Did Jesus Christ Exist? (Column Edition)

[This is the latest column I've submitted to the Community Press newspapers in the Cincinnati area.]

Recently, the host of a cable news channel asked, “Did Jesus Christ exist?”

Frankly, assertions that Jesus Christ never lived are akin to claims that the Holocaust didn't happen. There's simply too much evidence saying Jesus did exist to even entertain contrary notions.

A few examples of the evidence for Jesus' existence has recently been well-summarized by editors of the recently-published “Archeological Study Bible”:

One ancient text, the Babylonian Talmud, speaks of Jesus being "hanged" on the eve of the Jewish Passover.

The ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, in a document written by 93AD, wrote of Jesus’ condemnation by the Roman governor Pilate, of Jesus’ death, of His resurrection, and of claims that Jesus was “the Christ.”

In a later text, Josephus mentions the martyrdom of James, "the brother of Jesus, called Christ."

In a document from the year 120AD, Suetonius mentions a riot in Rome that happened during the reign of the Emperor Claudius in 49AD. They were instigated, he said, by someone they called "Chrestus."

In 115, the Roman historian Tacitus decries the unjust execution of Christians by the Emperor Nero and talks about the term "Christian." He also mentions Jesus’ crucifixion under Pilate’s orders.

Documentary evidence from the ancient world is generally sparse. The preservation of documents, all of which were copied by hand, wasn’t an easy task to accomplish in the world before printing presses and the worldwide web. But there is more evidence for the existence of Jesus and His ministry and more of it written closer to when He walked the earth than any analogous evidence we have for the existence of, for example, Alexander the Great or some of the celebrated Greek philosophers. We have more such evidence for Jesus’ life and resurrection than we have for the life of William Shakespeare, who lived in the sixteenth century!

The contemporary Jewish scholar Pinchas Lapide--like the ancient Josephus, not a Christian--has examined all of the evidence and concluded not only that Jesus existed, but that He rose from the dead. Why? Because of commitment and fearlessness seen in Jesus' first followers after Jesus had been killed on the cross.

This only makes sense. A conspiracy to support fabrications about the existence of a Savior Who both died and rose, a conspiracy involving at least 500 people--the number the New Testament says saw the resurrected Jesus--could not have been sustained in the face of rejection, persecution, and death threats unless Jesus was real and He really rose.

Did Jesus Christ exist? Absolutely! And I believe that He still does.