1) They do not really know what they are talking about.
2) They know what they are talking about and are being intentionally deceptive.
Either way, their case for skepticism of the historical facts cannot stand on a firm foundation.
Watch, think, and read what the historians and New Testament scholars experts have to say on the subject.
So he's probably right on the trivial issues he talks about in the first few minutes.
ReplyDeleteThen he quotes this: "Jesus's existence has not been historically established. No contemporary documentation of the event, no archaeological proof, nothing certain exists today ... We must leave it to lovers of impossible debates to decide on the question of Jesus's existence.". I don't see what the problem with this is; it's true that no contemporary documentation exists, and there is no archaeological proof. The evidence for Jesus's existence is in every way substantially weaker than it is for other historical figures.
He then tries to say there are no historians who question Jesus's existence, but he's wrong. For example:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Price
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Carrier
He further undermines his own point by arguing for Jesus's existence using only statements of opinion and arguments of authority, which we all know are extremely weak.
And it's very telling that he uses more than half of the video arguing for a point that is largely irrelevant. It's like someone arguing for the truth of the movie "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" with nothing more than the fact that it's a consensus that Abraham Lincoln was a real person.
Also, allow me to use his argument against him (if they're wrong about trivial things, how can we trust them about serious things?). I'll ignore the fact that we *don't* actually "trust" them; we assess what they say based on the evidence. But:
MAT 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
LUK 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.
If the Bible can't even get trivial claims about Jesus right, how can anyone trust it about serious claims about him? And the situation is even more dire, what with the lack of external evidence.
Bob, on your point about the external evidence for Jesus Christ, Lee Strobel's "The Case For Christ" is excellent. He show how even if the Bible didn't exist, there is a compelling historical narrative of Jesus in the extra-biblical texts. It's a worthy read!
DeleteJared, thanks for the video!
Evan
Evan: can you list some of the evidence here? I don't believe you.
ReplyDelete