospels to acknowledge that they must have been written in response to the life of someone who actually existed.  

For these reasons (and more), virtually all historians agree that Jesus existed.

Ask your child what kinds of historical evidence they would look for if they wanted to confirm Jesus existed. What kinds of evidence would be reasonable to look for and what kinds would not?