Back تاريخية يسوع Arabic İsa Məsihin tarixiliyi Azerbaijani Историчност на Исус Христос Bulgarian যিশুর ঐতিহাসিক সত্যতা Bengali/Bangla Jesu historicitet Danish Ιστορικότητα του Ιησού Greek Esploro pri la historieco de Jesuo Esperanto Historicidad de Jesús Spanish Jeesuksen historiallisuus Finnish Jésus selon l'exégèse contemporaine French
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The historicity of Jesus is the scholarly question in Biblical criticism and early Christian history[1] of whether Jesus historically existed or was a purely mythological figure. "Debate on the existence of Jesus has been in the fringes of scholarship [...] for more than two centuries,"[2] and the question of historicity was generally settled in scholarship in the early 20th century.[3][4][5][6][7][note 1] Modern scholars agree that a Jewish man named Jesus of Nazareth existed in the Herodian Kingdom of Judea and the subsequent Herodian tetrarchy in the 1st century AD, upon whose life and teachings Christianity was later constructed.[note 1] However scholars distinguish between the 'Christ of faith' as presented in the New Testament literature and the subsequent Christian theology, vs a minimal 'Jesus of history', of whom almost nothing can be known.[note 2]
Beyond this, there is no scholarly consensus concerning most elements of Jesus's life as described in the Bible, and only two key events of the biblical story of Jesus's life are widely accepted as historical, based on the criterion of embarrassment, namely his baptism by John the Baptist and his crucifixion by the order of Pontius Pilate.[8][9][10][11][12][13] Furthermore, the historicity of supernatural elements like his purported miracles and resurrection are deemed to be solely a matter of 'faith' or of 'theology', or lack thereof.[note 3]
The Christ myth theory, developed in 19th century scholarship and gaining popular attraction since the turn of the 20th century,[14][15][1] is the view that Jesus is purely a mythological figure[16] and that Christianity began with belief in such a figure.[17] Proponents use a three-fold argument developed in the 19th century: that the New Testament has no historical value with respect to Jesus's existence, that there are no non-Christian references to Jesus from the first century, and that Christianity had pagan and/or mythical roots.[18][19] The idea that Jesus was a purely mythical figure has a fringe status in scholarly circles and has no support in critical studies, with most theories on it "remain[ing] unnoticed and unaddressed."[20][1][note 4]
Academic efforts in biblical studies to determine facts of Jesus's life are part of the "quest for the historical Jesus", and several criteria of authenticity are used in evaluating the authenticity of elements of the Gospel-story. The criterion of multiple attestation is used to argue that attestation by multiple independent sources confirms his existence. There are at least fourteen sources for the historicity of Jesus from multiple authors within a century of the crucifixion of Jesus,[21] including the gospels and the letters of Paul,[note 5][22][23][24][note 6] and a few non-biblical works, including two mentions in Antiquities of the Jews (Testimonium Flavianum & James brother of Jesus passage) by Jewish historian and commander in Galilee, Josephus (dated circa 93–94 AD) and a mention in Annals by Roman historian Tacitus (circa 116 AD).[25][26]
- ^ a b c Meggitt 2019, p. 2.
- ^ Van Voorst 2003, p. 658.
- ^ Wells 2007, p. 477.
- ^ Casey 2014, p. 1.
- ^ Casey 2010, p. 33.
- ^ Johnson 2011, p. 4.
- ^ Van Voorst 2003, pp. 658, 660.
- ^ Davies & Sanders 2008, pp. 623–625.
- ^ Levine, Allison & Crossan 2006, pp. 4.
- ^ Herzog 2005, pp. 1–6.
- ^ Powell 1998, pp. 168–173.
- ^ Dunn 2003, p. 339.
- ^ Crossan 1994, p. 145.
- ^ Gray 2016, p. 113-114.
- ^ Gullotta 2017, pp. 313–314, 346.
- ^ Bromiley 1982, p. 1034.
- ^ Ehrman 2012, pp. 12, 347, n.1.
- ^ Van Voorst 2000, p. 8–9.
- ^ Price 2009, pp. 55–83.
- ^ Gullotta 2017, p. 312, 314.
- ^ Dark 2023, p. 150-151.
- ^ Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey by Craig L. Blomberg 2009 Baker Academic ISBN 0805444823 pp. 441-442
- ^ Eddy & Boyd 2007, p. 202,208-228.
- ^ Tuckett (2001, p. 125)
- ^ Davies & Sanders 2008, p. 621.
- ^ Tuckett 2001, p. 124–125.
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