The Jesus of History | GV Ayers

Now there we are, the Jesus of history like to talk about this

for a little while here and how we present this lends itself to

using a PowerPoint here, which is that's a reason, obviously a

reason I use it here. But, you know, evidence for

Jesus outside the Bible is what we're talking about.

And the the thing we're obviously the thing was as

Christians were interested in is we believe in the Lord, but and

we have faith in him. We have faith in what the Bible

says about him is true. But there's these people in the

world here that say, yeah, this is a bit of fiction that you

have and that you're believing, putting your faith in.

And, you know, if people are, if he's a person of history, there

should be evidence for him outside of the book that you're

looking at here. And although the Bible is the

primary, is a primary source of, of evidence for the existence

and for the life of Jesus, I'd like to notice that there is

more than just what is in the Bible.

To start off. You know, Carl said he believes

in, he believes in George Washington because of history.

Well, I'm going to talk about the 16th president here, Abraham

Lincoln. We believe in him and we

understand that he's a character of history.

We understand facts, certain facts about him, about his life,

that he existed, that he lived, that he was president, and that

these certain things happen now about him and about people.

Sometimes there's things that are said about them that did not

happen, such as such as there was a movie made called Abraham

Lincoln Vampire Hunter. And so here you have a basis of

an actual person, true person, but then fictional things about

them. And sometimes the idea with

Jesus is, yes, he existed, but what did he do?

What did he do? What's the validity, What's the

truth about what he was? And so we understand there's a

couple of different levels of looking at a true character from

history and then looking at what he is, what he did and the, the,

the things that he, the, the things that history says that he

did. Now we're not going to notice

about Jesus, about him being a vampire hunter or about him

being about the things that he did.

That's actually a talk for another time and perhaps many

talks for other times there. But he was not going to rest

assured. There's no claim that he was a

vampire hunter by any means here.

But you understand 2 levels of talking about a real person and

then fictionalized accounts of that real person.

Now I want to look at another level here, and that is Spider

Man. There's nobody that says that

Spider Man is an actual character.

I don't think so. My some of my grandkids may.

I'm not sure. But anyway, there's nobody.

It's a fictional character. He's a fictional character.

There's no basis in history. There's a basis in fiction is

what it is. And so you see different levels

here, A true character, a true character and questionable

things about how he lived. And then the third level here is

a fictional character here. So what we're concerned with

this afternoon, we're concerned with talking about Jesus, on

which category he is really about this category or that

category. We're not talking about this

category at all here this afternoon.

We're talking about whether he is a true character of history

or whether he is not, because actually the Bible is a book

that talks about things that took place within space and

time. They had happened in a certain

place or in certain places that are are real places.

They're not fictional accounts. They're not fictional places.

And then at certain specific times it happened.

So these are actual events of history that are talked about in

the Bible. That is our claim as Christians.

And so if Jesus is a work of fiction, if the story of Jesus

is a work of fiction, then nothing we do here matters.

It really doesn't matter. We may as well really, even

though we like each other, even though we appreciate each other.

But if Jesus is a work of fiction, we may as pack it in

and go home and not show up anymore.

Because what we're doing and what we're basing our life on

and what we're basing the basing our faith in is simply a matter

of fiction. There's no use for it really in

that sense there. Here's what the Bible says.

First Corinthians 15, verses 14 through 17.

1 Corinthians 15:14–17

Yes, I have that here. Christ has not been raised.

Then you're preaching. Then our preaching is vain.

Your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are found to be

liars, false witnesses of God, because we testified against God

that he raised Christ, who he did not raise.

If in fact the dead are not raised, and if Christ has not

been raised, your faith is worthless.

You're still in your sins. In other words, if it's fiction

about the story of Christ as told in Scripture, then it's a

bunch of baloney what we're doing here really to pull it

down here. What Peter says but or what Paul

says here. But on the other hand, if Jesus

is true and if the things the Bible says about Jesus is true,

then nothing else matters. Then nothing else matters except

for what it says here. First John chapter 1 verses one

1 John 1 · chapter mention

through 3. We looked at this in the this

morning. What was from the beginning

which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've

looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of

life. The life was manifested.

We have seen and testified and proclaimed to you the eternal

life which was with the Father and was manifested to us that we

that what we have seen and heard we proclaimed to you so that you

may have fellowship with us. In other words, we told you

about this these things that we actually saw that we experienced

that we saw we were truly eyewitnesses of this.

We we revealed that to you. We testified to you and now you

can share in our knowledge and in our understanding with us as

well so that you can have fellowship with us in this so

testimony about Jesus. Second Peter one verse 16.

We did not follow cleverly devised tales.

We made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus

Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

These were not sometimes how people talk about being witness,

witnesses, witnesses of Christ. We don't have witnesses of

Christ today. They were witnesses here.

They were eyewitnesses. It's what the Bible talks about

there. We what we have today, we may

have witnesses of what we have experienced, but we have not

seen Jesus. They had seen Jesus.

They were first hand witnesses. They were not hearsay witnesses.

They were actual witnesses of the things that they talked

about here in this is what Peter testifies here in second Peter

one and verse 16 again Acts chapter 10 and verse 39, a very

Acts 10 · chapter mention

similar passage. Peter himself is speaking again

and he says this. We are witnesses of everything

that Jesus did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They killed him, hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from

the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.

He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom

God had already chosen by us, who ate and drank with him after

he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the

people and testify that he is the one that God has appointed

to judge the living and the dead.

This is what Peter said to Cornelius and his household

there, there in Acts the 10th chapter.

So notice he says we are witnesses.

We saw him, we ate with him, we drank with him after he rose

from the dead. And we know that these things

happened here. So what does the Bible say

related to Jesus? Now, we're not going to put

everything in here because that's just simply not

reasonable here. But often times in making a case

and making a court case or making a case from an

evidentiary case, as far as as far as an investigation goes,

often times you want to make a profile of the one that you're

investigating that you're looking at and you want to look

at the evidence and see what the evidence says and the put the

profile together here. Now I, you know, I've never been

a law enforcement person. I have had investigative

training in investigating cemeteries and funeral homes.

I have had training on that and I know a little bit about that.

I you know a lot of things I don't know, but anyway, but an

investigator here in this when they're wanting to know

information about this, they're going to my Alex and Irene and

Cindy and Charlie Cat back there.

I heard y'all were coming. I just didn't see y'all here

until just now. Welcome, welcome dear people,

dear people from up Porterville now.

So anyway, So what does the Bible testimony about Jesus?

We want to put together a profile of him from selected

passages in Scripture. We're not going to have

everything about him, but we're going to look at some things and

then we're going to look at some things that are said as far as

in historical documents about related to this here.

Just following and we'll go along here.

So Bible testimony about Jesus #1 Matthew 2, verse one.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem and Judea in the days of Herod the

King. Now this is going to go pretty

quick here, so just hang on here.

Hang on and you'll see it here again.

During the reign of Tiberius, Luke 3 verse one says that's

one. He was born during that time.

Matthew one, verse 23 Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in

their birth to the Son. They shall name him Emmanuel,

which being translated is God with us.

Matthew 13 verse 55. Is this not the Carpenter son

Matthew 13:55

they said at that time, Luke 13 and three, No, I tell you, but

unless you repeat, you will all perish.

This is Jesus said to the people of his day there Matthew 9

Matthew 9, verse 9 as Jesus went on from there, he saw a man

Matthew 9:9

called Matthew sitting in the tax collector's office.

He said, follow me and he got up and he followed him there.

Galatians 3 verse 26 for you are all sons and daughters of God

Galatians 3:26

through faith in Christ Jesus. That's what Paul says there.

Matthew our Mark 6 verse two. He began to each in the

synagogue and and the many listeners were astonished saying

Where did this man learn these things and what is the wisdom

that he has given to him and such miracles as as these

performed by his hands there the testimony Mark the 6th chapter

again John 8 verse 24 Unless you believe that I am he, you will

John 8:24

die in your sins. Jesus says on that occasion.

Mark the 2nd chapter verse 10. He says, but so that you may

know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive

sins. He says to the paralyzed man, I

say to you, go get up, pick up your pallet and go home.

John the 14th chapter verse 29. Now I have told you before it

happens, so that when it happens you may believe.

Matthew 22 verse 15. Then the Pharisees went and

Matthew 22:15

plotted together how they might trap him in what he said.

Mark the 3rd chapter verse 19. Judas Iscariot also, who also

betrayed him. A reference here to one of his

disciples, one of the apostles there at that time.

Again John the 19th chapter verses 14 and 16.

That He was crucified on the ether eve of the Passover is

what it testifies to. There He was crucified by

Pilate. John 19 verses 15 and 16.

John 19:15

Matthew 27 verse 45. Now from the 6th hour darkness

Matthew 27:45

fell upon the land, until the 9th hour.

Matthew 27 verse 51. And behold, the veil of the

Matthew 27:51

temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook,

and the rocks were split. Luke 24 verses one through 3.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they come,

and they were come to the tomb, breeding spices which they had

prepared, And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

And when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord

Jesus. John 20, verse 20.

John 20:20

And when he said this, he showed them both his hands and his

side. The disciples then rejoiced when

they saw the Lord in Acts 10, verses 39 through 42.

Acts 10:39–42

We read a portion of this a little earlier.

We are witnesses of all these things that He did, both in the

country of the Jews, in Jerusalem.

They also put Him to death, hanging Him on a cross.

God raised Him up on the third day, and granted that He might

be, that He be revealed not to all the people, but to witnesses

whom He had chosen beforehand, who had been chosen beforehand

by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose

from the dead. And He ordered us to preach to

the people, and to testify solemnly that this is the one

who has been appointed by God to judge the living and the dead.

Again. Titus 2, verses 11 and 12.

Titus 2:11

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to

all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly

desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the

present age. Acts 2, verse 42.

Acts 2:42

They continue devoting themselves to the apostles

teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to

prayer. And so here is our profile that

we have put together concerning Jesus.

Born in Judea during the reign Tiberius season.

Born of a virgin carpenter's son.

Taught repentance, taught brothers, taught that their

brothers and sisters through faith wise.

He had wise new teachings and miraculous powers.

He claimed to be the Messiah and God.

He predicted the future. Persecuted by the Jews, betrayed

by Judas Iscariot, crucified on Passover Eve, crucified under

Pontius Pilate's authority. The sky grew dark at his

crucifixion Earthquake. There was an earthquake at his

crucifixion. The tomb was empty.

He appeared to his disciples and showed his wounds.

His disciples claimed he was resurrected.

The disciples claimed he had ascended.

Disciples followed a high moral code.

In this he had a disciple named Matthew.

Disciples were persecuted for their faith and the disciples

met to worship him. So this is a testimony.

This is a profile we have simply drawn from scripture here in of

Jesus. Now what if we erased the Bible?

What if it wasn't there? What would the pro, What would a

profile be that we could draw from historical documents, non

biblical writings, secular writings about him, testimony

related to Jesus. If it was gone, the Bible

testimonies rather than Jesus, what could there be?

So it's all been erased. It's no longer there.

So what could it be? Well, there is evidence for

Jesus outside the Bible. And the interesting thing about

evidence for Jesus outside the Bible being said, well,

Christians could write about him, you know, outside the Bible

and say these things. And people, people who are

members of the faith and believers in Jesus throughout

history could write about him and all this stuff.

That's not what we're talking about here.

We're talking about people who did not like him, people who are

hostile to Jesus. They were not Christians.

They were not at all. They were not at all.

Many of most of these were not at all amicable to the Christian

faith. They were against Christ and

against the Christianity and, and all of these things.

So this is what we want to look at here on this.

And so because oftentimes in a, in a, in a trial, they can take

somebody who's on trial and they can, they can interview them and

they'll tell their story there. But then they take somebody who

may be their enemy, who may be against them in the trial and

they're interview that person too.

And you know what, the person who is opposed to the to the

opponent in the trial, you know what the some of the things they

say will corroborate and verify the things what they testified

about. This is what we have here in

this. These are hostile witnesses.

These are hostile witnesses that we are building this case or

building a case for evidence of Jesus outside the Bible.

And so here we have our first category is hostile non biblical

Pagan accounts. These are not Bible based.

They are not Jews, they are not Christians.

These are pagans. These are people who were not at

all affiliated, not at all affiliated with the faith in any

ways, not even the Hebrew faith there Thallus in 52 AD Thallus

thallus was this is generally he was hostile, generally hostile

to Christianity and many writers denied the miraculous name of

nature of Jesus and the events of his life.

And so here Thalis is perhaps the earliest secular scholar

writer to mention Jesus. He is so ancient that his

writings don't even exist anymore.

So how do we know they decide anything about it?

Because somebody quoted him is why a man by the name of Julis

Africanus around 221 AD he writes and he quotes Thalis who

had tried to explain away the darkness that Jesus crucifixion.

Here's what he said here's what he said Thalis wrote.

He said on the whole on the whole world they're oppressed

the most fearful darkness and the rocks were rent by an

earthquake in many places in Judea and other districts were

thrown down this darkness. Thalis in the third book of his

history calls as appears to be without reason and eclipse of

the Son. So Julius Africanus said said

this. And so from Phallus's record

recorded by Julius Africanus, we understand Jesus lived, Jesus

lived. Notice Jesus lived, He was

crucified. There was an earthquake in

darkness at the point of his crucifixion.

So he was opposed to Jesus. But from his testimony, we can

understand, we can pull out these things from what he said

there. Another one, Tacitus in 56 to

120 AD Cornelius Tacitus, known for his analysis and examination

of historical documents. It was among the most trusted of

ancient historians. He was a senator under Emperor

Vespatian and also Pro Council of Asia.

In Tacitus annals in 1116 AD, he describes Emperor Nero's

response to the great fire in Rome and Nero's claimed claim

and efforts to blame it on the Christian.

Consequently, he wrote consequently to get rid of the

report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted most exile

exquisite tortures. Oh, Salas, let's let's come on.

Come on there, Testus. OK, as you said, as you said, as

Wade said, it may not work. So we're we're we're we're not

having that work anymore. OK, we're not using that.

I'll just use the arrows here and go there.

So consequently, in order to get rid of the report, Neil fasten

the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class

hated by for their ambition abominations called Christians

by the populace. Christus, as Christ, from whom

the name had its origin, suffer the extreme penalty during the

reign of Tiberius, at the hands of one of our procurators,

Pontius Pilate. And a most mischievous

superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out.

Not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in

Rome were all things hideous and shameful from every part of the

world. And their center.

And find their center and become popular.

So what can we understand from Tacitus testimony?

That Christus lived in Judea. Christ, if you will, lived in

Judea. He was crucified under Pontius

Pilate. His followers are persecuted for

their faith in Christ, and they were referred to as Christians

there by the populace. Another one, Merabar Sapion in

8070, wrote in 8070, Merabar Sapion.

Sometime after 8070, a Syrian philosopher, Merabar Sapion,

wrote to encourage his son, and he compared the life and and

persecution of Jesus with other philosophers who are persecuted

for their teachings and for their thought.

And so he was trying to encourage his son.

In that he demonstrates that Jesus is known to be a real

person and with this kind of influence and and with this kind

of influence is important an important person because he's

referring to him to encourage his son to endure the problems

that he was dealing with. He refers here in this writing

to Jesus as the wise king. What benefit?

Here's what he said. What benefit did the Athenians

obtain by putting Socrates to death?

Famine and plague came upon them as judgement for their crime.

Or the people of Samos for burning Pythagoras in in one

moment their country was covered with sand.

Or the Jews by murdering their wise king after their Kingdom

was abolished. God rightly avenged these men.

The wise king lived on in the teachings he enacted.

And so this would be after basically, basically after the

destruction of Jerusalem when he wrote this and he's telling his

son here, encouraging him and continuing on with even though

he has opposition under what he is believing and what he is

practicing here. So Meribahn Sapien said that

Jesus was a wise, influential man.

He died for his beliefs. The Jewish leaders were

responsible for his death and Jewish followers, Jesus

followers adopted his beliefs and lived their lives

accordingly. According to Meribahn Sapien

Felgian, another one Felgian was similar to Thalus.

Julus Africanus also mentions a historian, Fallegian who wrote a

chronicle of history around 140 AD.

Fallegian's history also mentions the darkness

surrounding the the crucifixion. Allegian records that in the

time of Tiberius Caesar at full moon there was a full eclipse of

the sun from the 6th to the 9th hour.

And interesting thing is that there's during the Passover,

during the Passover, there's a full moon out there.

And so you could not have an eclipse of the sun during the

time of full moon simply because they're on the wrong side of

the, you know, the sun and the moon are on the wrong side of

the Earth for that to happen there.

So the darkness at the time of the crucifixion was not, was not

a, was not a, what do you call those?

Yeah, I never mind. It was it wasn't where the where

the sun's covered up by the moon.

Sometimes I can't, I can't remember my words.

Forlegion also is mentioned by Origin.

Now Origin was a sympathizer to Christianity.

He was one who believed in Christ.

But he wrote about what Forlegion wrote.

Here's what he said. Now Forlegion in the 13th and

14th, in the 14th book, I think of his chronicles not only

ascribed to Jesus a knowledge of future events, but he also

testified that the result corresponded to his predictions.

In other words, Jesus predicted new future events and predicted

it and it happened. And with regard to the eclipse,

eclipse, that's the word I was trying to find with regard to

the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign

Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great

earthquakes which then took place.

Then again, he says Jesus while alive was of no assistance to

himself. In other words, he didn't defend

himself, but that he arose after death and exhibit the marks of

his punishment and showed how his hands had been pierced by

nails. And this was Origin and origin

was writing against the false teachings of Celsius.

There is what I was doing. So here we have from this that

Jesus accurately predicted the future.

He was crucified during Tiberius Caesar's reign.

He was resurrected and he showed his wounds to his disciples

there after that Pliny the younger 61 to 113 AD they he

said they the Christians now Pliny the younger a little bit

about him. Pliny the Younger, he is a non.

He was Blimey. The Younger wrote this in a

letter to the Emperor Trajan, and he describes the lifestyle

of Christians as what he is doing here.

He says they, the Christians, were in the habit of meeting on

a certain fixed day before it was light, and when they sang in

alternate verses a hymn to Christ as to a God, and bound

themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never

to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery.

Never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be

called upon to deliver it, to deliver it up.

After which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble

to partake of food, the food of an ordinary and innocent and

innocent kind. So plenty of the younger shows

that Christians believe Jesus was God.

Christians upheld a high moral code, and these earlier

followers met regularly to worship Jesus.

Now they have some other things in there which they misdescribe

about the the Lord and about the Christians.

But they do describe some elements that are simply

verified, verified Scriptures. In this Suetonius, about 69 to

140 AD. He was a Roman historian and

analyst of the imperial house under Emperor Hadrian.

He describes the treatment of Christians under Emperor

Claudius about the time 41 to 51 AD there.

Here's what he writes. Because the Jews at Rome,

because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the

instigation of Christus, that is Christ, he, Claudius, expelled

them from the city and from the city from Rome.

And that's referred to in in the book of Acts, if I'm not

mistaken there on that he goes further to say about Nero.

When Nero was emperor, Nero inflicted punishment on the

Christians, a sect given to a new and mischievous religious

belief as what Cetonius said. And so we can understand from

Cetonius that Christians were committed to their belief that

Jesus was God and withstood the torment and punishment of the

Romans. Jesus followers died

courageously for what they knew to be true.

So next we save we see Lucian of Salmon Salma Samosada 1:15 to

200 AD. Lucian was a Greek satirist and

he wrote very sarcastically about Christ and about

Christians. But in the process, this is a

this is an ancient comedian, basically what it was.

And but in the process, he affirmed that they were true.

He actually affirmed their their, their reality that they

were real people and never referred to them as fictional

characters. Here's what he writes.

The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day, the

distinguished personage who introduced them to their novel

rights and was crucified on that account.

You see, these misguided creatures start with the general

conviction that they are immortal for all time, which

explains the contempt of death and voluntary self devotion

which are so common among them. And then it was impressed on

them by their original lawgiver, that they are all brothers from

from the moment they are they are converted, and deny the gods

of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after

his laws. All this they take quite on

faith, with the result that they despise our worldly goods alike,

regarding them merely as common property.

And so we understand from this what we can see is that we can

add to our description of Jesus that he taught about repentance

and about the family of God. These teachings were quickly

adopted by Jesus followers and exhibited all all around the

world to to all the world around them.

There the next one is 1 called Celsius.

And Celsius was very antagonistic to the claims of

the gospel. But his criticism unknowingly

affirms and reinforces the biblical author's testimony.

He writes extensively and alludes to at least 80 different

biblical quotes in his writings, confirming their early

appearance in history. And in addition, he admits the

miracles of Jesus were generally believed by the people.

And in the early 2nd century there.

Here's what he wrote. Jesus had come from a village,

Excuse me, I come from a village in Judea, and was the son of a

poor Jewish Jewish who has gained her living by the work of

her own hands. His mother had been turned out

of doors by her husband, who was a Carpenter by trade, on being

convicted of adultery with a soul, a soldier named Pantheria.

And now this was, this was something that was circulated

among the Jews apparently at that time.

And Celsius picked up on it there in his writings there.

And being thus driven away by her husband and wondering about

in disgrace, she gave birth to Jesus, a illegitimate child.

We'll just put it that way. Jesus, on account of his

poverty, was hired out to go to Egypt.

While he was acquired certain magical powers.

While he was there, he acquired certain magical powers which

Egyptians pride themselves in possessing, possessing.

He returned home highly elated at possessing these powers and

on the strength of them gave himself out to be a God.

Now this is someone who is antagonistic to the faith, his

interpretation of these things about Jesus sin.

So we understand from this that it was claimed that Jesus was

born to a virgin and he recognized that claim.

Celsius, an opponent even recognizes that claim.

His father was a Carpenter, he had unusual powers that is

magical powers and he claimed to be God hearing this and so those

were non Jewish. Those were pagans.

Now let's talk about some of the things just a few things here

that hostile non biblical Jewish accounts.

These are Jewish people who are writing about Jesus mentions the

things of Jesus here in their writings.

Now Josephus is probably the most popular one that we're that

we are aware of Josephus Josephus about in 37 to 101 AD

about his writings there he wrote it writes in more detail

than any other non biblical historian.

Josephus writes about Jesus and his antiquities of the Jews.

He was born just four years after the crucifixion of Jesus.

He was a consultant for Jewish rabbis at an early age, and he

became a Galilean military commander at the age of 16.

So he was a he was a prodigy. He was an eyewitness to much of

what he recorded in the 1st century.

Under the rule of the Roman emperor Vespatian, Josephus was

allowed to write a history of the Jews.

And this history includes at least three passages about

Christians, One which he describes the death of John the

Baptist, one which he mentions the execution of James, which to

whom he describes as the brother of Jesus the Christ.

That's execution we find in Acts 12 is when that happens.

There in a final passage which describes Jesus as a wise man

and the Messiah, There's a lot of controversy.

There's some legitimate controversy about the writing of

Josephus because the first discoveries of his writings are

late enough to have been rewritten by Christians who were

accused of making additions to the text and doctoring it up

there. So this is a actually a pretty

conservative, conservative reconstruction, stripped of some

of the scholarly reconstructions that were done there in

Christian embellishment. Now, here's what Josephus

writes. Now, around this time Live

Jesus, a wise man, for he was a worker of amazing deeds and was

a teacher of people who gladly accepted the truth.

He won over both many Jews and many Greeks.

Pilate, when he heard him accused by the leading men among

us, condemned him to the cross. But those who had first loved

him did not cease doing so. To this day, the tribe of

Christians named after him has not disappeared.

And so this is what this is what he said.

And so we can understand from him that Jesus lived in

Palestine. He was a wise man and he was a

teacher. He worked among, he worked

amazing deeds. He was accused by the Jews, He

was crucified under Pilot and he had followers who were called

Christians who who strongly believed in him and followed

after him. Now the Jewish Talmud from 400

to 700 AD wrote about Jesus many times.

While the earliest Talmudic writings of Jewish rabbis

appeared in the 5th century, the tradition of those rabbinic

authors indicates that they were faithfully transmitting

teachings from earlier from earlier periods.

And the scholars believe that there are a number of Talmudic

writings referring to Jesus, and many of these writings are said

to use code words to describe Jesus, such as called him balaam

or benstata, which means a certain one.

But of our for our purposes, we'll be conservative and limit

our examination to the passages referring to Jesus in a more

direct way. And so I want to go to these

notes rather than those notes because those notes contain some

things that aren't in there. And we don't want to get you off

track here. Here's what the Jewish Talmuds

writing Talmudic writing said Jesus practice magic and LED

Israel astray is what was said. Rabbi Hasda said that Rabbi

Jeremiah Barabba said what is that which is written No evil

will befall you, nor shall any plague come upon your house.

Psalm 91 verse 10, No evil will befall you means that evil

Psalms 91:10

dreams and evil thoughts will not tempt you, nor shall any

plague come near your house means that you will not have a

son or a disciple who burns his food like Jesus of Nazareth.

So it speaks concerning Jesus and that all rabbis again

another writing. Our rabbis have taught that

Jesus had five disciples, Matthai, Matthew, Nakai, Nazer,

Brunei and Toda. Now I don't know who those other

four are, would not know that. But here's further what the

Taimitic writing says. It was taught on the day before

the Passover, they hang Jesus. A herald went before him for 40

days proclaiming he will be stoned because he practiced

magic and enticed Israel to go astray.

Let anyone who knows anything in his favor come forward and plead

for him. But nothing was found in his

favor, and they hanged him on the day before the Passover.

And So what we can understand from this, what we can glean

from this relative to the teaching of Scripture is that

Jesus had supernatural powers. He led the Jews astray away from

their beliefs. He had disciples who were

martyred for their faith, one named Matthew Mattathai and was

executed on the day before the Passover.

Then there's the Toledet Yeshua, which there's some extensive

writings on this. This is actually, this comes a

bit later there. Toledet Yeshua is a medieval

Jewish retelling of the life of Jesus.

It was completely anti Christian.

What they want to do is they want to tell the life of Jesus,

but interpret it differently, interpret it differently,

basically is what there. And here's a couple of selected

things from what they wrote about 1000.

A year after that, on the eve of the Passover, Yeshu, that's

Jesus accompanied by his disciples came to Jerusalem

riding on a donkey. Many bowed down before him.

He entered the temple with his 310 followers where that number

came from, one of them, Judah Iscariot.

Judas Iscariot apprised the sages that Yeshua was to be

found in the temple, that his disciples had taken a vow by the

10 commandments not to reveal his identity, but that He would

point him out by bowing to Him. You know, get some of the

stories of the gospel a little, a little misconstrued here.

So it was done and Yeshua was seized.

Yeshua was put to death in the sixth hour on the eve of the

Passover and of the Sabbath. Again writings.

On the first day of the week His bold followers came to Queen

Helene to report that he who was slain was truly the Messiah and

that He was not in His grave. He had ascended to heaven as as

He prophesied. So here we find from this from

these writings, even at a later date, the non biblical writings

is that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah.

He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

He was betrayed by a man named Judas Iscariot, Judas Escarito

and had followed had followers who claimed he was resurrected

and ascended and leaving an empty tomb.

So these are some things that we see about about there.

So if there were no testimony about Jesus, we could constrict

from writings hostile to Jesus. These things.

From Thallus that Jesus lived and was crucified.

From Tacitus he was called the Christ and followers are

Christians. They were executed under he was

executed under Barsapian that he was a wise king.

Phlegian that he predicted the future that Jewish and Jesus

rose after death. Pliny the younger followers

thought that he was God. Setonius Jesus was a real man.

Call and call the cry Christ and and caused Jewish Jewish

disturbance. Celsius allegedly born to

virgin. His father was a Carpenter, had

miraculous powers. Josephus, he was a wise man.

His followers reported reported the resurrection and then the

Talmud said that he was executed the day before the Passover and

had magical powers. These are some testimony outside

the Bible about Jesus. Now let's look here, Bible

testimony versus hostile testimony.

This is the profile that we made earlier about Jesus born in

Judea, Palestine. Oh, the hostile testimony says

that too. During the reign of Tiberius.

Yes, the hostile testimony says that.

Born to a virgin. Yes, verified Carpenter's son.

Taught repentance, taught brothers and sisters through

faith, taught wise and new teachings.

Miraculous powers. Claimed to be the Messiah and

God predicted the future. Persecuted by the Jews, betrayed

by Judas Iscariot. Crucifer on Passover eve,

crucified under Pontius Pilate's authorities.

Sky was dark. A crucifixion earthquake at

crucifixion. Tomb was empty.

Appeared to his disciples, Showed his wounds to his

disciples. Disciples claimed he was

resurrected. Disciples claimed he ascended.

Disciples followed a high moral code.

They say he had a disciple named Matthew.

He had a disciples. They, his disciples were

persecuted for their faith. Disciples met to worship him.

So we see that not only in Scripture, but we see that

verified. By writings even that were

opposed to Jesus, opposed to the faith.

So here you have the testimony of hostile witnesses that verify

what the testimony of the gospel writers say.

And So what do we see here? We see here a character from

history. I think we verify the

historicity, the truth of Jesus that he was indeed a true

character from history. Haven't said anything about what

he did, haven't said anything about what he did really there

some of the teachings, but what we have shown that he was not he

was not a made-up character like Spider Man there.

And that's really my lesson. It needed a little PowerPoint

because then it works a little better to throw it out there.

Now, I think Wade wrote all of that down as we did it there.

But no, actually leave it here on this and you can have it in

that sense here. We want to extend the Lord's

invitation. Thank you all for your good

attention here this afternoon while I went through this, went

through some of it rapidly, but just understand, understand this

to understand this is not all that there is.

There is more. There is more than this.

The Jews even in their Talmudic writings, the Talmudic writings,

they even confirm and refer to the fact that that Isaiah

foretold of Jesus. And that's what they say in some

of their some of their writings. They're not exactly their best

interests, but obviously it verifies what the truth is and

what we understand from Scripture to be the truth.

And so there's more that can be said, but this is enough for

today. Here on this, we want to extend

the Lord's invitation. If there are those who need to

obey the gospel or those who need to return to the Lord,

won't you come forward and we'll help you as we can while we

stand the same?