The Historicity of Jesus

Quotes from prominent scholars on the topic of Jesus’ existence.

Atheist/agnostic:

“Jesus death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.”
– Gerd Ludemann, The Resurrection of Christ (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004) p. 50. (Screenshot)

“I refuse to sacrifice the past in order to promote the worthy cause of my own social and political agendas. No one else should either. Jesus did exist, whether we like it or not.”
– Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? (New York, HarperOne, 2013) p. 339. (Screenshot)

“To sum up, modern critical methods fail to support the Christ myth theory. It has ‘again and again been answered and annihilated by first rank scholars.’ In recent years, ‘no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus’ or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary.”
– Michael Grant, Jesus: an historian’s review of the Gospels (New York, Macmillan Pub Co., 1992) p. 200. (Screenshot)

Theist:

“That he [Jesus] was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus, in texts to be seen in the final chapter, agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact.”
– John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1994) p. 145. (Screenshot)

“Today, nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed and that the gospels contain plenty of valuable evidence which as to be weighed and assessed critically. There is general agreement that, with the possible exception of Paul, we know far more about Jesus of Nazareth than about any first or second century Jewish or pagan religious teacher.”
– Graham Stanton, The Gospel and Jesus (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 145. (Screenshot)

“Of course the doubt as to whether Jesus really existed is unfounded and not worth refutation. No sane person can doubt that Jesus stands as founder behind the historical movement whose first distinct stage is represented by the Palestinian community.”
– Rudolf Bultman, Jesus and the Word (New York: Scribners, 1958) p. 13. (Screenshot)

———

Published 1/16/18