A Christian Response by Stephen J. Bedard
A Literary, Linguistic, and Historical Overview The first century CE stands at a crossroads in Jewish history. It marks the final decades of the Second Temple, its destruction in 70 CE, and the beginning of new Jewish trajectories under Roman rule. Jewish authors responded to these conditions with an extraordinary range of literary activity: historical … Read More “Jewish Texts Written in the First Century CE” »
This is a continuation of a response to The Quest for the Mythical Jesus by Duke Mertz. In this post, I respond to the problems with the lack of non-biblical witnesses for Jesus. Among all the Greek and Roman documents from the first century, there are no verifiable records of early Christians outside the Bible. … Read More “Where Have All the (First Century) Witnesses Gone?” »
This continues my series that responds to Raphael Lataster’s article, Questioning the Plausibility of Jesus Ahistoricity Theories. After critiquing the biblical evidence for Jesus, he goes on to look at the extra-biblical evidence. I have no desire to defend the Roman evidence. I think it is helpful and interesting, but it mostly just testifies that … Read More “Raphael Lataster and Questioning the Plausibility of Jesus Ahistoricity Theories – Part Five” »
Those who deny the historical existence of Jesus have to deal with the Testamonium Flavianum. This is a passage the Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus that mentions Jesus. About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds … Read More “The Testamonium Flavianum and the Johannine Comma” »
Is there any Jewish evidence for the historical Jesus? The best evidence we have is from Josephus. In this video, the Apologetics Guy talks to us about Josephus says.
Having looked at non-Christians sources that “should” have mentioned Jesus, R.G. Price shifts to those non-Christian sources that do mention Jesus. Price, in his Case Against Historical Jesus, makes the common Mythicist claim that the evidence we have is not authentic. All of the non-Christian references to Jesus can be shown to have either been … Read More “Are the Non-Christian Witnesses to Jesus Christian Additions?” »
This is a continuation of a response to R.G. Price’s Case Against Historical Jesus. Now we get into comparisons with other historical sources. Sort of. The Gospels make many claims that are contradicted by the historical record According to R.G. Price, one of the reasons that we should not take the Gospels seriously as historical … Read More “Do the Gospels Contradict the Historical Record?” »
If Jesus existed, why didn’t any first century historians write about him? Of did one? Did Josephus mention Jesus or is that passage a Christian forgery? This episode looks at that question. Please support this podcast through Patreon or by downloading a free audiobook with a free trial from Audible.
