Doing a ECG guide on Easter. I am so refreshed from the research.
Is Jesus a real person in history?
His life is recorded in many documents as a person in history. While the New Testament records His life and ministry in details, various books other than the Bible also mention Jesus. His life is recorded in detail in all of these sources, not just vaguely thus we can be certain hat they refer to the same person who is called Jesus.
Biblical Sources Concur That Jesus Christ Is Real
Person of History
Jesus’ biography as recorded in the Four Gospels
-Birth
Luke 2:16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
-Childhood
Luke 2:21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
-Ministry
Matt 4:23-25 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis,° Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
-Crucifixion
Matt 15:24 And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
-Resurrection
John 20:12-17 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, `I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Jesus’ life and ministry as recorded in the NT
Acts 5:42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
Heb 5:7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
Extra Biblical Sources
•Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-100)
He was a first century Jewish historian and in his writings known as “The Antiquities”, Josephus said, “At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus… Pilate condemned Him to be condemned and to die. And those who had become His disciples did not abandon His discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them three days after His crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.”
•Cornelius Tacitus (A.D. 52-54)
Tacitus, a Roman historian in his book “ Annals” written during the reign of Nero, allures to the death of Christ and to the existence of Christians at Rome.
“Christus, the founder of the name was put ot death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the ernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only Judea, where the mischief riginated but through the city of Rome also.”
According to the opinion of Dr Edwin M. Yamauchi (The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel 1998) Tacitus’s writing is important because he was an unsympathetic witness to the success and spread of Christianity and yet he wrote describing an immense multitude that held so strongly to their beliefs that they were willing to die rather than recant.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica
In the Encyclopaedia Britannica there are 20 000 words describing Jesus Christ. His description takes more space than is given to Aristotle, Julius Caesar, Napolean Bonparte or any other religious leader.
