When I was growing up, (and some suggest that I still am) I went through a phase of loving all those ancient greek myths - Hercules, Medusa, the Titans and all the others that have disappeared like wisps of cloud in my mind. In fact, so long ago was I reading them that it is hard to remember just how old I was, what I was doing at the time and why I was getting into them.
And that pretty much hits myths on the head. They are stories that might have some determinable basis of fact but now, are no longer determinable, if they ever were. They are stories, or characters or events that were invented at some point by some one and we not really sure when or why but it doesn’t really matter because they are made up. And, in the case of legends so much time has passed we can’t know.
And that pretty much hits myths on the head. They are stories that might have some determinable basis of fact but now, are no longer determinable, if they ever were.
So does Christianity fall into this category? Is Jesus just a great big whopping myth? What about if I told you that we can get within 5 years of Jesus’ death and know what the Christians thought about Jesus. Yes, that’s right - according to some hard work that a bunch of historians (not mythologists) have done we can know what Christians thought about Jesus within 5 years of his life and death. And I hope you’ll admit that it would be hard work to get a really good myth going in just 5 years.
So to prove my bold statement of 5 years, let me show you what the earliest Christians thought about Jesus and then I’ll show you how we can know this from historical records.
The method of historians
Sceptical scholars that is scholars, with PhDs and all that, who are not Christian and critical, see certain parts of the Bible as valid and reliable historical documents. That is, they don’t treat the Bible as inspired or the whole set of books as trustworthy but they do treat certain parts of the Bible as valid, reliable critical source documents for history.
Reliable Source Documents
One part of these valid reliable historical sources are the writings of the Apostle Paul. The New Testament has 13 letters written by Paul. Sceptical scholars accept that 6 or 7 of these were written by Paul. Unanimously they accept:
The letter to the Philippians (Philippians)
1st letter to the Thessalonians (1st Thessalonians)
The letter to the Christians in Rome (Romans)
The first and second letter to the Corinthians (1st and 2nd Corinthians)
Finally Paul’s letter to the Galatians. (Galatians)
Scholars treat these as reliable historical documents because Paul is an authoritative source. He has critical mind, he was in the right place at the right time, he knows the other people who were in the right place at the right time and scholars have clearly established who he is.
Using just the writings of Paul in 1 Corinthians and Galatians we can know what the Christians believed about Jesus within 5 years of Jesus’ death. In historical terms this is about as close as you can get.
1 Corinthians provides the content and Galatians provides the critical timeline.
So, what is it that the Christians believed about Jesus within five years of his death - 35 AD?
First, here it is. Then I’ll show you how scholars arrive at the timing for this statement.
“ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
1 Corinthians 15:3-7
In point form:
Jesus Christ died for our sins. ie. He wasn’t an example and he wasn’t a martyr .
Jesus was buried, ie Jesus really did die, not just swooned or played dead.
Jesus came back from the dead 3 days later. He was resurrected.*
Cephas (also called Simon Peter) saw the resurrected Jesus by himself.
All the twelve apostles together saw the resurrected Jesus.
This all happened just as their Scriptures (our Old Testament) laid out.
How we can know the timing of this passage -
the timeline
57 - 58 AD - the Letter
In 57-58 AD the first letter to the Corinthians is written by Paul. This is widely established (See Britannica article here that dates it even earlier.) In chapter 15 Paul lays out, what he taught them when he was in Corinth.
“Now I would remind you, brothers,1 of the gospel I preached to you, which you received” (1 Corinthians 15:1)
He then goes onto layout the gospel with them as above.
At the end of this section in his letter he shows that what he just said is the the bona fide version of the church. “Whether then it was I or they (the other apostles), so we preach and so you believed.” (1 Corinthians 15:11).
In other words Paul is saying, I and the other apostles teach and preach the same thing as what I shared with you above (verses 3 to 7). If you don’t like me and what I say, go talk to apostle Peter or James or any of the others. You’ll get the same answer - this is the Christian understanding of Jesus.
51-52 AD - The Visit to Corinth When Paul taught the Creed
In 51-52 Paul visited Corinth. We know Paul visited Corinth then because of two things. First, the Inscription of Delphi written in 51-52 and it dates Gallio as proconsul of Achaia. Second, Paul was in Corinth at this time according to Acts 18:12. The Jews tried to get him to appear before Gallio.[1] (Again, see the Britannica article to see the scholars position on this.)
When Paul was in Corinth in 51 AD, he taught them what he had received from the apostles. “ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: “ (1 Corinthians 15:3).
This is even more significant when you know that the words received and delivered are technical Rabbinic words for formal teaching and explaining. This was no casual conversation.
35 AD - When Paul was Taught the Creed
The book of Galatians helps with the next bit. From Galatians 1:18, it is very probable that Paul received the words above that he then taught to the Corinthians 15-16 years later [2].
In Paul’s words, “Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.” (Galatians 1:18)
Putting this in context, Paul was converted in 32 AD. Three years later he went to Jerusalem to acquainted with Peter. However, the word acquainted doesn’t quite capture the meaning. It is more like the word interview or gathering eyewitness news. Paul went to interivew Peter. He stayed with him and he also met with James.
Given Paul’s use of the technical word received, this is the most probable time for when Paul got the creed of 1 Corinthians 15:3-7.
And remember the letter of Galatians and 1 Corinthians are accepted by sceptical scholars as being written by Paul and giving us insight into what Christians thought, did and taught during that time.
We also know that Paul was teaching the same thing from 35 AD to 49 AD. In Galatians chapter 2 we discover that 14 years after visiting Jerusalem Paul went back, to Jerusalem in 49 AD and checked with the apostles about the content of his teaching. He got a thumbs up from the leaders, ‘those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.’ (Galatians 2:1-6).
As you can see, Paul in all probability, received the formal teaching in 35AD. How close is 35 AD to the action? Stunningly close. For it is estimated that Jesus died around 30AD or perhaps a touch later.
The passage from 1 Corinthians is most likely a creed of the early Church
However, there is a further dimension here. What Paul received was already a formalised creed before 35 AD. The rhyming structure of the words is the give away here. It indicates it was written to be easy to repeat and memorise in ancient greek. In other words, a creed. So, we are piercing back even before 35 AD.
This is within 5 years of Jesus’ death.
The Myth Idea is knocked on the head
This pretty much knocks the whole myth concept on the head. Paul, when writing to the Corinthians in 57AD, repeats the creed he told them in 51-52AD. This creed was most likely given to him in 35 AD when he went up to Jerusalem the first time.
If we lived at that time, and we heard these words about Jesus we could have easily checked these claims. We could have gone and interviewed the people he refers to in the churches in Corinth, Damascus and Galatia. This kind of fact checking only helped Christianity grow because it wasn’t based on myth but arose from real historical events.
First published with the City Bible Forum, re-written for Risen Blog.
See some of my sources:
You Tube: The Resurrection argument that changed a generation of scholars
http://tinyurl.com/resurrectiondate
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay_Db4RwZ_M)
The short version:
The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus By Gary R Habermas,
The big thick serious version: The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ By Gary R. Habermas
*Sceptical scholars don’t accept Jesus rose from the dead. This is beyond the reach of an historian. But many acknowledge that something profound happened. Something so profound that the disciples went from cautious and even frightened men to bold and world changing evangelists. Not only that, but something happened that gave birth to the Christian Church. The Christian church didn’t exist and then it burst into history with astonishing speed.
[1] See Page 160-162 of St. Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology By Jerome Murphy-O'Connor .
[2] Another historian Paul Barnett posits that Paul may have received this teaching in Damascus, rather than Jerusalem, which would make the timing even earlier than 35 AD. But let’s just stick with 35AD for now.