ASK FR BITAJU | KAIROS GLOBAL | FEBRUARY 2022

Author: Fr Bitaju

Q. What historical evidence do we have of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus?

Jerin Vakayil, Bangalore, India

Thanks for your important question.  In responding I shall focus mainly on four sources that confirm the crucifixion of Jesus.

1. Early sources on the crucifixion of Jesus: St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (AD 55) contains an early Christian creed on the death and resurrection of Jesus. That Christ died for our sins …, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures … (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). Scholars date this creed, an early oral tradition of the Christian Church, to within six years after Christ’s death. On multiple occasions St Paul explicitly mentions ‘Christ crucified’ (1 Corinthians 1:23, 2:2), confirming the sort of death Jesus died. 

2. Multiple ancient sources from non-Christians: Roman historian Tacitus and Jewish historian Josephus from the first century confirm Christ’s crucifixion.  In The Annals Tacitus writes, ‘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’ (15.44).  The Greek writer Lucian of Samosata (AD 120-180) in his book, The Passing of Peregrinus writes, ‘The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day – the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on this account.’

3. Eyewitness testimony: Scholars like Richard Bauckham convincingly confirm that the four Gospels are based on eyewitness testimony. According to Bauckham, the four Gospels ‘embody the testimony of the eyewitnesses, not of course without editing and interpretation, but in a way that is substantially faithful to how the eyewitnesses themselves told it.’ Bauckham further argues that an eyewitness to the crucifixion wrote the Gospel of St John: This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things (John 21:24).

4. Embarrassing testimony: The uncensored narrative of Jesus’s suffering sparkles with authenticity.  Scenes such as Jesus’s agony in Gethsemane or his anguished cry of ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ portray a weakened, suffering Messiah. Michael Licona, a New Testament historian, in The Resurrection of Jesus, confirms that in antiquity ‘a number of accounts existed of Jewish martyrs (i.e. the seven brothers in 2nd Maccabees, Eleazar and Stephen), who acted bravely under extreme torture and execution.  In the light of these, reports of a weaker Jesus at his arrest and crucifixion could cause embarrassment in contrast.’ In determining a source’s reliability, historians consider the criterion of embarrassment to be important. 

Moreover, nearly all non-Christian scholars and skeptics of the New Testament maintain the existence of Christ and his crucifixion to be ‘historical bedrock.’ In his book Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, critic John Dominic Crossan writes thus: ‘Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be.’ Gerd Ludemann, an atheist scholar, in his book The Resurrection of Christ: A Historical Inquiry resolves, ‘Jesus’ death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.’

We shall make a similar study on the Resurrection of Jesus in the next issue of Kairos Global.

YOUCAT 97 

Are the Jews guilty of Jesus’ death? 

No one can assign collective guilt for the death of Jesus to the Jews. Instead, the Church professes with certainty that all sinners share in the guilt for Jesus’ death. [597-598] 

The aged prophet Simeon foresaw that Jesus would become ‘a sign that is spoken against’ (Luke 2:34b). And in fact Jesus was resolutely rejected by the Jewish authorities, but among the Pharisees, for example, there were also secret followers of Jesus, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Various Roman and Jewish persons and institutions (Caiaphas, Judas, the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pontius Pilate) took part in Jesus’ trial, and only God knows their guilt as individuals. The idea that all Jews of that time or living today are guilty of Jesus’ death is irrational and biblically untenable.