Did Jesus Exist?

Introduction:

People hold to many weird believes.

Flat Earth

Moon landing is an hoax

Shakeshphere did not write his plays.

Jesus Mythicism is a similar.

Start with quote from Bart Erhman:

“I should say at the outset that none of this (Jesus Mythicism) literature is written by scholars trained in New Testament or early Christian studies teaching at the major, or even the minor, accredited theological seminaries, divinity schools, universities, or colleges of North America or Europe (or anywhere else in the world). Of the thousands of scholars of early Christianity who do teach at such schools, none of them, to my knowledge, has any doubts that Jesus existed.”

Yet in our popular culture this myth is a popular one.

Joseph Edamurk, Ravichandran C and many popular atheist in Kerala does propagate this up until recent times.

Few years ago. Flipped position.

Robert Price and Richard Carrier.

from the first century until the eighteenth, every source that mentions Jesus—Christian, Jewish, pagan, believer, skeptic, or even opponent—assumed he was a real historical person, and no one seriously questioned his existence.

The myth that Jesus did not exist is a modern myth.

The view does not come from scholarship but from speculation.

Most famous ones you here.

Claim: it is simplest to believe that he never existed but was invented as another supernatural being. In this reading of the evidence, Christianity is founded on a myth.

Jesus is a copy of Osiris, Mythras, Krishna.

Virgin Birth Ehrman: “There is no evidence that dying-and-rising gods were believed to be born of virgins.”

Mithras: born from a rock

Horus: born to Isis by Osiris

Krishna: born naturally to Devaki and Vasudeva ➤ No true pagan virgin birth parallel

Twelve Disciples Casey: “Parallels are repeatedly asserted without evidence from the ancient sources.”

Mithras: twelve zodiac signs, not disciples

Horus & Krishna: no group of twelve ➤ Symbolism ≠ historical borrowing

Death & ResurrectionEhrman: “Claims of pagan resurrections are greatly exaggerated or simply false.”

Mithras: never dies

Horus: symbolic solar cycle, not resurrection

Krishna: dies by accident, no resurrection ➤ No pagan crucifixion–resurrection narrative

Salvation Through SacrificeCasey: “Jesus belongs firmly within first-century Judaism, not pagan mythology.”

None die for sins or as historical executions ➤ Jesus’ death is historically specific and Jewish in context

If you ask a Mythicist to show evidence of these parallels, actually there is none.

Let’s assume that Parllels do exist? Then would it prove that Jesus story

Gandhi is a Myth.

both have titles in there names starting with M

Both had 12 diciples.

Mary Magdalene, Madaliene Slade

Simon go back, Simon Peter Get behind me, Satan!

Slap on cheek

Both were killed by their own people

gandhi Hey ram, Jesus Eloi Eloi

Appolonius:

Claim: Jesus is a Copy of Apollonius Apollonius supposedly lived between AD 15 96.

That is, his life comes shortly after the life of Jesus. The only source we have for his life comes from Philostratus in the third century (AD 225). (Gap of 150 years ).

In 150 years no eyewitness to the real event existed. In 150 years time no 2nd generation testimonies are also unlikely to exist.

Phiostratus had a clear motive because he commissioned by the Empress to write the account.

Philostratus was skeptical about Apollonius's miracles. He uses phrases such as “it is reported that” or “some believe.”

The Gospels are nothing like this. They make no qualms about Jesus’ miraculous activity. As some skeptics claim, Apollonius did not rise from the dead

How do we make an historical evaluation?

Evidence for Existence

Types of Evidence:

Hard Evidence (Photographs)

Physical Evidence ( Houses, etc, direct writings)

Other kinds of Evidences (About the person, quotations etc.)

Is there an hard evidence for Jesus nor do we have any writings that Jesus wrote?

This is not much of an argument against his existence, however, since there is no archaeological evidence for anyone else living in Palestine in Jesus’s day except for the very upper-crust elite aristocrats, who are occasionally mentioned in inscriptions (we have no other archaeological evidence even for any of these). In fact, we don’t have archaeological remains for any nonaristocratic Jew of the 20s CE, when Jesus would have been an adult.

In fact, we have no writings from over 99.99% of people in antiquity—yet that does not mean they did not exist

No Roman Records?

1️⃣ Roman record-keeping was selective, not comprehensive Romans did not systematically record events or people who did not interest the state. Births, minor trials, and executions of ordinary individuals were rarely preserved.

2️⃣ Jesus belonged to a category that left no official paper trail Poor, rural Jews and low-level offenders—especially those executed by crucifixion—almost never generated surviving Roman documentation. We lack records for thousands of crucified individuals.

3️⃣ Expecting Roman archives for Jesus is anachronistic Demanding contemporary Roman records applies modern bureaucratic expectations to the ancient world, where most people—even many important ones—went undocumented.

4️⃣ Even major Roman officials are barely attested Pontius Pilate, the most powerful Roman authority in Judea during Jesus’ lifetime, is known only from a few coins and a single fragmentary inscription—no writings at all. Expecting more evidence for Jesus than for Pilate is unreasonable.

5️⃣ Absence of contemporary sources does not imply non-existence Even figures as famous as Hannibal—one of history’s greatest generals and Rome’s greatest enemy—have zero surviving contemporary references. Therefore, the lack of contemporary Roman mentions of a Galilean peasant preacher is historically meaningless.

Earliest Records: Best attested is the gospels themselves and the epistles of Paul. We won’t get into details today. In the next session we will deal with it.

How many (non-self-authored) narratives do we have about the words and deeds of Josephus?  None.  How many narratives do we have of Caiaphus, the most highly placed Jew of Jesus’ day?  None.  How many narratives do we have of the words and deeds of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, the most powerful man in all of Palestine in Jesus’ day?  None.  How many narratives do we have of any of the hundreds of thousands of people living or even visiting in Palestine from the first century, apart from Jesus?  None.

Jesus is the best attestted palestinian Jew of his time.

12 Independednt Sources of Jesus within hundred years.

4 Biographies (Compare to Tiberius, biography was written by Tacitus, Annals almost 80 years after his death)

Paul, Peter James and Jude. (Author of Hebrews)

Pliny, Josephus and Tacitus

Tacitus (c. 115 CE)

Tacitus wrote his famous work Annals of Imperial Rome around 115 CE, narrating the history of the Roman Empire from 14 to 68 CE.

In discussing Nero’s persecution of Christians, Tacitus writes:

“Nero falsely accused those whom the populace called Christians. The author of this name, Christ, was put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate while Tiberius was emperor; but the dangerous superstition, though suppressed for the moment, broke out again not only in Judea, the origin of this evil, but even in the city of Rome.” — Annals 15.44

Historical Note

Tacitus is likely relying on common knowledge or hearsay, rather than detailed archival research. This is suggested by his misidentification of Pontius Pilate as a procurator rather than a prefect (as confirmed by the Pilate inscription).

Suetionis

“Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christ],​ he expelled them from Rome.” Suetonis Ad 120

Jewish Sources: Jsoephus.

Until reecently skeptics challenged the authencity.

Testimonium Flavianus . Problem for Mythicist.

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, [if indeed one ought to call him a man]. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. [He was the Messiah.] When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. [For he appeared to them alive again on the third day, the divine prophets having foretold these and countless other marvellous things about him.] And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.

Josephus was born to an aristocratic family in Palestine some six or seven years after the traditional date of Jesus’s death.

Antiquities

As it turns out, he discusses several persons named Jesus, and he deals briefly also with John the Baptist. And on two occasions, at least in the writings as they have come down to us today, he mentions Jesus of Nazareth.

Annanus put James the brither of Jeus who is called messiah to death.

Even when we strip away later Christian additions, a Jewish historian from the first century still tells us that Jesus existed, taught publicly, was executed by Rome, and left behind a movement that continued after his death.

 In Book 10, Letter 96, he describes his procedure to Trajan:

Others, whose names were given me by an informer, first said that they were Christians and afterwards denied it, declaring that they had been but were so no longer, some of them having recanted many years before, and more than one so long as twenty years back. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the deities, and cursed the name of Christ. But they declared that the sum of their guilt or their error only amounted to this, that on a stated day they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak and to recite a hymn among themselves to Christ, as though he were a god, and that so far from binding themselves by oath to commit any crime, their oath was to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and from breach of faith, and not to deny trust money placed in their keeping when called upon to deliver it.21

Pliny the Younger 112 A.D