Evidence Unseen: Exposing the Myth of Blind Faith by James M. Rochford

Author:James M. Rochford [Rochford, James M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Christian
ISBN: 9780983668169
Amazon: 0983668167
Publisher: New Paradigm Publishing
Published: 2013-05-29T22:00:00+00:00

[341] This is terrifying to consider. The Holocaust was one of the most documented and historically attested events in all of human history. And yet if you distrust the study of history in general, then I doubt any level of evidence would change your mind concerning the Holocaust. Likewise, if you don’t believe that history can be known, then I doubt you’ll be impressed with the historical evidence for Jesus. On the other hand, if you do believe that history can be known, then I think you’ll be persuaded with the evidence for the historicity of Jesus.

Chapter Ten:

Timeframe (How Early are the Documents?)

Many people wonder how quickly the New Testament was written after Jesus died. How long did the disciples wait before they wrote down their accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection? Many often assume the New Testament was passed along like the game of Telephone from grade school, or they believe that church councils compiled myths about Jesus centuries later. Is this the case?

Comparing the Timeframe

Before we can appreciate the credibility of the New Testament documents, we need to compare their timeframe with the other ancient biographies and historical accounts from the same period. By way of comparison, consider Roman emperor Tiberius, who died in 37 C.E. (just a few years after Jesus). This man was a Roman emperor—the leader of the known world. Nobody had more political clout or military power than him. And yet our earliest biographies for Tiberius—written by Tacitus and Suetonius—date to 110-120 C.E. This is roughly 70 to 80 years after his death.

This might surprise you, but this is pretty good for an ancient biography. Compare Tiberius, for example, with Alexander the Great. By the time Alexander was 30 years old, he had conquered the known world. He died only two years later at age 32 in 323 B.C.E. Although modern people take Alexander’s historical reliability for granted, his earliest known biography was written by Arrian in 130 C.E. This is roughly 450 years after Alexander’s death.

Now, let’s ask ourselves a few questions: Do historians believe that Alexander and Tiberius existed? Yes. Do they believe the general details about their lives from these biographies? Of course. Do they trust the general historical outline that we have in these accounts? Absolutely. In fact, they generally regard these historical documents as reliable and accurate accounts of their lives.

Let’s compare this with the accounts of Jesus of Nazareth. When we turn to the New Testament documents, we find that we have four biographies about Jesus, and they were all written within one generation after his death. In fact, even critics agree that the entire New Testament was written before the close of the first century (100 C.E.).

This is a little embarrassing for Tiberius and Alexander the Great. After all, these guys were kings and conquerors. Jesus was a measly travelling preacher and tradesman. And yet he was given more historical attention than any general, emperor, king, ruler, teacher, philosopher, or anyone else in the ancient world.

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