Faith on Trial (15 page)

Now, there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first, did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
11

The particular wording of this passage has created much controversy because a reference to Jesus as “the Christ” was considered to be unlikely since Josephus was not a Christian. For that reason, though the passage as a whole is not generally questioned, speculation is that the references to Jesus as a Messiah were added by later Christian writers. The suspected revision to the text is supported by the fact that Origen, who lived from
ad
185 to 254, stated that Josephus did not refer to Jesus as the Christ. Scholars believe they have reconstructed the original language and that the unadulterated passage referred specifically and clearly to the crucifixion of Jesus, without referring to him as the Messiah.

On the other hand, a tenth-century Arabic manuscript published in the early 1970s described the substance of the same passage as including the original reference to Jesus as “perhaps the Messiah.”
12
Since the Arabic text would not be as vulnerable to an argument that it was tampered with by Christian writers, it has the “earmark of authenticity,” and it is possible that the original statement by Josephus did in fact contain that reference.
13

Later in the same
Antiquities,
Josephus also referred to James as the brother of Jesus. The passage states that the high priest, Annas, acting without proper authority, assembled the Sanhedrin and “brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ, whose name was James, and some others [or some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”
14

Many other early Jewish sources also refer to the existence of Jesus, and they confirm his existence as a historical fact. The Mishnah, together with ancient commentary on those teachings forms the Talmud, a famous collection of Jewish thought and literature. A reference to the death of Jesus is contained in the Sanhedrin, one of the six orders or series under which the Mishnah is organized. The following words appear in the Sanhedrin: “On the eve of Passover they hanged Yeshu (of Nazareth).”
15
Crucifixion in the first century was often referred to as “hanging on a tree” and that usage is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the Mishnah itself, and in other Christian and non-Christian historical writings. It is clear, therefore, that historical references in non-Christian writings provide positive evidence of the actual existence of Jesus and of his crucifixion. Of course, numerous references to the historical existence of Jesus and his crucifixion exist in ancient contemporaneous and substantially contemporaneous Christian writings.

Next let us examine other independent and objective evidence to corroborate the many details set forth in the Gospel testimonies. In addition to the historical references described above, archaeological records, artifacts, medical opinions, and even astronomical observations provide ample substantiation for the testimony of the Gospels. We will begin at the beginning, with the story of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

The Gospel of Matthew refers to an unusual star that hung over Bethlehem prior to the birth of Jesus (Matt. 2:2–10). The period during which Jesus is believed to have been born is between 7
bc
and
ad
7, with most scholars leaning toward 6
bc
. In 1603 John Kepler, a mathematician and astronomer, calculated that in either 6 or 7
bc
the planets Jupiter and Saturn had moved so close to each other on the same degree of longitude that they had the appearance of a single, particularly brilliant large star. In fact, it has been determined that three such movements of the planets occurred during the year 7
bc
, in May, October, and December, immediately before the year generally accepted as most likely for the birth of Jesus. Such an event is called a conjunction of the planets. In 1925 P. Schnabel, a German scholar, confirmed these events and the dates from translations of a Neo-Babylonian cuneiform found in the School of Astrology at Sippar, Babylonia. It is now believed that a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation Pisces must have occurred in 7
bc
.
16
An alternative source for the “Christmas star,” however, was recently proposed by three British astronomers. In 5
bc
, a supernova was observed for more than seventy days by Chinese astronomers of the Han Dynasty.
17
Either of these two unusual events would have been visible in the areas where the star was described in the Gospel of Matthew prior to the birth of Jesus.

The Gospel of Matthew also reported that Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, fulfilling a specific prophecy of the Old Testament prophet Micah, written seven hundred years before (Mic. 5:2). The ancient village was located on a ridge some six miles southwest of Jerusalem. In approximately
ad
150, Justin Martyr wrote that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and, “since Joseph could not find lodging in the village, he took up his quarters in a certain cave near the village; and while they were there Mary brought forth the Christ and placed him in a manger, and here the Magi who came from Arabia found him.”
18
Caves often provided shelter for people and animals in the first century.

About one hundred years later, Origen wrote as if he had seen the cave himself, stating that “this sight is greatly talked of in surrounding places, even among the enemies of the faith, it being said that in this cave was born that Jesus who is worshiped and reverenced by the Christians.”
19
Additional references to the cave, or grotto, and the special attention paid to it as the birthplace of Jesus are found in numerous other second-, third-, and fourth-century documents.

Today in Bethlehem the sixth-century Church of the Nativity stands over the remains of a basilica, marking the location of an earlier church probably built by the emperor Constantine in
ad
339. At the east end of the basilica is an altar which is directly above the same cave venerated from the first century as the “grotto of the nativity.” This grotto is believed to mark the birthplace of Jesus.
20

The Gospels report that Jesus grew up in the small town of Nazareth. Until recently, historians who were critical of the Bible suggested that Nazareth never existed. This was partially based on the omission of any town by that name in listings of the main towns and villages of Galilee that were created by Josephus and that were listed by the Talmud. In the 1950s, however, the archaeologist Belarmino Begatti found silos, wells, granaries, millstones, an oven, a wine press, and olive and raisin presses in the exact location where Nazareth was believed to have been.
21
It was clearly an agricultural village. These artifacts date from the first century and were found beneath the present-day town’s Church of the Annunciation. We now have positive evidence that Nazareth existed as an agricultural community even before the time of Jesus. There is no reason to question the Gospel testimony that Jesus grew up there. This is bolstered by the description of the nature of Jesus in the Gospels of Luke and John discussed earlier.

The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth was found to have been built above another church constructed in the twelfth century by Crusaders, and under it are the remains of an earlier Byzantine church. Within the outlines of the Crusader church is a small and deep rock cavern, a subterranean grotto. Eleventh-century writings describe the grotto as marking the place where Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived and was told that she was to bear the Messiah. It appears that the Crusader church was built to venerate the grotto. In
ad
570, writings of Anonymous of Piacenza supported this traditional identification and reported that “the house of St. Mary is a basilica” located in Nazareth.
22
Nearby was found an ancient wine press believed to be from the Roman period, as well as an oven and grain silos.

In the early 1980s, Americans undertook an extensive excavation of the ancient city of Sepphoris, which traditionally is believed to be the birthplace of Mary. Located just three miles from Nazareth, Sepphoris is not mentioned in the Gospels, but it is mentioned in the Mishnaic references to Jesus described above. The city, according to Josephus, was the administrative capital of Galilee, symbolic of the new Roman culture.

The discovery of Sepphoris shed new light on the early years of Jesus and the society in which he grew up. A cosmopolitan city connected by road to Nazareth, Sepphoris is mentioned by Josephus in his Jewish
Antiquities
for its prime strategic value to the Romans.

Excavations in Sepphoris revealed a beautiful theater of marble capable of seating four thousand people, believed by archaeologists to have been built at the direction of Herod Antipas during the early part of the first century.
23
The Gospels refer to Jesus as a carpenter or a woodworker. Although this is speculation, it is reasonable to believe that artisans from Nazareth, possibly including Jesus, would have been employed in the building of this theater and other buildings in Sepphoris. Interestingly, it has been observed that Jesus used the word
hypocrite
, derived from Greek references to an actor, or a pretender, at least seventeen times in the Gospels. Scholars have therefore speculated that exposure to the culture of Sepphoris may have been responsible for this theatrical imagery.
24

In any event, it is clear that the Romanization of the area in the first century, as indicated by excavations in Sepphoris, would have had a great influence on the culture and economics of the entire area generally. Jesus and his followers were people who had been fully exposed to the sophistication of this city, and the demarcation between village life and city life was not as strong as had been believed. Three major roads ran near Nazareth, carrying pilgrims and Roman soldiers to Jerusalem as well as caravans moving between Egypt and Damascus.

In addition, the general understanding of Greek can be presumed from the influence of this Romanized city. In particular, Jesus’ familiarity with Greek is supported by such details in the Gospels as the easy conversations between Jesus and a Roman centurion and with Pontius Pilate.
25
Moreover, the efficiency of the Roman postal system, discussed earlier, lends support to the current belief that society in this region, which could include Jesus and his disciples, was multilingual. It may also add to our understanding of the sophistication of the parables and metaphors used by Jesus in his teachings, notwithstanding his origins in the small town of Nazareth. Along with the new influence of the Roman culture, further evidence of the easy transport of manuscripts and letters undermines theories that the Gospel witnesses were necessarily ignorant provincials.

The Gospels report that as Jesus began his ministry, he was baptized by a person referred to as “John the Baptist.” The baptism of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry is described in the various Gospels as occurring somewhere along the Jordan River. The Gospel of John also notes that one of the places in which John the Baptist performed his work was “Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water” (John 3:23
niv
). Professor W. F. Albright, an American archaeologist, has now identified Salim as being in the vicinity of Ainun.
26
The Gospels are clear that Jesus’ baptism was somewhere other than Aenon, or Ainun, but this provides more circumstantial corroboration of the consistency of the details included in the Gospels.

Josephus confirmed Gospel testimony of the existence of “John, that was called the Baptist,” describing him as a good and virtuous man who practiced baptism of the Jews in connection with the worship of God. He also confirmed the Gospel reports of the murder of John the Baptist by Herod at Machaerus, Herod Antipas’s palace fortress built near the Dead Sea, and provided the names of Herodias, the wife of Herod, and her daughter, Salome.
27

Many of the events described in the Gospels took place in Capernaum, near the Sea of Galilee. Until an excavation in 1866, the location of Capernaum was unknown, and many even doubted its existence. In that year Captain Charles Wilson, a British engineer, concluded that a site on the Sea of Galilee named Tel-Hum by local Arabs was, in fact, Capernaum.
28
Recent archaeological discoveries have now verified this identification.

In excavations carried on between 1905 and 1921, a second- to fourth-century synagogue made of white limestone was discovered. In 1974, however, archaeologists found traces of a first-century synagogue made of four-foot-thick walls of black basalt, as well as the remains of residential sections. They also found pottery of the first decades of the first century in and under the floor. The excavator, Virgilio Corbo, concluded that we are now justified in believing the first-century synagogue was the same synagogue referred to in the Gospel of Luke as having been built by a Roman centurion.
29
The Gospels of Matthew, John, and Luke all refer to Jesus’ curing a servant of a Roman centurion in Capernaum (Matt. 8:5–13; Luke 7:2–10; John 4:46–53). The remains of a second- or third-century sixty-four-foot-long bathhouse of Roman design provide additional evidence of the Roman presence in Capernaum at that time. Beneath the bathhouse archaeologists have found indications of a similar type of building from the first century.
30