A Fig Tree With No Figs

Below is the manuscript of a sermon first delivered at Cortez (CO) Church of the Nazarene on Mar. 24, 2019.

Text: Luke 13:1-9 (ESV):

13 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Making Sense of a Crazy World

Human beings like the world to make sense. Things happen for a reason, and sometimes that reason is that we need things to happen for a reason! We want good things to happen to good people, and bad things to happen to bad people. And we want to know that when things upset our routine, or the expected order of things, that there is some reason behind it. There’s a very good reason for this. We were created to perceive patterns in the world, to discover the order behind it, and to relish the beauty found in it. This is so that we can perceive and know God’s love and care for His Creation by studying the works of His hands. After all, when you want to know the mind of an Artist, you study His Art.

As Paul says in Rom. 1:20 says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”(1)

But sometimes our ability to perceive order and patterns in the world and the events which take place backfires. The same sense that helps us see beauty in the Cosmos is also responsible for people seeing the Virgin Mary in their toast, or faces in clouds, or sometimes even Divine punishment and blessing in the tragedies and triumphs which we experience. We want the world to make sense. And so, in our effort to find meaning, we impose sense on senseless happenings and then get mad at God when the World doesn’t look like we believe it should be.

The Arrival of Bad News

This is what happens in Luke 13. Over the past several weeks, we have been walking with Jesus and his disciples as they head to Jerusalem so that He can fulfill His mission and triumph over sin and death on the cross. But along the way, he has continued to heal, cast out demons, and teach the crowds. As he gets closer and closer to Jerusalem, we notice a subtle shift in his teaching in chs. 12 and 13 as he emphasizes more and more the need for repentance in the face of coming Judgment. This Judgment would arrive very soon for Israel, as the Temple was about to be destroyed and the city of Jerusalem abandoned in a few short decades. But, as Jesus is about to make clear, the Judgment facing Israel is one from which no man or woman is immune.

And so, when we find Jesus in Luke 13:1-9, he is in the middle of delivering a large block of teaching to the crowds, when a group of people rush in with bad news. The emphasis in v. 1 on “that very time,” lends a sense of urgency to their news. Something terrible has happened! A group of Galileans who were bringing their sacrifices to the Temple have been slaughtered by Pilate’s ruthless command, and their blood has been mingled with their sacrifices. For an observant Jew, no greater sacrilege could have taken place. Roman occupation was bad enough. And murder was certainly worse. But the time to bring sacrifices was supposed to be one of peace. It was supposed to be off-limits. And the idea that holy sacrifices offered to God would be polluted by human blood was unthinkable to them.

Now such an episode might be shocking to some of us. When most of us think of Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, we think of him as a passive and almost unwilling participant in Jesus’ crucifixion who washes his hands of the whole affair and hands Jesus over to the blood-thirsty crowds. I’ve even heard sympathy expressed for Pilate, as if he were forced into a position which he otherwise would have avoided. The fact is, Pilate was known throughout the ancient world for his brutality and iron hand in dealing with the occupied territories.

The Romans crucified thousands, and as far as Pilate was concerned, there was always enough wood available for more crosses. Though we don’t find this episode of the slaughtered Galileans outside the New Testament, the ancient Jewish historian Josephus tells us of two other instances of Pilate’s brutality. In one (and this may very well be the news Jesus was receiving), a group of Galileans were protesting Pilate’s raid on the Temple treasury to build a new aqueduct for Jerusalem, so he sent soldiers dressed in plain-clothes to infiltrate the crowds, and they beat the protesters so severely in the streets that many of them died.(2) The Galileans of the time were noted for agitating against the Roman occupation, and so had gained a reputation as insurrectionists, which may have prompted Pilate’s especially brutal treatment of them.(3)

In another instance of unrestrained violence, he put to the sword a large group of Samaritans who had gathered on their holy mountain Gerizim, where they still offer sacrifices today, and it was this episode which when reported to Caesar in Rome, caused Pilate to be recalled in disgrace in 36 AD.(4) Whatever the event is which the people report to Jesus here, it was certainly well within Pilate’s brutal character to kill a bunch of Galileans in the midst of their offering sacrifices to God.

The Crowds Want an Explanation

Naturally reeling from this horrifying news, the crowds want an explanation. Things happen for a reason. Surely these men who were so brutally murdered with their sacrifices so outrageously polluted must have done something to deserve this sudden, unexpected death. Just like when Jesus’ disciples ask him about why a certain man was born blind and they assume the only two possibilities are that either he or his parents must have sinned in some way for him to wind up in such a state.(5)

But Jesus makes it clear that that isn’t really how the world works. Sometimes people suffer. Sometimes there is no good reason for suffering! That’s an answer we don’t like to hear. The world has to make sense. Things happen for a reason. Or at least that is what we would like to believe. And that is what the Jews of Jesus’ time had been raised to believe. They were no strangers to experiences of tragedy and Judgment. When the people grumbled and disobeyed in the wilderness during the Exodus from Egypt, they were struck down with snake bites and plague until they repented. When they wandered from God during the period of the Judges, they were repeatedly put under the control of foreign powers until they cried out to God for help and God delivered them. When Israel neglected the poor and needy, when they abandoned justice in favor of the rich, and when they oppressed the orphan and the widow during the time of the prophets, they were once again handed over to foreign powers, this time to the Assyrians and Babylonians who sent them into exile.

They knew God to be a just God, and they knew that when the people abandon God’s precepts bad things happen. But that isn’t the whole story. Just as integral to their experience is the story of Job, where a righteous man suffered for no discernible reason or fault of his own or the observations of the writer of Ecclesiastes, who saw evil men prosper and good men go to the grave early.

But it’s easy to forget those stories, because a world that makes sense, where good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, is safe. If we just do what is good, we won’t suffer. When taken to its extreme, this view almost makes God a big bully whose attention we don’t want to attract. But as Jesus is about to make clear, that is not what God is like, and that’s not why we suffer.

In vv. 2-5, Jesus replies to the crowds, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you: but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Sometimes bad things happen to good people (or at least, they are good by our standards). This is because we live in a fallen and broken world, and we were broken with it. The very sense which allows us to search for and perceive order in the world was corrupted when we first sinned. Continuing Paul’s thought from Romans 1 that I cited earlier, v. 21 says,

“For although [we] knew God, [we] did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but [we] became futile in [our] thinking, and [our] foolish hearts were darkened.”

I mentioned last week that in Hebrew thought, the heart was not just the seat of emotion as we think of it, but also the seat of the senses and of reason. So, when we perceive suffering in the world, or experience it ourselves, our ability to perceive the causes behind it is clouded by the debilitating effects of a fallen world. Sometimes people just hurt one another because they are selfish, or because they don’t realize all the consequences, or sometimes bad things just happen for no reason because of the broken nature of reality.

Jesus gives this unsatisfying answer to the crowds around him. Maybe they wanted him to make a political statement in the wake of the Galileans’ reputation for resisting Rome. Maybe they wanted him to denounce the Galilean movement.(6) There are certainly many preachers today who wouldn’t hesitate to do just that. I remember when 9/11 happened, and later when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans; there were prominent televangelists who claimed God had visited these calamities on the nation or on the city because of its sins. When tragedy struck, instead of pulling the people together to care for those whose lives were devastated by these tragedies, they sought to divide them further by fueling their need for somebody to blame.

Now, I’m not denying the reality of Judgment here. God’s wrath is a necessary result of His justice, and His justice is a necessary component of His love.(7) But the irony is that it can be incredibly self-serving to find fault in others to explain calamity. We think: if they sinned, they deserved it. And if they deserved it, we can avoid deserving it (and so avoid suffering) if we just do what is good and right. But Jesus makes it clear that this isn’t the case. Our future with Him, though it ends in glorious triumph, includes suffering and a cross. Anyone who wants to follow Him has to come to terms with that.

Instead, what Jesus tells them is that all Galileans are just as deserving of judgment as those who were brutally killed in Pilate’s crackdown. And by bringing up the fall of the Tower of Siloam, a tower near the SE corner of Jerusalem(8), Jesus is making it clear that the Jews who live in Jerusalem are no more righteous than the Galileans, who had a reputation for being less-than-observant when it came to keeping all the minute kosher laws emphasized by the Pharisees.(9) Jesus is taking these tragic events and making them metaphors for the final Judgment to which we are all liable if we remain unrepentant.(10)

A Fig Tree with No Figs

To bring this point home, Jesus then tells the crowds a story. In vv. 6-9 he says, “And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”

For ancient people, figs were symbols of prosperity and God’s blessing, but they were notoriously difficult to grow and their trees required constant care.(11) Here, Jesus is recalling the prophet Micah’s words when he says in Micah 7:1-4,

“Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand.”

He’s saying the people are like a fig tree that has been given plenty of chances, plenty of seasons to grow and bear fruit, but again and again they have proven barren. Despite God’s many chances, despite his repeated calls to the people to return to Him, they remain bare branches and they stubbornly refuse to repent. All people, not just a subset of Galileans or even just the Jews living in Jesus’ day, but the entire human race is being called back to through Jesus.

Like John the Baptist earlier in the gospel, Jesus is telling the people to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” or else they will be “cut down and thrown into the fire” like every other tree that doesn’t bear good fruit.(12)

The Good News

Still, the news isn’t all doom and gloom. God doesn’t relish in punishment and He doesn’t delight in destroying the creatures He made to pour His love into. As He says in Eze. 33:11,

“‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’”

It is for that reason that Jesus, the gardener, pleads with the Father represented by the owner of the vineyard, on our behalf. Though we deserved judgment the very moment we sinned, Christ has pleaded on our behalf from the beginning. Just one more season. Let them have just one more season to repent. And so he digs at our roots, aerating the soil around us, he clears the brush that inhibits our growth. He fertilizes our soil with the means of grace: the sacraments, studying scripture, prayer, acts of service, and evangelism. Because without His mediation, without His intervention, we would be utterly barren and lost. But He gives us everything we could ever need to flourish. He nurtures our fruitfulness so that we may repent of our sins, turning away from them and toward him, and so bear the fruit of love which He planted us to grow in the first place.

But it’s still up to us to respond. He has enabled us to have the choice, but it is still our choice whether we will repent or not. Whether we will bear fruits of love or not. Notice in the parable, Jesus doesn’t tell us what happens to the tree. He leaves its fate open-ended and up to us to decide. But whatever choice we choose, we need to be aware that the Judgment which Jesus promises is very real and very near. It isn’t a myth, it isn’t hyperbole. God’s justice won’t wait forever, and it is only because His justice is itself part of His love that he waits for us to respond. Please don’t delay! If you search your heart, and find you need His grace and forgiveness, don’t wait! Call out to Him this morning. He is quick to forgive and it is desire that you be saved. It’s his desire that we all be saved.

Footnotes

(1) All scripture references are from the ESV.

(2) Josephus, “Antiquities of the Jews”, 18:3, 2. From The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus the Jewish Historian. Transl. by Willian Whiston, 1737. Retrieved from the University of Chicago Website.

(3) Ibid., see footnote to the text.

(4) Josephus, “Antiquities of the Jews”, 18:4, 1-2.

(5) cf. Jn. 9:1-3.

(6) Neale, David. A. “Luke 9-24.” in New Beacon Bible Commentary(Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2013), 110.

(7) I had many conversations about this topic with my Pastor, Rev. H. Gordon Smith III, while I served as his Associate Pastor in La Junta, CO.

(8) Liefeld, Water L. and David W. Pao. “Luke,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Revised Ed. Vol. 10. Ed. by Tremper Longman III & David E. Garland. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 232.

(9) Ibid., 59, 232.

(10) Neale, “Luke 9-24,” 110-111.

(11) Ibid., 112.

(12) Luk. 3:8-9.

#Jesus #parables #figs #Josephus #suffering #love #justice #wrath #repentance

10 Early Non-Christian References to Jesus

Popular Doubts About Jesus’ Historicity

In recent years, I have encountered an increasingly popular idea among atheists and anti-theists of my generation, often called the “Christ myth theory.” Variations of this theory usually posit that there was no historical person known as Jesus, whose life was anything like that narrated in the New Testament. When the New Testament itself is brought up as evidence to the contrary, they argue that these sources are biased and so cannot be trusted. There’s a certain irony there, as naturally anyone who believes that accounts of a man rising from the dead are genuine, will necessarily believe some supernatural force is behind it and so will be more predisposed to believe the claims of that man’s followers.

Many followers of the “Christ myth theory” argue instead that the New Testament claims are an amalgam of different religious ideas from all over the Ancient Near East. They often claim that he is simply Osiris, Serapis, Mithras, or Sol Invictus rehashed, and for evidence they will sometimes make completely unsourced claims as to their similarities (which usually evaporate on closer academic inspection).

There are so many competing, contradictory claims associated with this “theory” that they cannot all be addressed here. But one claim can, and it is one often repeated in rapidly shared social media memes: that no contemporary (or near-contemporary) Non-Christian historians or writers refer to an historical Jesus. In reality, there are an abundance of references to Jesus and early Christians by non-followers of Jesus writing within about 80 years (i.e. two generations) of his death.

Just like today, these writers display varying attitudes regarding the beliefs and practices of Christians, with some praising the wise philosophy of their founder and others denigrating their gullibility. Whatever the attitudes expressed, they each demonstrate the very early belief that Jesus was a real historical person and none suggest that he is simply an amalgam or copy of older mythical characters. Even among those who save their most biting ridicule for Jesus and his followers, none ever doubt that he existed.

These writers include both Jewish and Roman historians (Josephus, Tacitus, and Seutonius), a Roman Governor (Pliny the Younger), and a Syrian Stoic philosopher (Mara bar Serapion). These form the earliest Non-Christian references. I’ve also included later quotes from Jewish rabbis (the Babylonian Talmud) and a Roman Satirist (Lucian) as these have their roots in events and oral traditions of the 1st century.

So, to put to bed once and for all the claim that no early secular historian mentions Jesus, I’ve included relevant quotations by each of these authors below, along with information on where each of these quotes can be found in their writings, and source citations in footnotes along the way. Questions of authenticity or relevance are also addressed in the footnotes. Whatever one’s belief regarding the claims by Jesus or his followers, the claim that he didn’t exist or that he was a new face on old mythical characters just doesn’t hold water when faced with the evidence available.

Catalogue of References Included(1)

    • 73-99 AD, Mara bar Serapion, A Letter.

    • 93-94 AD, Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book 18, 3:3)

    • 93-94 AD, Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book 18, 5:2)

    • 93-94 AD, Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book 20, 9:1)

    • 112 AD, Pliny the Younger, Letters (10, 96-97)

    • 116 AD, Tacitus, Annals (Book 15, 44)

    • 121 AD, Seutonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Claudius, 25)

    • 121 AD, Seutonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Nero, 16)

    • ca. 170 AD, Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus (11, 13)

    • 175-475 AD, Various Rabbis, The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin, 43a)

Quotations by the Earliest Non-Christian Writers

    • 73-99 AD(2), Syrian Stoic Philosopher Mara bar Serapion (A Letter):

“What are we to say, when the wise are dragged by force by the hands of tyrants, and their wisdom is deprived of its freedom by slander, and they are plundered for their superior intelligence, without the opportunity of making a defence?  They are not wholly to be pitied.  For what benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death, seeing that they received as retribution for it famine and pestilence?  Or the people of Samos by the burning of Pythagoras, seeing that in one hour the whole of their country was covered with sand?  Or the Jews by the murder of their Wise King, seeing that from that very time their kingdom was driven away from them?  For with justice did God grant a recompense to the wisdom of all three of them.  For the Athenians died by famine; and the people of Samos were covered by the sea without remedy; and the Jews, brought to desolation and expelled from their kingdom, are driven away into every land.  Nay, Socrates did ‘not’ die, because of Plato; nor yet Pythagoras, because of the statue of Hera; nor yet the Wise King, because of the new laws which he enacted.”(3)

    • 93-94 AD(4), Jewish Historian Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book 18, 3:3)(5):

“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 both 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.”(6)

    • 93-94 AD, Jewish Historian Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book 18, 5:2):(7)

“Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him.”(8)

    • 93-94 AD, Jewish Historian Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Book 20, 9:1):

“And now Caesar, upon hearing the death of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of the high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on the son of Ananus, who was also himself called Ananus... But this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his authority]... so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done...”(9)

    • 112 AD(10), Roman Governor Pliny the Younger, Letters (10, 96-97):

Governor Pliny to the Emperor Trajan

“It is my practice, my lord, to refer to you all matters concerning which I am in doubt. For who can better give guidance to my hesitation or inform my ignorance? I have never participated in trials of Christians. I therefore do not know what offenses it is the practice to punish or investigate, and to what extent. And I have been not a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on account of age or no difference between the very young and the more mature; whether pardon is to be granted for repentance, or, if a man has once been a Christian, it does him no good to have ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even without offenses, or only the offenses associated with the name are to be punished.

Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome.

Soon accusations spread, as usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and several incidents occurred. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ--none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do--these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.

They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food--but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.

I therefore postponed the investigation and hastened to consult you. For the matter seemed to me to warrant consulting you, especially because of the number involved. For many persons of every age, every rank, and also of both sexes are and will be endangered. For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and farms. But it seems possible to check and cure it. It is certainly quite clear that the temples, which had been almost deserted, have begun to be frequented, that the established religious rites, long neglected, are being resumed, and that from everywhere sacrificial animals are coming, for which until now very few purchasers could be found. Hence it is easy to imagine what a multitude of people can be reformed if an opportunity for repentance is afforded.”

Emperor Trajan to Governor Pliny

“You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it--that is, by worshiping our gods--even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age.”(11)

    • 116 AD(12), Roman Historian Tacitus, Annals (Book 15, 44):

“But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration(13) was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed."(14)

    • 121 AD, Roman Historian Seutonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Claudius, 25):

“Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome.”(15)

    • 121 AD(16), Roman Historian Seutonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Nero, 16):

“During his reign many abuses were severely punished and put down, and no fewer new laws were made: a limit was set to expenditures; the public banquets were confined to a distribution of food; the sale of any kind of cooked viands in the taverns was forbidden, with the exception of pulse and vegetables, whereas before every sort of dainty was exposed for sale. Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. He put an end to the diversions of the chariot drivers, who from immunity of long standing claimed the right of ranging at large and amusing themselves by cheating and robbing the people. The pantomimic actors and their partisans were banished from the city.”(17)

    • ca. 170 AD(18), Roman Satirist Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus (11, 13):

“It was then that [Peregrinus](19) learned the wondrous lore of the Christians, by associating with their priests and scribes in Palestine... and they revered him...  next after that other [Jesus](20), to be sure, whom they still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world...
The poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they are going to be immortal and live for all time, in consequence of which they despise death and even willingly give themselves into custody; most of them. Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another after they have transgressed once, for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws. Therefore they despise all things indiscriminately and consider them common property, receiving such doctrines traditionally without any definite evidence. So if any charlatan and trickster, able to profit by occasions, comes among them, he quickly acquires sudden wealth by imposing upon simple folk.”(21)

    • 175-475 AD(22), Various Jewish Rabbis, The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a)(23):

“[But](24) it was taught: On the even of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, 'He is going forth to be stoned because has practised sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.' But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the even of the Passover! — 'Ulla retorted: Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defence could be made? Was he not a Meshith [enticer], concerning whom Scripture says, Neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him.'
With Yeshu however it was different, for he was connected with the government [or royalty, i.e., influential].
Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Netzer, Buni and Todah.”(25)

Relevant Christian Witnesses

Though the primary purpose of this piece is to collate a selection of the earliest Non-Christian references to Jesus and his followers, the antiquity of Christian witnesses to Jesus’ life must be acknowledged to gain a complete picture of just how prolific early references to Jesus as an historical figure really were. These Christian witnesses include at least ten different writers of the New Testament who were either eye witnesses themselves, or who relied on oral traditions and even interviews of eye witnesses themselves.(26)

    • Probably the most significant New Testament quote to refer to eye witnesses comes from Paul the Apostle, writing only 20 years after Jesus’ death.(27)(28) He says in 1 Cor. 15:3-8:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”(29)

Then there is also the often overlooked collection of writings termed the Apostolic Fathers, written by men who personally knew and followed the Apostles themselves. These include Clement (a follower of the Apostle Peter), and Ignatius, Polycarp, and Papias (all followers of the Apostle John), as well as the writers of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, 2 Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Epistle to Diognetus, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Didache.(30)

    • Within this collection is a short quotation of Quadratus of Athens referring to eye witnesses alive in his own lifetime, written in 124-125 AD(31), and preserved by the Church historian Eusebius:(32)

“But the works of our Saviour were always present, for they were genuine:— those that were healed, and those that were raised from the dead, who were seen not only when they were healed and when they were raised, but were also always present; and not merely while the Saviour was on earth, but also after his death, they were alive for quite a while, so that some of them lived even to our day.”

Given all this evidence: Multiple near-contemporary Non-Christian writers, multiple contemporary Christian writers, and the testimony of hundreds of eye witnesses all make the idea that Jesus didn’t really exist an extreme improbability, if not an impossibility to any truly reasoning mind.

Footnotes

(1) The dates provided refer only to scholarly consensus regarding the quotations themselves. In the case of the Babylonian Talmud, material was added over centuries, but the specific quotes cited carry with them the associated dates.

(2) Van Voorst, Robert E. Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. (Eerdmans Publishing, 2000), 53-56.

(3) Mara bar Serapion, A Letter. Transl. By Benjamin Plummer Pratten.

(4) Freedman, David Noel, ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary, (New York: Doubleday, 1997).

(5) This is probably the most contested quote in this collection. Scholars debate whether a later Christian scribe modified this section to reflect Christian attitudes, and most believe this to be the case. Even so, the consensus is that the original passage written by Josephus included a reference to Jesus and to his execution by Pilate, and so it still provides an important witness to the events described.

(6) Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews. Transl. By William Whiston.

(7) Though this passage doesn’t mention Jesus or Christians, its description of the ministry of John the Baptist is so striking, that its inclusion is appropriate to demonstrate the multiple points at which the Gospel accounts agree with outside sources.

(8) Ibid.

(9) Ibid.

(10) Carrington, Philip. The Early Christian Church, Vol. 1. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1957), 429.

(11) Pliny the Younger, Letters. Transl. By Unknown. Retrieved from Georgetown University Website on Mar. 18, 2019.

(12) The Cambridge History of Latin Literature. Ed. By P.E. Easterling & E.J. Kenney. (Cambridge University Press, 1982), 892.

(13) The fire that ravaged Rome during Emperor Nero’s reign.

(14) Tacitus, Annals. Transl. By Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (1876).

(15) Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars. Transl. By Catharine Edwards, (2001), 184, 203.

(16) “Seutonius,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Web. Retrieved Mar. 18, 2019.

(17) Ibid.

(18) Estimation by me, based on Peregrinus’ self-immolation at the Olympic Games of 165 AD.

(19) Clarification mine.

(20) Clarification mine.

(21) Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus. Transl. By A.M. Harmon.

(22) The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon. Ed. By Nosson Dovid Rabinowich. (Jerusalem, 1988), 79, 116.

(23) There are numerous passages in both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds which may refer to Jesus or his followers. Some are passing references to followers healing in his name (cf. Tosefta Hullin 2:22f), while others consist of polemical word plays possibly intended to ridicule the Virgin Birth (cf. Sanhedrin 67a; Shabbat 104b and Celsus’ On the True Doctrine, written in 175-177 AD and preserved in Origen’s Contra Celsum) or as allegorical stories designed to illustrate Mishnaic points unrelated to Jesus’ historical life or ministry (cf. Sanhedrin 107b and Gittin 57a). The confusion is compounded as many of these references mention characters who lived either during the Hasmonean dynasty 80 or so years before Jesus’ birth or during the Bar Kokhba Revolt 100 years after his death. The passage I’ve included here is, in my estimation, the only one which most directly relates to Jesus’ actual life and death. Even so, there’s much debate over whether this really refers to the Jesus of the New Testament or not.

(24) Clarification added by me.

(25) The Soncino Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a. Transl. By Jacob Shachter. Ed. By Rabbi Dr. I Epstein (1935).

(26) cf. Luke 1:1-4.

(27) 53-54 AD.

(28) Robert Wall, New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 10 (Abingdon Press, 2002), 373.

(29) ESV.

(30) The last work listed was probably the first of these written in the 1st century, as a Manual for Church discipline and practice, and possibly by the Apostles themselves.

(31) “Quadratus.” Ed. By Charles Herbermann. Catholic Encyclopedia. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1913).

(32) Eusebius, Church History (Book 4, 3:2). Translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1. Ed. by Philip Schaff & Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890.) Ed. for New Advent by Kevin Knight.

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