AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE - Podbean

12/8/2019

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AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTUREA JOURNEY © OCTOBER 2019

THE HISTORICAL JESUS

Dr. Keith LloydKent State University [email protected]

AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURE: APPEAL TO FACTS

Self-proclaimed authority is usually the weakest type of authority.

But as they say, some things speak for themselves ... Facts.

Facts proclaim themselves.

What are the facts of the historical Jesus?

Authority• Self-

Proclaimed• Conferred • Earned

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ARCHAEOLOGICALEVIDENCEOFJESUSDOESNOTEXIST.

There is no definitive physical or archaeological evidence of the existence of Jesus. “There’s nothing conclusive, nor would I expect there to be,” Mykytiuk says. “Peasants don’t normally leave an archaeological trail.”

“The reality is that we don’t have archaeological records for virtually anyone who lived in Jesus’s time and place,” says University of North Carolina religious studies professor Bart D. Ehrman, author of DidJesusExist?TheHistoricalArgumentforJesusofNazareth.

“The lack of evidence does not mean a person at the time didn’t exist. It means that she or he, like 99.99% of the rest of the world at the time, made no impact on the archaeological record.”

What about other historical records?Background https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/biblical-archeology.html

HISTORIANFLAVIUSJOSEPHUSWROTEONEOFTHEEARLIESTNON‐BIBLICALACCOUNTSOFJESUS

The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who according to Ehrman “is far and away our best source of information about first-century Palestine,” twice mentions Jesus in JewishAntiquities, his massive 20-volume history of the Jewish people that was written around 93 A.D.

Thought to have been born a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus around 37 A.D., Josephus was a well-connected aristocrat and military leader in Palestine who served as a commander in Galilee during the first Jewish Revolt against Rome between 66 and 70 A.D. Although Josephus was not a follower of Jesus, “he was around when the early church was getting started, so he knew people who had seen and heard Jesus,” Mykytiuk says.

Klein, Christopher. “The Bible Says Jesus Was Real. What Other Proof Exists?” History Stories. History Channel. Original: Feb 26, 2019; Updated: Apr 16, 2019

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HISTORIANFLAVIUSJOSEPHUS

In one passage of JewishAntiquities that recounts an unlawfulexecution, Josephus identifies thevictim,James,asthe“brotherofJesus‐who‐is‐called‐Messiah.”

While few scholars doubt the short account’s authenticity, says Mykytiuk,

more debate surrounds Josephus’s lengthier passage about Jesus, known as the “Testimonium Flavianum,” which describes a man “who did surprising deeds” and was condemned to be crucified by Pilate.

Mykytiuk agrees with most scholars that Christian scribes modified portions of the passage but did not insert it wholesale into the text.


JOSEPHUS AND JAMES THE JUST

In Bk. 20, Ch. 9, §1 of Antiquities of the Jews one also finds the following statement in surviving manuscripts:

Ananus…convenedthejudgesoftheSanhedrinandbroughtbeforethemamannamedJames,thebrotherofJesuswhowascalledtheChrist,andcertainothers.Heaccusedthemofhavingtransgressedthelawanddeliveredthemuptobestoned.

It must be admitted that this passage does not intrude into the text as does the one previously quoted. In fact, it is very well integrated into Josephus’ story.

. The crucial word in this passage is the name James (Jacob in Greek and Hebrew). It is very possible that this very common name was in Josephus’ source material. It might even have been a reference to JamestheJust,afirst‐centurycharacterwehavegoodreasontobelieveindeedexisted. Because he appears to have born the title Brother of the Lord,Note H

it would have been natural to relate him to the Jesus character. It is quite possible that Josephus actually referred to a James“theBrotheroftheLord,”and this was changed by Christian copyists (remember that although Josephus was a Jew, his text was preserved only by Christians!) to “Brother of Jesus” – adding then for good measure “who was called Christ.”

FrankZindler.DidJesusExist?reprintedfromtheSummer1998editionof American Atheistmagazine.https://www.atheists.org/activism/resources/did-jesus-exist/

Internal and external evidence suggests that James is likely they author of the NT book of the same name.

https://family.wikinut.com/img/2m7utzl1ykngf4a5/James-the-Just

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THE DEBATED PASSAGE

About this time, there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.


The fact that Josephus was not convinced by this or any other Christian claim is clear from the statement of the church father Origen (ca. 185-ca. 154 CE) – who dealt extensively with Josephus – that Josephus did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, i.e., as “the Christ.”

Moreover, the disputed passage was never cited by early Christian apologists such as Clement of Alexandria (ca.150-ca. 215 CE), who certainly would have made use of such ammunition had he had it!

REFERENCES IN JEWISH ORAL TRADITION: THE TALMUD

Talmud [4th-5th centuries CE, FRZ]

Mentions only

JesusbenPandira, reputed a wonder-worker, is said to have been stoned to death and then hung on a tree on the eve of a Passover in the reign of Alexander Jannæus (106-79 BC) at Jerusalem.

JesusbenStada, whose date is uncertain, but who may have lived in the first third of the second century CE, is also said to have been stoned and hanged on the eve of a Passover, but at Lydda.

Zindler: “it is plain that the Rabbis had no knowledge of Jesus apart from what they had read in the Gospels”


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ROMAN RECORDS:TACITUSCONNECTSJESUSTOHISEXECUTIONBYPONTIUSPILATE

Another account of Jesus appears in AnnalsofImperialRome, a first-century history of the Roman Empire written around 116 A.D. by the Roman senator and historian Tacitus.

In chronicling the burning of Rome in 64 A.D., Tacitus mentions that Emperor Nero falsely blamed “thepersonscommonlycalledChristians,whowerehatedfortheirenormities.Christus,thefounderofthename,wasputtodeathbyPontiusPilate,procuratorofJudeainthereignofTiberius.”


KLEIN’S PERSPECTIVE

As a Roman historian, Tacitus did not have any Christian biases in his discussion of the persecution of Christians by Nero, says Ehrman. “Justabouteverythinghesayscoincides—fromacompletelydifferentpointofview,byaRomanauthordisdainfulofChristiansandtheirsuperstition—withwhattheNewTestamentitselfsays:JesuswasexecutedbythegovernorofJudea,PontiusPilate,forcrimesagainstthestate,andareligiousmovementofhisfollowerssprangupinhiswake.”

“When Tacitus wrote history, if he considered the information not entirely reliable, he normally wrote some indication of that for his readers,” Mykytiuk says in vouching for the historical value of the passage. “There is no such indication of potential error in the passage that mentions Christus.”


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ZINDLER’S PERSPECTIVE

[Tacitus wrote] at a time when Christians themselves had come to believe that Jesus had suffered under Pilate.

There are threereasonsforholdingthatTacitusisheresimplyrepeatingwhatChristianshadtoldhim.

First, he gives Pilate a title, procurator [without saying procurator of what! FRZ], which was current only from the second half of the first century.

Had he consulted archives which recorded earlier events, he would surely have found Pilate there designated by hiscorrecttitle, prefect.


ZINDLER’S PERSPECTIVE

Second, Tacitus doesnotnametheexecutedmanJesus,butusesthetitleChrist(Messiah)asifitwereapropername.But he could hardly have found in archives a statement such as “the Messiah was executed this morning.”

Third, hostile to Christianity as he was, he was surelygladtoacceptfromChristianstheirownviewthatChristianitywasofrecentorigin,sincetheRomanauthoritieswerepreparedtotolerateonlyancientcults.(The Historical Evidence for Jesus; p.16).


“Christus,thefounderofthename”

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“FURTHER PROBLEMS” ZINDLER

Tacitus himself never again alludes to the Neronian persecution of Christians in any of his voluminous writings, and no other Pagan authors know anything of the outrage either.

Most significant, however, is that ancientChristianapologistsmadenouseofthestory in their propaganda – an unthinkable omission by motivated partisans who were well-read in the works of Tacitus. ClementofAlexandria,whomadeaprofessionofcollectingjustsuchtypesofquotations,isignorantofanyNeronianpersecution,

andevenTertullian,whoquotesagreatdealfromTacitus,knowsnothingofthestory.

According to Robert Taylor, the author of another freethought classic, the Diegesis (1834), the passage was not known before the fifteenth century, when Tacitus was first published at Venice by Johannes de Spire. Taylor believed de Spire himself to have been the forger.


ADDITIONALROMANTEXTSREFERENCEJESUS

Shortly before Tacitus penned his account of Jesus, RomangovernorPlinytheYoungerwrote to Emperor Trajan that early Christians

would “singhymnstoChristastoagod.”

Some scholars also believe Roman historian Suetonius references Jesus

in noting that Emperor Claudius had expelled Jews from Rome who

“weremakingconstantdisturbancesattheinstigationofChrestus.”


Ehrman says this collection of snippets from non-Christian sources may not

impart much information about the life of Jesus, “butitisusefulforrealizingthatJesuswasknownbyhistorianswhohadreasontolookintothematter.Noonethoughthewasmadeup.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suetonius

https://www.livius.org/site/assets/files/9483/portrait_man_ce080-100_ncg.jpg

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HISTORIANS AND WRITERS FROM THE TIME WHO DO NOT MENTION JESUS OR THE APOSTLES

Josephus Juvenal Lucanus

Philo‐Judæus Martial Epictetus

Seneca Persius Hermogones Silius Italicus

PlinyElder Plutarch Statius

Arrian Pliny Younger Ptolemy

Petronius Tacitus Appian

DionPruseus Justus of Tiberius Phlegon

Paterculus Apollonius Phædrus

Suetonius Quintilian Valerius Maximus

Pausanias Dio Chrysostom Lysias

FlorusLucius Columella Pomponius Mela

Lucian Valerius Flaccus Appion of Alexandria

QuintiusCurtius Damis Theon of Smyrna

AulusGellius Favorinus

John E. Remsburg, in his classic book The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence (The Truth Seeker Company, NY, no date, pp. 24-25), lists the following writers who lived during the time, or within a century after the time, that Jesus is supposed to have lived:


WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?

Though the references to Jesus in this very sparse, debated, and limited list may indicate that people at the time believed Jesus to have lived and to have been crucified, they only show that – that people believed Jesus to have existed.

They say nothing about the rest of the Gospel’s narrative.

There is actual evidence of a person identified as “Jesus’ brother,” James “the Just)..

What about the scriptures? Do we have any extant documents that come from the time of Jesus?

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PAPYRUS 66

(also referred to as 66) is a near complete codex of the Gospel of John, and part of the collection known as the Bodmer Papyri.

The manuscript contains John 1:1–6:11, 6:35b–14:26, 29–30; 15:2–26; 16:2–4, 6–7; 16:10–20:20, 22–23; 20:25–21:9, 12, 17. It is oneoftheoldestwell‐preservedNewTestamentmanuscriptsknowntoexist. Its original editor assigned the codex to the early third century, or

aroundAD200, on the basis of the style of handwriting in the codex.[1]

Herbert Hunger later claimed that the handwriting should be dated to an earlier

period in themiddleorearlypartofthesecondcentury.[2]

PAPYRUS 66

Papyrus 66 doesnotincludethepericope oftheadulteress(7:53‐8:11);[4] demonstrating the absence of this passage in all the surviving early witnesses of the Gospel of John. The manuscript also contains, consistently, the use of Nomina Sacra.

Studies done by Karyn Berner[5] and Philip Comfort,[6] contended that 66hadtheworkofthreeindividualsonit:Theoriginal,professionalscribe, athoroughgoingcorrectorandaminorcorrector.

But more recently JamesRoysearguesthat,withthepossibleexceptionofJohn13:19,thecorrectionsareallbythehandoftheoriginalcopyist.[7]

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THE CODEX SINAITICUS

More than 800 surviving pages and fragments from the The Codex Sinaiticus, which was written in Greek on parchment leaves in the fourthcentury, have been reunited.

Last year The British Library put The Book of Psalms and St Mark's Gospel online, and now the remaining pages have been made free for public use for the first time.

Along with the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Sinaiticus is considered the oldest known Bible in the world. Originally more than 1,460 pages long and measuring 16in by 14in, it was written by a number of hands aroundthetimeofConstantinetheGreat.

It offers differentversionsoftheScripturesfromlatereditionsoftheBible,notablyinStMark'sGospelwhichends12versesbeforelaterversions,omittingtheappearanceoftheresurrectedJesusChrist.

THE CODEX SINAITICUS

"This 1,600-year old manuscript offers awindowintothedevelopmentofearlyChristianity and first-hand evidence ofhowthetextoftheBiblewastransmittedfromgenerationtogeneration.

The project has uncovered evidence that afourthscribe– alongwiththethreealreadyrecognised – workedonthetext; the availability of the virtual manuscript for study by scholars around the world creates opportunities for collaborative research that would not have been possible just a few years ago."

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WEEK 1

Though belief in authority based in experience – earnedauthority– is undoubtedly the least moveable kind of adherence to authority, apparentlymostofusbelieveintheauthorityofscripturebecauseweweretoldto,orbecauseweunreflectivelyacceptthattheBibleisauthoritativejustbecauseitsayssointheBible.

Much of the wisdom in the Bible can be tested experientially, but the histories and the testimonies involve another level of trust.

Where does this leave us?

WEEK 2

Early church fathers believed that the three of the Gospels were the writings of those who were not witnesses to the life of Jesus, but the memories of those who met such witnesses. They did not mention divine inspiration. What they relate about the Gospel of John seems more legendary .

The strongest evidence of authorship is in Luke’s gospel, in that it indicates a witness to Paul’s ministry.

The earliest record associates John Mark from Acts with the Gospel, and also with Peter. That record indicates that the author was not making any attempt to relate an accurate historical narrative.

Since much of Matthew and Luke are drawn from Mark, their narratives are not direct histories either, but tellings related to their respective Jewish and Greek audiences. All three synoptic gospels differ in order, wording, and emphases.

Their different emphases was lauded by Irenaus, who was responsible for identifying the four gospels and their symbolic meanings.

John’s gospel differs from the other three significantly, it was chosen by Irenaus because it depicts Christ as he had come to believe him to be.

Approach:

Authority• Self-Proclaimed• Conferred • Earned


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DECISIONS ABOUT THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURE: EARLY CHURCH

Depended on the general portrait of Jesus in each gospel

Historical provenance that linked each to a historical figure associated with the early church.

The Church Authorities

Recognized the purposes of the Gospel writers and did not demand historical accuracy.

Referred to John’s Gospel as a “Spiritual Gospel.”

In short, they were rather “modern” in their views of scripture.


AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES

History is of little help in interpreting the authority of the scripture.

The Church Fathers chose the scriptures we now have as authoritative because they had the right provenance and because they fit with their developing idea of who Jesus is.

The same three options await us:

Believe because the authority tells us to.

Believe because human authorities tell us to.

Believe because we have experienced something profound because of the words in scripture,

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WEEK 3

There are no actual records from the time of Jesus

Later mentions offer some evidence that people believed that Jesus existed.

We have stronger evidence for the execution of James, Jesus’ brother, than for Jesus himself.

The historical records we have seem to have been manipulated by well-meaning Christians.

The early church fathers do not mention the scant historical records we now have.

At best, there are hints that Jesus lived and died, and that is all.

The earliest extant pieces of the New Testament indicate that the gospel accounts were re-written over time.

THE EYE OF THE STORM WehavehistoricalreferencesfromtheJewsandfromRomansthatindicatethatpeoplebelievedhimtohaveexisted.

Wehaverecordsthatmayrefertohisbrother,James,andevenrecordsofothermennamedJesuswhowereexecutedfortheirabilitiesandbeliefs.

Wehavetestimoniesandrecordsfromthechurchfathersindicatingprovenanceforthegospels.TestimoniesofpeoplewhoclaimtohaveknowntheApostles.

WehavethelettersofSaulofTarsuswhichshowalmostnooverlapwiththeGospelaccounts.

Wehave2000yearsofahistoricalmovementbasedinJesus’teaching.

Butthecenterisstrangelymissing.

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AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES

Asweconsidertheauthorityofthescriptures,perhapsweshouldkeepthisinmind:

I Kings 19 11 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.”

And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind;

and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12

and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire;

andafterthefire[e]astillsmallvoice.

REFERENCES NOT ON SLIDES

Slide 2 image:

https://www.quietrev.com/a-still-small-voice/

ImageoftheTalmud

“TheJudeo‐Christian– ComparingtheTalmudandthe Gospels”

By Judas Maccabaeus on September 24, 2011

https://stjudasmaccabaeus.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/the-judeo-christian-comparing-the-talmud-and-the-gospels/

Eye of the Storm photo, slide 26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB27i58Hsyc

Image of Elijah, slide 27

http://ubdavid.org/bible/characters2/characters2-4.html

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