Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script Notes:

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.

Micha, Chapter 5, verse 2, New Living Translation

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod.

The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2, verse 1, New Living Translation

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VK: Hi! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m here today with RD Fierro, author founder of Crystal Sea Books, and part-time barista. He turns on the coffee maker and puts in those little cups. Today on Anchored by Truth, as we approach Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are continuing our series where we focus on the earthly birth and life of Jesus. In today’s culture, it seems as though just about everybody has heard about Jesus, but fewer and fewer people actually know much about him. Do you agree with that RD?

RD: Yes. Jesus’ name is certainly well known in modern culture but unfortunately there is as much or more misinformation that circulates about him than there is actual fact. I’m afraid that more people get there information about Jesus more by watching television specials or dramatized movies than they do from reading the Bible or studying the many fine, well-documented books and articles that have been produced by excellent Christian scholars through the years. That’s the bad news. The good news is that for those who are truly interested in knowing the actual, historical Jesus it’s probably easier today than any time in history to get accurate information. But you do have to be careful about the sources you use.

VK: So, today we want to continue to provide the listeners to Anchored by Truth with a head start on doing their own study about Jesus. As you have so often said, Jesus is the centerpiece of both the Bible and the plan of redemption. So, to be confident not only in our own faith but to help those who are still looking for anchors for their own lives it’s imperative we know the real Jesus of the Bible. But before we get too deep into our discussion how about telling us a little about the Christmas poem that we’re going to continue today?

RD: I’d love to. As I mentioned in an earlier episode of Anchored by Truth, years ago when I worked in one of those big state agency buildings that are so common here I wanted to give Christmas presents to some of my co-workers but doing that in a state agency can sometimes be tricky. So, I decided that one present I could give was a little entertainment so I wrote this piece that was inspired by some of things that used to entertain the kids of my generation: Christmas poems and the short serial stories you used to see in the movie theaters before the main feature. Each of those film pieces would always leave you hanging so you had to come back every week to see what happened. So, I wrote a Christmas story in six parts and each part left you wondering what would come next. That story became The Golden Tree: Komari’s Quest. It was about a group of koala bears who had gone on a quest to the far north to find their creator that they called The Great While Koala Bear. The bears never found their creator but they did find a golden tree in the artic that made a valley a perfect place for them to live. Well, later on I created a new story that I called The Golden Tree: Eagle Enigma and we’ve followed that up now with another Golden Tree story – the Frost Lion. In part one of Frost Lion that we heard on our last episode we’ve learned that there are two young bears confronting a dilemma they believe might threaten their village. From a vantage point at the top of a tall hill near their town they have seen a strange shape out on the distant snow – but they don’t know who or what the shape is.

VK: Alright then. So, let’s continue with the story. Here’s part two of Crystal Seas’ Christmas epic poem: The Golden Tree: The Frost Lion.

---- The Golden Tree: The Frost Lion – Part 2

VK: The drama is now building. What we’ve heard is that bears have enjoyed the peace and plenty in the valley for generations but now a new bear from a strange land is in their midst – and that bear is very near death. Worse this new bear has a friend who is still lost in the deep winter snow and may already have died. So, the bears are learning - just like in the real world – that there are always unexpected events in this world that may require us to respond. And it may take real courage to confront those events …

VK: And it’s hard to have those virtues if we don’t know why we’ve been sent on our own quests, isn’t it? I mean, God’s grace has saved us just like the Golden Tree saved the bears. But as the Apostle Paul said to the Philippians they had to. “work hard to show the results of [their] salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in [them and us], giving [them and us]the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” God’s grace saves us but our sanctification requires effort on our part.

RD: Right. The old song there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus than to “trust and obey.” Part of that obedience is to be able to tell others why we believe that Jesus was qualified to be our savior. And that starts with us being assured that Jesus was a real, historical figure – not a myth or some kind of pious concoction. In our day and age one of the semi-criticisms that’s hurled against the Christian faith is that the Jesus that Christians worship is either a mythological figure or – if he even existed – that we can’t trust the gospel accounts for information about him.

VK: But the truth is that Jesus was a real person. And we see that from passages like the ones we used for our opening scriptures. In these passages we can see that the Bible tells us specific facts about Jesus like where he was born – in Bethlehem – and when – during the reign of a king named Herod. But beyond even what scripture tells us Jesus life is a fact that is even confirmed by sources outside the Bible isn’t it? And that’s what you wanted to focus on today, right – the fact that we have historical sources besides the Bible that confirm Jesus’ historicity and even confirm many of the details contained in the gospels about his life, death, and circumstances?

RD: Right. In some earlier episodes of Anchored by Truth we’ve discussed the fact that you can use the existence of the physical universe and apply logic and reason to come to the conclusion that there is a self-existent being responsible for the creation of the universe and of living creatures. But that line of reasoning can only carry you so far in an understanding of God and it would give us almost no information about other attributes that are essential parts of the Christian faith such as the plan of redemption or Jesus’ role in it. For that, we need a special revelation from that self-existent being – God – and fortunately we have that in the Bible. But we need to be persuaded that that revelation is true and reliable and once again logic, reason, and evidence can play a role in validating the Bible’s claim that it is the inspired Word of God. And that’s where extra biblical sources can be helpful. Such sources don’t add anything to the Bible, but they can add to our individual confidence that the Bible is describing history accurately when it speaks of historical events.

VK: So, today you want to take a brief look at some other historical sources that also confirm that Jesus was a real historical figure. You know when you think about it, it’s remarkable that there would be any other surviving sources outside the Bible who would mention Jesus. In his day and time – if Jesus hadn’t been the Son of God – he would have been just another obscure and unimportant itinerant preacher that had a brief public ministry in a distant Roman province. He never led an army, held a prominent government or political position, or even wrote a book. Plus, his public ministry only lasted about 3 years and he didn’t travel all that widely. His public ministry was all conducted within 100 miles of his home. And he died the death of a common criminal. So, if Jesus wasn’t who he claimed to be – the Son of the Almighty God – he should have faded from the pages of history as just another local crank. But he didn’t. He’s mentioned by some of the most important historians of his age, men who had far more earthly distinction that he did. Where do you want to start?

RD: Let’s start by talking about a few examples of well-known Roman historians who are widely regarded as having written important histories of the Roman Empire and conquests. The examples that we’re going to use today came from an article available on the website coldcasechristianity.com entitled “is there any evidence for Jesus outside the Bible.” We’ll put a link to the article on the notes that accompany the podcast version of this show. But these examples are all widely known and can be found in any number of historical reference sources. So the first example we want to use is a quote from Cornelius Tacitus was well known for his analysis and examination of historical documents and is among the most trusted of ancient historians. He was a senator under Emperor Vespasian and was also proconsul of Asia. In his “Annals’ of 116 AD, he describes the Roman Emperor Nero’s response to the great fire in Rome and Nero’s claim that the Christians were to blame:

“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 Judea, 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.”

So, in this account, Tacitus confirms that there was a man who lived in Judea, was known as Christ, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and who had followers who called themselves by his name and were persecuted for following him.

VK: Well, this account is helpful because it directly confirms a number of details directly about Jesus. But it’s also important for another reason, isn’t it? A few episodes ago we talked about the fact that Luke and the other gospel writers were meticulous when it came to their historical recording and reporting. So much so that they got some obscure details right, even when other ancient historians got them wrong. So, this quote from Tacitus helps illustrate that point too, doesn’t it.

RD: Very good. That’s pretty impressive. You noticed that Tacitus called Pontius Pilate the procurator of Judea not the prefect.

VK: Thank you. I try.

RD: And you’re absolutely right. As good a historian as Tacitus was he was human and in this case he did make a mistake. He got Pilate’s title wrong. For many years there were questions about the existence and the actual title of Pontius Pilate—the Roman governor who presided over the trial of Jesus. Later Roman writers, as well as almost all Bible reference works, referred to Pilate as the “procurator” of Judea but Luke and the other gospel writers called Pilate a “governor;” not a procurator. The fact that “governor” was the correct title was confirmed in 1961, when a two by three foot stone was discovered that had a Latin inscription. The translation of the inscription reads as follows:

Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, has presented the Tiberieum to the Caesareans.

This find was not only archaeological confirmation for the existence of Pilate but it was also confirmation that Pilate was the Prefect, or governor, of Judea.

VK: In fact, we now know that the title “Procurator” was not used at the time of Jesus’ trial for the Roman governors. This title only came into usage at a later time, during the reign of the emperor Claudius, A.D. 41-54. During Claudius’ reign the title of the Roman governors shifted from Prefect to Procurator. So although Tacitus was correct about the title in use for the Roman governor of Judea at the time he wrote – about 60 years later - strictly speaking that was not Pilate’s actual title when he supervised the trial and execution of Jesus. Pilate was a prefect, a governor, not a procurator – a fact the Bible writers got right. So, who’s next on the list of extra-Biblical writers?

RD: Well, before we close for today we should probably take a quick look at one of the most famous of the ancient historians, Josephus, because he lived so close to the time of Jesus and during the period of early church’s formation. Josephus lived from 37 AD to 101 AD. The most widely accepted year for the crucifixion is 33 AD so he was born just four years after the crucifixion. He wrote an extensive history of the Jews in 93 AD called “the Antiquities of the Jews.” So today when you see people referring to it you often just hear people call it “Antiquities.” Josephus wrote about Jesus in more detail than any other non-biblical historian and Josephus himself was a really interesting character. He was a consultant for Jewish rabbis and became a Galilean military commander by the age of sixteen. He was an eyewitness to much of what he recorded in the first century A.D. As a Jewish military leader he initially fought against the Romans but later surrendered and he eventually became an adviser to the Roman emperor Vespasian. Under Vespasian, Josephus was allowed to write a history of the Jews. This history includes three passages about Christians, one in which he describes the death of John the Baptist, one in which he mentions the execution of James (and describes him as the brother of Jesus the Christ), and a final passage which describes Jesus as a wise man and the messiah. There is some legitimate controversy about the writing of Josephus, because of the timing of the discovery of his writing but why don’t you read a conservative scholarly reconstruction of one of Josephus’ most famous passages.

VK: “Now around this time lived Jesus, a wise man. For he was a worker of amazing deeds and was a teacher of people who gladly accept the truth. He won over both many Jews and many Greeks. Pilate, when he heard him accused by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, (but) those who had first loved him did not cease (doing so). To this day the tribe of Christians named after him has not disappeared.”

RD: Now there are some other ancient versions of Josephus’ writing which are even more explicit about the nature of Jesus’ miracles, life and his status as the Christ, but from even this conservative version we can conclude: Jesus lived in Palestine, was a wise man and a teacher, worked amazing deeds, was accused by the Jews, crucified under Pilate and had followers called Christians. Josephus’ observations are particularly compelling because at the time he wrote he was very close in terms of timing to when Jesus lived. Even though he wasn’t like the apostles who actually walked with Jesus he could see around him the effect of the early church’s spreading and he may even have had the opportunity to talk to Jews who had been in and around Judea when Jesus had his public ministry.

VK: Well, those two examples are a good introduction to the fact that Jesus’ earthly life has confirmation outside the Bible. Next time we can take up a few more examples but before we close for today a few general observations would seem to be in order. And you said that the early church itself is a confirmation that Jesus was a real, historical figure?

RD: Exactly.

VK: I’m surprised you didn’t say what you do in some of the Life Lessons with a Laugh - exactamundo …

RD: Ok. Exactamundo. Anyway, there is no dispute that in the first century AD Christians and the Christian church began to be an issue within the Roman Empire. They were so widely known that the emperor Nero blamed the great fire of Rome on them. Well, it would be impossible to explain the spread of a movement if there wasn’t something or someone who started the movement. Remember that the Romans weren’t known for being timid administrators of their provincial empire and in the first century AD they certainly weren’t friendly to Christians. So, something remarkable must have happened in the early part of the first century AD in Judea that animated so many people to continue carrying the same message throughout the empire despite the official opposition they encountered everywhere. There are two simple reasons for this phenomena. First, they were persuaded something truly remarkable had happened. A dead man had risen from the grave and walked around for 40 days. And second, they had a source of support and strength – the Holy Spirit – who sustained them as they carried their message to a world that needed it but didn’t want it.

VK: Well, all that makes perfect sense. As Paul said to the Romans the same power that raised Jesus from the dead also empowers us and gives us the ability to carry on in his name. Sounds like a perfect time to go to prayer. Since we’re approaching Thanksgiving how about if today we listen to a prayer for that special day when we turn our attention to the goodness that God has shown to us.

---- Prayer for Thanksgiving –

VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” We hope you’ll be with us next time as we continue our discussion of the reality of Jesus’ life. We hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show. Also, we’d to remind listeners that copies of The Golden Tree: Komari’s Quest are available from our website.

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”

(Bible Quotes from the New Living Translation)

Micha, Chapter 5, verse 2, New Living Translation

The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2, verse 1, New Living Translation

https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible/

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/jesus-of-nazareth/the-evidence-for-jesus/

https://alwaysbeready.com/extrabiblical-historical-sources-corroborate-the-bible/

https://crossexamined.org/why-should-we-trust-the-extra-biblical-references-to-jesus/