What we have

Is God Dead?

The last few weeks have been spent presenting non-biblical sources that speak to one or more of the three minimal bedrock facts concerning what happened to Jesus after His crucifixion. We spent a lot of time looking at the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus and the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. Both historians wrote in the midfirst century, and both wrote about Jesus. But there is more to mention. Lucian of Samosata is another non-Christian source that provides independent testimony to the fact that Jesus was a real person and that He died by crucifixion. Lucian was a second- century Greek writer. In his writing, The Death of Peregrine, Lucian wrote: “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites and was crucified on that account. . . . then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.”

These words of Lucian are yet another remarkable, early, independent testimony to the crucifixion of Jesus.

But there is more. Mara bar Serapion was a Syrian Stoic philosopher whose writings also stand as independent testimony to the life and crucifixion of Jesus. Serapion had been captured during the Roman invasion in 73 A.D., and while in prison, he wrote in a letter to his son the following: “What advantage did the Athenians gain from murdering Socrates? Famine and plague came upon them as a punishment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand.

What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise king? It was just after that their kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea and the Jews, desolate and driven from their own kingdom, live in complete dispersion.”

Once again, this is a reliable, early, and independent non-biblical source that speaks to the life and crucifixion of Jesus. All told, the collective of these presented writings forms a substantial and healthy group of sources that give evidence to our first historical bedrock fact: “That Jesus died by crucifixion.”

Unsurprisingly, Christians hunger for more, always wishing for more sources and evidence. In that vein, Christians also have a healthy list of “what we wish we had.” One can only think of the significance of a letter certified to have been written by Jesus. That would be nice. But that is only the start of the list Christians wish they had. Something regarding Saul of Tarsus would be helpful as well. It turns out that there is no material written by Paul from his life before his conversion. That would be nice; it would help us gain insight as to why Paul so hated the Christians. Likewise, we have nothing from the Sanhedrin or material written by any Jewish leaders during Paul’s ministry that describes his conversion or the fact that he had abandoned Judaism for Christianity. Beyond that, there are no official documents from the Jewish or Roman governments that mention the Christians, Jesus’s death, or reports of his resurrection.

But that does not mean what Christians have is not good. What Christians have is this, and it is very good. The Christian narrative is supported first and foremost by eyewitness accounts of the early events of Christianity. Reports from the apostles, Peter, the women at the tomb, Thomas looking at the wounds in Jesus’s sides, and the eyewitness in Paul’s testimony that Jesus had been raised from the dead. We also have the accounts of the Jerusalem apostles preserved in the oral tradition (kerygma), and the apostolic preaching of salvation through Jesus Christ. These reports are considered very early, as in the case of 1 Corinthians 15:3-7; this oral formula is believed to have originated almost immediately after the resurrection.

In addition, these reports are multiply attested through Paul, Mark, Matthew, and Luke. As in Paul’s case, the Christian narrative also has all-important testimony from one who was once hostile to Christianity. Again, the strength of the Credo in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 and other oral traditions embedded in the Gospels and Epistles reaches back to the dawn of Christianity in Jerusalem. Christians also can boast of the extensive writings of the first apostolic fathers, such as Clement and Polycarp, who knew the apostles personally, not to mention the speeches recorded by the historian Luke that are recorded in The Acts of the Apostles.

Of course, Christians would love to have more evidence; who wouldn’t? The same can be said of the evidence surrounding the Kennedy assassination less than a century ago. But this is what we have. And it is all that is needed because the answer to the question lies within the evidence: Is God dead?

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife, Vicki, are members of the Waurika church of Christ and live in Ardmore, OK. You can contact him at [email protected].