Lee Strobel’s Case for a Creator.
Posted: March 25, 2009 Filed under: Apologetics | Tags: Apologetics, Christ, Christianity, faith, God, Jesus, Lee Strobel 2 Comments »Lee Strobel, a former atheist, has many books about the scientific and historical facts of the Bible and God. He has a website with tons of videos on the subject that I thought I’d share. My favorite is the video pertaining to DNA.
Why some historians ignored Jesus (part 2).
Posted: March 16, 2009 Filed under: Apologetics | Tags: Apologetics, Christ, Christianity, faith, God, Jesus, John Meier Leave a comment »John Meier further expands on his list of reasons as to why some of the 30 or so prominent historians did not mention Jesus with some examples given him by an atheist:
Philo — the Jewish historian/philosopher. This is Remsberg’s strongest example, for Philo would have been a contemporary of Jesus. But there are several qualifications necessary. Philo probably died around 50 AD, and would not have lived long enough to see Christianity make a mark, thus warranting a mention of Jesus. His silence may also have been an oblique insult to the Christian movement; Philo believed in a sort of Platonic doctrine which would have regarded the idea of the incarnation as offensive. In addition, Philo noticeably fails to mention other important Jewish figures of that period such as the great Jewish rabbi Gamaliel. Therefore, his silence about Jesus is not peculiar.
Arrian — this author lived in the second century, and wrote works concerned with Alexander the Great. That’s 300 years before Jesus, quite a stretch for a mention.
Paterculus — Authored an amateurish history of Rome. Paterculus was a retired army officer of Tiberius. He published in 30 A.D., just when Jesus was getting started in His ministry. Jesus never set foot in Rome, so it is hard to see where he would fit in his works.
Theon of Smyrna — a mathematician and astronomer who wrote a “handbook for philosophy students to show how prime numbers, geometrical numbers such as squares, progressions, music and astronomy are interrelated.”
Quintillian — this fellow was a writer on oratory and rhetoric. Again, where is there room for mentioning Jesus, in what was essentially a how-to manual of public speaking?
Lucanus — Seneca’s nephew, all we have by him is one poem and some books recording the civil war between Pompey and Caesar. Where should Jesus have been worked into it?
Silius Italicus — this author was a poet who wrote a big poem about the second Punic War. Jesus obviously would not have been there.
Pausanias — a Greek traveler and geographer of the second century who wrote a ten-volume work called Descriptions of Greece. We would hardly expect mention of Jewish miracle workers in a different country.
Columella — this fellow wrote about agriculture and trees.
Why some historians ignored Jesus.
Posted: March 10, 2009 Filed under: Apologetics | Tags: Apologetics, Christ, Christianity, faith, God, Gospel, Jesus 5 Comments »It is said that there were roughly 30 famous historians from around and during the time of Jesus’ life, and only a handful of them wrote about him. John Meier writes an excellent opinion as to why he wasn’t mentioned by all of them. Here’s his list:
- As far as the historians of the day were concerned, he was just a “blip” on the screen. Jesus did not address the Roman Senate, or write extensive Greek philosophical treatises; he never traveled outside of the regions of Palestine, and was not a member of any known political party. It is only because Christians later made Jesus a “celebrity” that He became known. Biblical scholar E. P. Sanders, comparing Jesus to Alexander, notes that the latter “so greatly altered the political situation in a large part of the world that the main outline of his public life is very well known indeed. Jesus did not change the social, political and economic circumstances in Palestine …the superiority of evidence for Jesus is seen when we ask what he thought.” Biblical scholar Murray Harris adds that “Roman writers could hardly be expected to have foreseen the subsequent influence of Christianity on the Roman Empire and therefore to have carefully documented” Christian origins.
- Jesus was executed as a criminal, providing him with the ultimate marginality. This was one reason why historians would have ignored Jesus. He suffered the ultimate humiliation, both in the eyes of Jews (Deut. 21:23 – Anyone hung on a tree is cursed!) and the Romans (He died the death of slaves and rebels.). On the other hand, Jesus was a minimal threat compared to other “Messiahs” of the time. Rome had to call out troops to quell the disturbances caused by the unnamed Egyptian referenced in the Book of Acts. In contrast, no troops were required to suppress Jesus’ followers. To the Romans, the primary gatekeepers of written history at the time, and others who wrote history, Jesus during His own life would have been no different than thousands of other everyday criminals that were crucified.
- Jesus marginalized himself by being occupied as an itinerant preacher. Of course, there was no Palestine News Network, and even if there had been one, there were no televisions to broadcast it. Jesus never used the established “news organs” of the day to spread His message. He traveled about the countryside, avoiding for the most part (and with the exception of Jerusalem) the major urban centers of the day. How would we regard someone who preached only in sites like, say, Hahira, Georgia?
- Jesus’ teachings did not always jibe with, and were sometimes offensive to, the established religious order of the day. It has been said that if Jesus appeared on the news today, it would be as a troublemaker. He certainly did not make many friends as a preacher.
- Jesus lived an offensive lifestyle and alienated many people. He associated with the despised and rejected: Tax collectors, prostitutes, and the band of fishermen He had as disciples.
- Jesus was a poor, rural person in a land run by wealthy urbanites. Yes, class discrimination was alive and well in the first century also!
