Did Jesus Exist? - The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth by Bart Ehrman (read book .TXT) 📕

name of Paul are a number that Paul did not actually write.10 One of them is the letter of 1 Timothy, which records the tradition known from so many of our other sources: “I command you before the God who makes all things alive and Christ Jesus, the one who, bearing his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession…” (6:13). We do not know who this author was; we only know that he was not Paul and that he shows no evidence of knowing our Gospels. But he confirms one of the central claims of these other works.

Paul was not the only author imitated by later writers. Peter too probably did not write either book that bears his name in the New Testament.11 It is quite clear that both of these other authors maintained that Jesus was a real, living human being. I begin with several passages from the book known as 1 Peter, which again shows no familiarity with our Gospels:

For you were called to this end, because Christ suffered for you, leaving an example for you that you might follow in his steps, who did not commit sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when reviled did not revile in return, while suffering uttered no threat, but trusted the one who judges righteously, who bore our sins in his body on the tree, in order that dying to sin we might live to righteousness, for by his wounds we were healed. (2:21–24)

For Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, having put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. (3:18)

Since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also be armed with the same thought. (4:1)

And so I admonish the elders among you, I who am a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ…. (5:1)

The fact that these lines were not really written by Peter are immaterial for my purposes here. Once again we have independent testimony to the life (in the flesh) of Jesus and his very tangible death. More emphatic is 2 Peter, another writing forged in Peter’s name, which does not show clear evidence of any familiarity with the Gospels but clearly knows the tradition recorded in them of the experience of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration:

For not by following sophistic myths have we made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of the majesty of that one. For when we received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was brought to him by the magnificent glory, “this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” we heard this voice that was brought from heaven to him, for we were on the holy mountain. (1:16–18)

Somewhat earlier than 2 Peter, probably sometime near the end of the first century, comes the treatise of 1 John, wrongly attributed in the tradition to Jesus’s disciple John the son of Zebedee. The anonymous author of this treatise did not write the Gospel of John, but there are good reasons for thinking that he knew of it and that he lived in the same community that produced the Gospel. In any event, this author too is quite emphatic that when Jesus appeared on earth he was a real human who could be felt, handled, heard, and seen:

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the world of life. And the life was made manifest, and we saw and we bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal live which was with the Father and has been manifest to us. What we saw and heard we proclaim also to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1:1–4)

Even the book of Revelation, with all its bizarre imagery and fantastic apocalyptic views, understands that Jesus was a real historical figure. For this author he was one who “lived” and who “died” (1:18). Like the Gospel of John, but not dependent on it, this book, written by a different author, portrays Jesus as the “lamb who was slain” for salvation (5:6). Quite apart from the theological spin he puts on Jesus’s death, the fact that matters for us in this context is that he too provides independent witness to the Christian tradition of a real Jesus.

As my final example I can turn to the letter of the Hebrews, a book that was written anonymously but was eventually accepted into the canon of the New Testament by church fathers who thought, incorrectly, that it had been produced by Paul. The book is not dependent on the letters of Paul and shows no evidence of any familiarity with the Gospels. And yet it contains numerous references to the life of the historical Jesus. The following are simply some of the key passages to consider:

Jesus appeared in “these last days” (1:2).

God spoke through him (that is, in his proclamation; 1:2).

He “made a purification for sins” (that is, he died a bloody death; 1:3).

He was told by God, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you,” and was called “son of God” by the Father (1:5).

He was the first to proclaim salvation (2:3).

God bore witness to him and/or his followers through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the spirit (2:4).

He tasted death “apart from God” (that is, apart from any divine solace; 2:9).

He was made perfect by suffering (2:10).

He partook of flesh and blood (2:14).

He was like his brothers (the Jews? all people?) in all respects (2:17).

He was tempted (2:18) in every way but without sin (4:15).

He was faithful to God (3:2).

He offered up prayers and loud cries and tears to be saved from death (presumably before his crucifixion; 5:7).

He learned obedience by suffering (5:8).

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