Did Jesus Really Exist?Sýnishorn

Clearly, Jesus was a real historical figure who was crucified in the first century under Pontius Pilate. This is one of the most indisputable facts in history. But did Jesus really die for us and conquer death in His resurrection? Modern people didn’t invent skepticism; the ancients knew very well that dead people stay dead.

The first generation of Christians thought that careful investigation was important, that allegiance to Jesus should be based on facts we can have confidence in, that we should be able to explain the reason for our hopes.

Paul was one of the earliest Christian writers. The New Testament contains many of the letters he wrote about Jesus. Scholars dispute some of these letters, but even skeptics agree about the authorship of most of his letters, including 1 Corinthians, where Paul appeals to eyewitness testimony for the claims he’s making about Jesus’ burial and resurrection. This letter was written whilst most of these eyewitnesses were still alive which would be dangerous if he was making the claims up; they could be really easily investigated by simply asking the eyewitnesses.

Luke wrote an account of Jesus’ life, and he tells us why he wrote it: so that his readers could have certainty. He says his account is in agreement with the eyewitness testimony of those who were with Jesus at the beginning of His ministry. John also wrote an account of Jesus’ life, also written so that his readers could trust the news they were told about Jesus. John even claims to be an actual eyewitness of these things himself.

But are these writers trustworthy? Textual criticism (a scientific technique for analyzing the trustworthiness of a text) demonstrates how well the New Testament has been preserved (contrary to what we might read in The Da Vinci Code!), but it’s possible that the New Testament wasn’t true when it was written. Over the next two days, we’ll briefly look at some of the clues that Luke, John and the other New Testament writers are telling us the true story of Jesus.

If you want to know more about eyewitness testimony in the Gospels (the first four books in the New Testament that are about Jesus’ life), you could read Can We Trust the Gospels by Peter Williams, or Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham.

Whether you’re a Christian or a skeptic, do you have good reasons for the things you think about Jesus? Ask God to help you investigate Jesus this week so that you can believe with confidence and reason.