Essay on "Who Is Jesus?"

Essay 5 pages (1448 words) Sources: 6 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Jesus: Man, Myth, Or Irrelevant

Always one to cause a healthy debate, Jesus it should not come as a surprise that the historicity of Jesus comes into question. There has probably never been such a polarizing figure as Jesus and the debate over who, or if, he was still linger on. While many choose to believe the notion that the Jesus of Nazareth was a myth, there logic is faulty in that they have too much existence that proves a man called Jesus did exist. There is no doubt that Jesus will always been seen from two perspectives, one looking with more logic and reason and the other looking at Jesus from a more spiritual viewpoint. There is no doubt that historians want facts about the man called Jesus but what really cannot be doubted is the fact that Jesus did exist. His name is mentioned in several secular documents in addition to the gospels of the New Testament. History is not shaken when we cross-reference sources; in fact, it is solidified. Because Jesus did live and because of his impact upon the world while he did live and thereafter, Jesus is still a relevant character to study today.

Enough historians believe in the actuality of Jesus that we find his name written in textbooks across the world. Many historians agree that Jesus had many followers and his teachings consisted of such things as abandoning "sin and worldly concerns; to follow the moral codes described in the Sermon on the Mount, which preached love, charity and humility; and to believe in him and his divine mission" (Craig 158). It is also believed that Jesus' teachings "caused great suspicion among the upper classes and provoked the hostility of the religious establishment in Jerusalem" (158). William Duiker maintains that Jesus was perceived by the government as a "potential revolutionary who might transform Jewish expectations of a messianic kingdom into a revolt on Rome" (Duiker 111). In addition, historians have attempted to look into other articles of history to authentic this man.

Most historians are in agreement that Jesus did exist and they look to ancient historians to make their claim. Lucius Miller notes that there are some historical texts that allow us to discover who Jesus actually was. He writes that Tacitus "tells of the attempt of Nero to fasten his crime of the burning of Rome upon the Christians, a despised sect which 'derived its name from one Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius suffered death by the sentence of Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea'" (Miller). Herbert Cutner asserts that along with Tacitus, other pagan writers mention Jesus. These include Pliny the Younger and Suetonius. Pliny's mention of Jesus, which occurs in a letter to emperor Trajan dated around 106 a.D., is especially important in that he mentions how he dealt specifically with Christians. What we learn from this letter is that there were Christians in Pliny's time and those who did confess to be a Christian were "punished' or 'executed'" (Cutner 111). These individuals confessed and sang songs to Christ. This evidence, according to Cutner, "proves, say the Historicists, that Christ really existed as a man (or Man)." (111). Robert Voorst contends that Pliny becomes significant because of his published work. His letters are historical evidence because they "provide the largest administrative correspondence to survive from Roman times" (Voorst 24). In the letter in which he deals with Christians during trial, he is said to have asked his accused three times of they were Christians. In his letter, he writes about a growing concern for those who profess to believe in Christ. Voorst agrees that there is simply too much historical evidence to deny that Jesus existed. Voorst maintains that the "earliest possible reference" (19) to Jesus comes the first century from a historian named Thallos. He chronicled the eastern Mediterranean area from the fall of Troy to about 50 a.D. What survived of his book was quoted by Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian writer. One of its quotes was copied by Syncellus, who states that Thallos recounts an "eclipse of the sun" (Voorst 19) that "comes in a section in which Julius deals with the portents during the crucifixion of Jesus" (20). Julius rejects the notion that an eclipse occurred noting that it is impossible when there is a full moon… READ MORE

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