Historical Evidences by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1916

Historical Evidences

By L. L. C.

It is well for us sometimes to consider what are the historical evidences of the life and death of Christ. Recently in one of our colleges a student who had been taking a class in evidences of Christianity, expressed to a friend his appreciation of the help he had received from it, saying that he felt that the study of that subject had prepared him as much for carrying the gospel to the heathen with convincing power as had any line of study in his whole course. Sometimes in heathen lands our workers need this information in order to meet the honest inquiry of interested natives.

Let us briefly consider a few evidences which show that Christ really lived. To the Christian with a living Christian experience, the greatest unanswerable proof of the truth of Christianity and of the actual reality of Christ is his own experience in the things of God. He can no more doubt the actual existence of his heavenly Friend than he can doubt the existence of an earthly friend with whom he has held sweet communion.

Outside of the proof of personal experience we have two sources to prove the historicity of Christ, the Biblical and

the non-Biblical. The non-Biblical is comparatively scanty and of little value. This is exactly as would be expected; for Christ came not as a world character, but as a humble man of a despised race. His family was poor, and there was nothing in his earthly environment to lead any pagan historian to anticipate the world influence that his teaching was to bring. Tacitus, however, the Roman historian, mentions the horrible torments to which Nero subjected the Christians who were the followers of the Man put to death by Pontius Pilate under the reign of Tiberius. See Annals, book 15, chap. 44. Pliny the Younger, in a letter to the emperor Trajan (A. D. 61-115), consults with the emperor as to how to deal with the Christians who were living in the province of Bithynia, of which Pliny was governor at that time. Pliny does not speak of the Christians as ordinary criminals, and writes that he has treated them with the greatest leniency. He says that he has never sought out Christians, but when they were denounced to him he has investigated, and if they were willing to offer incense to the Roman gods he never punished them. Of course if they refused, they would have to be punished. The emperor, in answer to this letter, approves the course which the governor had taken. See Pliny’s Epistles, book 10, Nos. 96, 97.

There are many other historical references to Christians and Christianity, but the most important of the non-Biblical references is a passage in Josephus. The words indicating a belief in Jesus as the Christ are probably interpolations, but the passage is valuable as non-Biblical evidence of the historic character of the life and death of Jesus:—

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”—“Antiquities of the Jews,” b. 18, ch. 3, par. 3; “The Works of Josephus,” p. 535 (The John C. Winston Company edition, Philadelphia).

The most important evidences, however, are found in the Bible. In the four Gospels, even in the eyes of the critics, we have three, if not four, independent witnesses of Christ. The proof that these witnesses are independent is seen in the fact that their accounts differ in details. In any law court where three or four witnesses should give testimony which differed sufficiently as to detail to show that each was independent of the other, but all testified to the same general fact, the case would be considered conclusively proved.

In addition to these four Gospels, we have the four epistles of Paul,—Romans, Galatians, First and Second Corinthians. The authenticity of these Pauline epistles has never been assailed by critics.

Paul’s witness is of a very striking kind, for he was a highly cultured Jew who had been a strenuous opponent of Christianity on the ground that Jesus was not the true Messiah, not on the ground that he had not lived.

These four epistles were all written within twenty-five years of the public ministry and death of Christ, of which they speak. Some of the important facts of Christ’s life to which Paul makes reference are his Davidic descent (Rom. 1:3, 4), his crucifixion (Gal. 3:13), the institution of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:2, 26), and his burial and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:4-7).

The witness of Paul, together with the witness of the four Gospels, is certainly sufficient to prove not only Christ’s existence, but also his divine mission, to any who read and study them with open mind. This has been repeatedly proved to be the case even among the heathen. There is something about these Scriptural evidences which, when read, grips one with a sense of wonder, and there springs up in the heart a desire to have the Christ which they reveal as one’s personal Saviour. L. L. C.