First I know some are probably wondering why I keep using this book as a reference, so let me explain.When I first was given it by my wifes aunt, I was thinking I already believe so I don't need to read it.Finally I read it, and I can tell you it is a must read.
1.Because it is an excellent witnessing tool.
2.The author was a skeptic/atheist when he was doing his invetigation, and he asks the tough questions to some of the leading scholars around.He holds no punches back with his questions to them.After his investigation, he became a pastor!!!
3.It will strenghthen your faith by confirming,as far as I am concerned, that the case, for Christ is built on a solid foundation.
4.Again it's like adding more cement to your foundation of faith in Christ.
Third Interview: Edwin M. Yamauchi, PH.D.
THE CORROBORATING EVIDENCE
(I am only doing snippets of the interview, due to time constraints)
"As a historian, could you give me your assessment of the historical reliability of the Gospels themselves?"
"On the whole, the gospels are excellent sources," he replied. "As a matter of fact, they're the most trustworthy, complete, and reliable sorces for Jesus.The incidental sources really don't add much detailed information; however, they are valuable as corroborative evidence."
"Ok that's what I want to discuss-the corroborative evidence," I said. "Let's be honest: some people scoff at how much there really is.For example, in 1979 Charles Templeton wrote a novel called Act of God, in which a fictional archaeologist made a statement that reflects the beliefs of a lot of people."
I pulled out the book and read the relevant prargraph.
The [Christian] church bases it's claims mostly on the teachings of an obscure young Jew with messianic pretentions who, let's face it, didn't make much of an impression in his lifetime.There isn't a single word about him in secular history.Not a word. No mention of him by the Romans.Not so much as a reference by Josephus.
"Now," I said a little pointedly, " that doesn't sound as if there'smuch corroboration of Jesus of the life of Jesus outside the Bible."
Yamauchi smiled and shook his head. "Templeton's archaeologist is simply mistaken, " he replied in a dismissive tone, "because we do have very, very important references to Jesus in Josephus and Tacitus.
"The gospels themselves say that many who heard him-even members of his own family-did not believe in Jesus during his lifetime, yet he made such an impression that Jesus is remembered everywhere, whereas Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, and other ancient rulers are not as widely known.So he certainly did make an impression on those who did believe in him."
TESTIMONY BY A TRAITOR
Templeton an Yamauchi had both mentioned Josephus, a first centry historian who's well known among scholars but whose name is unfamiliar to most people today. "Give me some background about him," I said, "and tell me how his testimony provides corroboration cocerning Jesus."
"Yes of course." Yamauchi answered."Josephus was a very important Jewish historian of the first century.He was born in A.D. 37, and he wrote most of his four works, toward the end of the first century."In his autobiography he defended his behavior in the Jewish Roman war, which took place fromA.D. 66to 74.You see, he had surrendered to the Roman general Vespasian during the seige of Jotapata, even though many of his collegues committed suicide rather than give up."
"Josephus decided it wasn't God's will for him to commiii suicide.He then became a defender of the Romans."
Paint me a portrait of his character, I said."He was a priest, a pharisee, and he was somewhat egotistical.His most ambitious work was called The Antiquities, which was a history of the Jewish people from creation until his time.He probably completed it in about A.D. 93.To say the least he was extremley disliked by his fellow Jews, because of his collaboration of the hated Romans.But he became very popular among Christians, because in his writings he refers to James, the brother of Jesus, and to Jesus himself."In the Atinquities he describes how a high priest named Ananias took advantage of the death of the Roman governor Festus, who is also mentioned in the New Testament-in order to have James killed."
"He convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ, and certain others.He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned.So here you have a reference to the brother of Jesus--who had apparantly been converted by the appearence of the risen Christ, if you compare John 7:5 and 1 Corintians 15:7--and corroboration of the fact that some people considered Jesus to be the Christ, which means 'the Anointed One' or Messiah."
A MOST MISCHIEVOUS SUPERSTITION
Yamauchi had just mentioned the most important Roman historian, of the first century, and I wanted to discuss what Tacitus had to say about Jesus and Christianity."Could you spell out what he corroborates?"I asked.
"Tacitus recorded what is probably the most important reference to Jesus outside the New Testament," he said."In A.D. 115 he explicitly states that Nero persecuted the Christians as scapegoats to divert suspicion away from himself for the great fire that had devastated Rome in A.D. 64."
Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.Christus, from whom the name had it's origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most miscievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome...Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty: then, upon their information, an immmense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.
CHANTING "AS IF TO A GOD"
(Pliny the Younger)
Pliny the Younger became governor of Bithynia in Northwestern Turkey.Much of his correspondence with his friend, emperor Trajan, has been preserved to the present time."In book 10 of these letters he specifically refers to the Christian he has arrested."
I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second time and a third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them.If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubborness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished....
They also declared the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately
amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a God, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery.
Thos made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from slave- women, whom they called deaconesses.I found nothing but a dengenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lenghts.
It was probably written about A.D.111, and it attests to the rapid spread of Christianity, both in the city, and in the rural area, among every class of persons, slave women as well as Roman citizens.
THE DAY THE EARTH WENT DARK
(This will be the last for tonight)
To me, one of the most problematic references in the New Testament is where the gospel writers claim the earth went dark during part of the time that Jesus hung on the cross.Wasn't this merely a literary device to stress the signifigance of the Crucifixtion, and not a reference to an actual historical occurrence?After all, if darkness had fallen over the earth, wouldn't there be at least some mention of this extraordinary event outside the Bible?
However, Dr. Gary Habermas has written about a historian named Thallus who in A.D. 52 wrote a history of the eastern Mediterranean world since since the Trojan War.Although Thallus's work has been lost, it was quoted by Julius Africanus in about A.D.221--and it made reference to the darkness that the gospels had written about! Could this, I asked, " be independant corroboration of this biblical claim?
Explained Yamauchi, "In this passage Julius Africanus says' Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away the darkness as an eclipse of the sun--unreasonably, as it seems to me."So Thallus apparently was saying, yes there had been darkness at the time of the Crucifixtion, and he speculated it had been caused by an eclipse.Africanus then argues that it couldn't have been an eclipse, given when the Crucifixtion occurred."
Yamauchi reached over to his desk to retrieve a piece of paper."Let me quote what scholar Paul Maier said about the darkness in a footnote in his 1968 book Pontius Pilate," he said, reading these words: This phenomenon, evidentally, was visible in Rome, Athens, and other Mediterranean cities.According to Tertullian....it was a "cosmic or "world event."Phlegon, a Greek author from Caria writing a chronology soon after 137 A.D., reported that in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (ie, 33A.D.) there was "the greatest eclipse of the sun" and that "it became night in the sixth hour of the day[i.e, noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens.There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea."
Yamauchi concluded, "So there is, as Paul Maier points out, non-biblical attestation of the darkness that occurred at the time of Jesus' Crucifixtion.Apparently, some found the need to try to give it a natural explanation by saying it was an ecplise!!!