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| Pitre |
A new book supposedly “proves”
that Jesus really lived, performed miracles and was the divine figure that
modern Christians take him to be. Titled
The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and
Historical Evidence for Christ, the text was written by Dr. Brant Pitre, a
professor of sacred scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana.
He previously wrote Jesus
and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper.
He is also the latest in a long
list of “scholars” who sell their integrity to religious fanatics. To do that, he must ignore hundreds of years
of research and real evidence presented in the Gospels themselves.
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| Papias |
To start with, he claims the four
Gospels were written by Jesus’ disciples.
If so, that would really buttress any of his historical claims. However, the disciples could not have written
those texts. Mark, the oldest, wasn’t
even mentioned until 130 C.E., about 100 years after Jesus died. Then, Papias, an early Christian leader, cited
both Mark and Matthew. From inferences
in the text, Mark had to have been written after the destruction of the Temple
in 70 C.E., when more than 1 million Jews were killed. That’s probably 40 years after Jesus died.
Matthew and Luke both borrowed
extensively from Mark. About 80 percent
of Matthew comes directly from Mark, not the other way around. So, Matthew and Luke had to be even
later. As such, they could not have been
written by a disciple, unless that person was more than 100 years old. No Christian writer mentions any surviving
disciple, an omission that is impossible to imagine.
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| Ignatius |
Like Mark, Matthew is not
mentioned until the end of the 1st century Papias and then by
Ignatius, who also recorded the star of Bethlehem and identified several Jesus
quotes, which appear only in Ignatius' letters and in Matthew. That means that either Ignatius wrote the Gospel
or the anonymous author read the letters and inserted the new material in the
text. Either way, the information became
available long after the disciples lived.
Matthew also separates Christians
and Jews, reflecting a reality that didn’t occur until the end of the first
century. For example, he cites “their
synagogues” (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 10:17; 12:9; 13:54), even though early
Christians worshiped in synagogues.
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| John |
Luke isn’t even mentioned until
140 C.E., and then by Marcion, who would later be declared a heretic. To him, Luke was the only valid Gospel, and
he was referring to a different version than the one used today. Luke also borrows from Josephus, the Jewish
historian of the day. Josephus did not
publish his books on the Roman War with the Jews until 95. Luke had to have been written after that.
John is definitely to be much
later, exhibiting Christian beliefs that only developed after Judaism and
Christianity completely separated.
Then, too, as Pitre certainly
knows: the Gospels don’t agree on much.
Here are some very clear examples:
In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus traveled
about as a preacher for about a year. John has Jesus ministering for two to
three years. Jesus in the first three
books goes to Jerusalem only once; in John, he makes three or four trips. He even has friends in nearby Bethany, which
was located on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem.
In addition, the first three
authors have a different scenario from John for Jesus’ arrest and
crucifixion. For them, the Last Supper
was the first night of Passover. They
insist the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body, met on a holiday to interview
Jesus and then had him handed over to the Romans.
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| Modern view of Jesus' arrest |
In contrast, John has Jesus
arrested the day before Passover. He is also
crucified and buried before Passover. That
way, to John, Jesus represents the lamb traditionally sacrificed prior to the
religious holiday.
The list of such discrepancies is
very long: Mathew and Luke think Jesus was born in Bethlehem in different
years; Mark and John do not. John thinks
Jesus was 50; the other three believe he was about 30; and so on.
None of that counters Christian
belief in the divinity of Jesus. Belief
doesn’t require a single fact. At the
same time, however, historical research has proven conclusively that the Gospel
texts disagree and that they do not reflect actual history. In fact, as the Roman Catholic Church admits,
the texts contain “the belief” of the authors and nothing more.
When an author tries to build a book
on that kind of shifting sand, he is writing not to “prove” anything, but for
two more compelling reasons: to buttress his own faith and to make money.
The latter incentive always
proves the most powerful in the world of Christian
theology, where believers easily invest gobs of money in any absurdity,
Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history with an occasional foray into American culture. He also speaks at
various religious organizations throughout Florida. He holds an ABD in
American Studies from Case Western Reserve University and an M.A. in
communication from Kent State University. You can reach him at
wplazarus@aol.com.
He
is the author of the famed novel The Unauthorized Biography
of Nostradamus as well as The Last Testament of Simon Peter;
The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information;
Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Comparative
Religion for Dummies. His books are available on
Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers. He can also be
followed on Twitter.
In
addition, you can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1
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