History of Christianity/Origins of Christianity/The Historicity of Jesus of Nazareth

The primary sources for the life of Jesus are the Christian gospels, significantly the Gospel of Mark. Composed around 70 CE, Mark was evidently the first gospel written. The gospels of Matthew and Luke are thought to have been based on Mark as well as an unknown quote source, with the Gospel of John standing in contrast both in terms of content and its later dating (c. 100 CE). Mark contains no virgin birth or post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, as opposed to Matthew and Luke, which also introduce contradictions related to Jesus's birth. It is assumed that prior to Mark's composition, details of Jesus's life were passed on by oral tradition. Non-Christian sources for Jesus's existence are dated later (the earliest c. 93 CE) and provide no original details of substance. Scholars argue that Jesus existed on the basis of his having a following, though only his baptism and death by crucifixion are widely considered to be definite historical events. Some hold that a family as poor as Jesus's would not have been significantly documented. Rome for its part indeed executed thousands by crucifixion, specifically targeting Jews in its 70 CE Siege of Jerusalem (which Jesus allegedly foresaw). Alternative views suggest that Jesus was either largely or entirely mythical; though dismissed by mainstream scholars, these theories have gained traction online. Just as all religions draw from existing beliefs (e.g. Judaism's rewriting of Mesopotamian creation myths, Buddhism's incorporation of Hinduism, and Roman religion's robbery of Greek gods), Christianity provided a renewal of Judaism, declaring the identity of its Messiah—rewording Old Testament passages to fulfill claimed prophesies. A source of inspiration for the story of Jesus (the King of Kings) has been postulated as Julius Caesar (d. 44 BCE), whose deification led to his heir, another Caesar, becoming the first Roman emperor (27 BCE – 14 CE). Adjacent to spiritual teachings, Jesus endorses paying taxes to Rome. It should however be noted, for comparison, that in his book Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament A.N. Sherwin White writes thusly about Tiberius Ceasar (the emperor of Rome and the most powerful man during the time period of the life of Jesus): “The story of [his] reign is known from four sources, the Annals of Tacitus and the biography of Suetonius, written some eighty or ninety years later, the brief contemporary record of Velleius Paterculus, and the third-century of Cassius Dio. These disagree amongst themselves in the wildest possible fashion, both in major matters of political action or motive and in specific details of minor events…But this does not prevent the belief that the material of Tacitus can be used to write a history of Tiberius” (p. 187-188). Furthermore, the Annals of Tacitus one of the very biographical sources of our historical knowledge of Tiberius Caesar also makes reference to Jesus (Book XV, Chapter 44, translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb): "Christus, from whom the name had its origin , suffered extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa..." In the early 4th century CE, the church declared baselessly that Jesus's birthday aligned with the winter solstice. In 525 CE, a Byzantine monk devised the enduring BC/AD dating system, doubtfully implying Jesus to have been born in 1 BCE/CE. The rise of fundamentalism in the United States (starting around the late 19th century) fueled beliefs regarding Jesus's divinity and the Bible's inerrancy. Subsequent secular scholarship has not supported those views.