Did Jesus Christ exist as a historical human or was he a theological construct?

In: Islam, New Testament, Jesus Christ

A range of opinions :

Yes, Jesus of Nazareth existed as a historical man. No, he was not a theological construct. There are enough historical witnesses to verify this as fact. Claims as big as "I am the King (Christ)" and "I am the Son of God" or "I am the way, the truth, and the life no one can get to [heaven] except through me"--these claims would not be something people (especially in that place and in that time) would take lightly--as seen in the portrayal of his execution. the religious leaders who put him to death, also wanted to put his name to death. People put a lot of faith in him, his followers, also put their lives on the line just to stand for what they knew! This is hardly something people would do for something that simply "didn't exist" in the slightest. A theological construct is easily seen as they provide no significant historical validity and the claims are absurd. The time, the places, the names, the events -- all of these provide enough information to see obvious lies verses what actually took place in history. This question is legitimate to ask 2,000 years after the fact. Yet most people who are being honest wouldn't even know who their great, great, great, great, great grandfather was or if he even existed. It shows how skeptical our generation is about things that are verifiable facts! However, we know with enough research, the answers are available and the proof is usually difficult to find. Lee Strobel did a great job answering this question in his book The Case for Christ. with convincing evidence on this subject and educational research.

Here are a few documented statements of Christs historicity: The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived. The historian H. G. Wells said that a man's greatness can be measured by 'what he leaves to grow, and whether he started others to think along fresh lines with a vigor that persisted after him.' Wells, although not claiming to be a Christian, acknowledged: "By this test Jesus stands first."

Alexander the Great, Charlemagne (styled "the Great" even in his own lifetime), and Napoleon Bonaparte were powerful rulers. By their formidable presence, they wielded great influence over those they commanded. Yet, Napoleon is reported to have said: "Jesus Christ has influenced and commanded His subjects without His visible bodily presence." Yet, strangely, some say that Jesus never lived-that he is, in effect, a creation of some first-century men. Answering such skeptics, the respected historian Will Durant argued: "That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels."

The reference work The Historians' History of the World observed: "The historical result of [Jesus'] activities was more momentous, even from a strictly secular standpoint, than the deeds of any other character of history. A new era, recognized by the chief civilizations of the world, dates from his birth."

Many books outside of the Bible (Q'ran, Hippocrates, etc.) have detailed descriptions of Jesus. There is also other physical evidence of Jesus... the headboard that was placed above him on the cross. It has been protected by Catholics for centuries, and it was recently examined by forensic scientists. They have concluded, through carbon-dating, that it is the real thing. It dates back to the time when he was crucified. Also, the writing on it has been studied historians and cryptologists. They have concluded that it is accurate with the way things were written in the 1st century AD.

The shroud of Turin has never been found to be a hoax. How could Da Vinci have created it? Carbon dating has proven that it was created way before Da Vinci's time. Did Da Vinci have a camera in the Renaissance? How could you create a perfect negative of a crucified person with a sheet? Jesus is real. He lived, he died, and he rose again.

Yes, Jesus was a real, "historical" person. Read Josephus, the historian and orthodox Jew who speaks of Jesus. 4th Century monks can be thanked for our writings from Josephus. Most other references are second hand or so vague they could apply to the thousands of "Jesus"s at the time.

He was real. Even if you don't believe He was the Son of God, there are established histories that place Him there at the time.

Yes Jesus existed. He had a great historical impact as well. The Muslims actually recognized him as a great prophet and writings have been found acknowledging him. They do not however acknowledge him for his greatest contribution as the Messiah. The greatest way to know of both of these truths is to do two things however: 1. Read the scriptures 2. study it out in your mind 3. reach a decision 4. Pray about it ( I know thats not scientific) (Well look at it this way your trying an experiment and to get real results you have to try both sides to get the true results) 5. If the results are positive, act on them.

If Jesus didn't exist how can you say that this is the year 2005? The count of time is supposedly based on when he was born. What accounts for the permeating effect of this 'fictional' character on world civilization? To quote some actual historians pp. 5-6 Jesus Christ Evidence That He Walked the Earth
Testimony of Historians For instance, consider the testimony of Flavius Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian who was a Pharisee. He referred to Jesus Christ in the book Jewish Antiquities.

Although some doubt the authenticity of the first reference where Josephus mentioned Jesus as the Messiah, Professor Louis H. Feldman of Yeshiva University says that few have doubted the genuineness of the second reference. There Josephus said: �[Annanus the high priest] convened the judges of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ.� (Jewish Antiquities, XX, 200) Yes, a Pharisee, a member of the sect many of whose adherents were avowed enemies of Jesus, acknowledged the existence of James, the brother of Jesus.

The influence of Jesus' existence was felt through the activities of his followers. When the apostle Paul was imprisoned in Rome about 59 C.E., the principal men of the Jews told him: As regards this sect it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against. (Acts 28:17-22) They called Jesus' disciples this sect. If they were everywhere spoken against, secular historians would likely report about them, would they not?

Tacitus, born about 55 C.E. and considered one of the world�s greatest historians, mentioned the Christians in his Annals. In the account about Nero�s blaming the great fire of Rome in 64 C.E. on them, he wrote: 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. The details of this account match the information regarding the Jesus of the Bible.

Another writer who commented on Jesus' followers was Pliny the Younger, the governor of Bithynia. In about the year 111 C.E., Pliny wrote to Emperor Trajan, asking how to handle Christians. People who were falsely accused of being Christians, wrote Pliny, would repeat an invocation to the gods and worship the statue of Trajan, just to prove that they were not Christians. Pliny continued: There is no forcing, it is said, those who are really Christians, into any of these compliances. That testifies to the reality of the existence of the Christ, whose followers were prepared to give their lives for their belief in him. In writings of that period...Jesus Jewish enemies attributed his miracles to magic. Why would they do that if there were none?

After summarizing the references to Jesus Christ and his followers by the historians of the first two centuries, The Encyclopedia Britannica (2002 edition) concludes: These independent accounts prove that in ancient times even the opponents of Christianity never doubted the historicity of Jesus, which was disputed for the first time and on inadequate grounds at the end of the 18th, during the 19th, and at the beginning of the 20th centuries.
Justin Martyr, writing in the middle of the second century, wrote in reference to the death of Jesus: That these things did happen, you can ascertain from the Acts of Pontius Pilate.14

In addition, according to Justin Martyr, these same records mentioned Jesus� miracles, regarding which he says: That He did those things, you can learn from the Acts of Pontius Pilate.15 True, these Acts, or official records, no longer exist. But they evidently did exist in the second century, and Justin Martyr confidently challenged his readers to check them to verify the truth of what he said.
'Is the life story of the founder of Christianity the product of human sorrow, imagination, and hope a myth comparable to the legends of Krishna, Osiris, Attis, Adonis, Dionysus, and Mithras? asks historian Will Durant. He answers that in the first century, to deny that Christ had ever existed seems never to have occurred even to the bitterest gentile or Jewish opponents of nascent Christianity.'The Story of Civilization,: Part III, Caesar and Christ.�

The Roman historian Suetonius (c. 69-140 C.E.), in his history The Twelve Caesars, stated regarding the emperor Claudius: Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christ], he expelled them from the city.� This occurred about the year 52 C.E. (Compare Acts 18:1, 2.) Note that Suetonius expresses no doubt about the existence of Christ. On this factual basis and in spite of life-endangering persecution, early Christians were very active proclaiming their faith.

It is hardly likely that they would have risked their lives on the basis of a myth. Jesus' death and resurrection had taken place in their lifetime, and some of them had been eyewitnesses to those events.
Historian Durant draws the conclusion: 'That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels.'
Many have viewed Jesus as he is described in the Bible as an idealized fiction. But historian Michael Grant notes: 'If we apply to the New Testament, as we should, the same sort of criteria as we should apply to other ancient writings containing historical material, we can no more reject Jesus' existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned.'

Not only Jesus' existence but also his personality comes through in the Bible with a decided ring of truth. It is not easy to invent an unusual character and then present a consistent portrait of him throughout a whole book. It is nearly impossible for four different writers to write about the same character and consistently paint the same picture of him if that character never really existed. The fact that the Jesus described in all four Gospels is obviously the same person is persuasive evidence of the Gospels' truthfulness.

Michael Grant quotes a very appropriate question: How comes it that, through all the Gospel traditions without exception, there comes a remarkably firmly-drawn portrait of an attractive young man moving freely about among women of all sorts, including the decidedly disreputable, without a trace of sentimentality, unnaturalness, or prudery, and yet, at every point, maintaining a simple integrity of character'. The only answer is that such a man really existed and acted in the way the Bible says.

There are volumes of conflicting information, each with its own agenda and misleading half-truths. With any controversy like this, the answer usually lies somewhere in the middle. Jesus (or somebody resembling his character) likely existed and was a local folk hero who lived on in tales passed from people who knew him. Keep in mind the first books of the New Testament weren't written until years after his death. Much like any story passed on by word-of-mouth, details begin to change (quite dramatically in some cases) and the story takes on a life of its own. While Jesus may have been a real person, the deification assigned to him was certainly the product of exaggeration. Sadly, these supernatural claims about Christ drown out the positive aspects of Christian philosophy, causing the myths to become the focal point instead of the message.

Most of the purported evidence is of the form "It is written (rumored) that Jesus did X, and here is a piece of evidence showing that X could have happened in that time frame, so Jesus must have lived then". Additionally, some evidence is clearly fabricated. Obviously, this is not solid, but at best creates an impression that his existence was plausible. Given the 2000 years of time, it is not surprising that both the evidence is lacking and a mythology has built up around purported evidence. There were many people named Jesus who lived in that time frame, but does one of them fit the description laid out in the Bible? Not only is there no solid evidence to support this, but there is much evidence to show that the descriptions in the Bible were 'borrowed' and 're-used'. This should cast serious doubt on the Bible as a source of historical evidence.

Jesus Christ was a fictional character created to hide a very important "secret" in the New Testament Bible. The only problem is that the so called "secret" the writers (Hellenistic Jews of Greek) wanted to hide is an open and common knowledge in India, from where they obtained it in the first place.

Jesus did not only exist, but he still exists to this day and it's proven by miracles all the time if one is willing to look and listen. I have seen not only miracles but humans that have never believed in Jesus be in a very difficult position in their lives (such as a child that could die or a loved one) and the person is on bended knees in the Chapel of that hospital for the first time. Basically they are so distraught they are covering all bases. So, whether you like it or not He does exist in all of us and we can deny him or accept him.

You believe in other things that you were not witness to. Just because you weren't there at the time or see it, touch it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There are still unproven things in this world we have yet to discover.

Its a really simple answer.Yes. he was an existing person. He is the Son of God.You can find this answer by simply reading the Bible.

Science and history have never been able to disprove His existence, despite claims to the contrary. And once you've experienced His working in your life, you know He exists without any other evidence-and nature itself shouts out the evidences every day.

Real people have a birth and death date. Example;Aristotle 384 BCE- 322 BCE, Socrates 470 BCE- 399 BCE, Plato 427 BCE - 347 BCE, Herod the Great 74BCE - 4 BCE.Jesus on the hand have neither birth or death year. Jesus was not a one hundred percent human being anyway he did not have a biological father he was an immaculate conception he was born from the woman she conceived from God so he was in my view a super being and had the power to do anything on earth that he wanted but chose to be humble and to serve the community he said to Pilate that he would have no power over Jesus if it had not been given him from above

The Bible tells us that Jesus died and is now in heaven. No one can ever prove this. No scientist has ever produced any evidence to support the theory of ghosts (Holy Ghost) or spirits. If he is real, why does he not exist and prove the fact?.

Jesus was a 100% man and 100% God. He was not a theological construct by any means, and He was and still is God in every way. Many people belief many different things about Him, but majority of them are not true. There is only one truth. Read it yourself to find out.

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First answer by ID2160982502. Last edit by Grevillea. Contributor trust: 1559 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 145 [recommend question]