I wrote the below quickly this evening as a letter to the editor after finding the ridiculous article below on 'thespec.com'. Sad that many may read it and genuinely question the truth about our Lord on such erroneous grounds.
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I find it astonishing that your newspaper would post such an
article as -
- on the front page of ‘thespec.com’ right at Christmas
time.
There is no question amongst historians that Jesus existed,
in fact to suggest otherwise amongst academia is laughable. If you seriously question the fact that Jesus
existed you must by extension question the existence of every historical figure
of antiquity. We can be sure Jesus
existed because of the extra-biblical evidence coming to us through secular
historians, the sheer volume of records contained in Biblical manuscripts, and
the historical impact of Christians (followers of Jesus Christ) that has shaped
the western world and beyond for two millennia.
The article in question states that, “the first problem we
encounter when trying to discover more about the Historical Jesus is the lack
of early sources.” This is factually
incorrect. We have direct references to
the existence of Jesus in no fewer than nine secular historians and writers of
antiquity including: Thallus, Phlegus Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus,
Hadrian, Suetonius, Lucien of Samosata and Mora Bar-Serapion. On top of these writings there here are also
references to Jesus in the Jewish Rabbinic writings known as the Talmud.
Additionally, the sheer volume of New Testament writings in
existence testifies to the historicity of Jesus. Take a comparison between the writing of the
early historians Herodotus or Tacitus against the New Testament. There are 8 copies of the manuscripts of
Herodotus the earliest of which can be dated to 900 AD, nearly 1300 years after
the history he claims to record. In the
case of Tacitus we can find up to 20 manuscript copies of his Roman histories,
with the earliest copies dated to 1100 AD, 1000 years after the history he
claims to record. Now, compare with the
New Testament: there are 5686 Greek manuscripts in existence today for the New
Testament with conservative estimates placing the earliest copies at the
beginning of the 2nd century only 70 years after the events they
claim to record. The comparison is
staggering, yet do we question that the Peloponnesian wars occurred (Herodotus)
or the existence and events of the life of the emperor Nero (Tacitus)? The gospel writers clearly imply they are writing history and sometimes state such explicitly (see Luke 1: 1-4). The level of skepticism required to deny such well attested documents is mind-boggling.
Finally, during this Christmas season as well over two
billion Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus I wish to know how
those who would question historical existence of Jesus account for his
historical impact? Could a figment of
the imagination truly be the source of a faith which has changed the course of
human history more than any other force?
That seems extremely implausible to this writer.
I was surprised that the article was posted on a professional website such as ‘The Spec.com’, you have lowered my estimation of your
newspaper. The article posted was
misleading, factually incorrect and academically laughable. Please stick to real news and leave the Jesus
haters to act as trolls on your comment boards instead posting them as
front-page news.
Yours Truly,
Andrew Smith
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