Historical Plausibility of an Uncrucified Jesus of Nazareth

May 18, 2024

Blogging Theology: Dr. Alia Thai's Lecture

Introduction

  • Host: Blogging Theology
  • Guest: Dr. Alia Thai, Scholar of Biblical Hermeneutics, specializing in Sacred Languages, Comparative Theology, and Comparative Literature, from Zetuna College
  • Topic: Establishing the historical plausibility of an uncrucified Jesus of Nazareth
  • Common Disputes: Christian gospels narrate Jesus's crucifixion by the Romans, the Quran disputes these accounts

Establishing History

  • Method: Modern historians establish what most probably happened based on evidence
  • Determining Factors:
    • Multiple independent attestation
    • Early sources
    • Criterion of embarrassment
    • Social coherence

Jesus's Crucifixion Analysis

Historiography Perspective

  1. Bart Ehrman’s Approach: Focus on plausibility based on historical evidence

    • Secular historians often don’t consider supernatural explanations

  2. Case Examples:

    • Barack Obama’s Election: Highly probable sensory evidence
    • JFK Assassination: Initially believed Oswald acted alone, later evidence suggests it’s plausible he didn’t act alone
    • Constantine's Conversion to Christianity: Evidence becomes hazier the further back in time we go

Common Historical Claims On Crucifixion

  1. Jesus’s Crucifixion is believed to have happened around 31-33 CE

    • Narratives: Found in Gospels and several Epistles
    • Embarrassment: Early followers wouldn’t make up a crucified Messiah
    • Roman Practice: Crucifixion of thousands in Palestine makes Jesus’s crucifixion contextually coherent

  2. Post-Crucifixion Leadership: James became leader of Nazarenes until 62 CE

Critical Examination of Crucifixion Evidence

  1. Mark’s Gospel: Pilate marveled at Jesus's quick death, Joseph took his body, burial in an expensive tomb

    • Highly disputable based on the historical practices and capabilities

  2. Quranic Perspective: Suggests differences and conjecture about the crucifixion among early believers

    • Verse 4:157 indicates uncertainty and dispute

The Plausibility of Jesus’s Unequalled End

Key Points of The Presentation

  1. Early Believers’ Disagreement: Denying crucifixion is corroborated by anomalies in early scripture and the lack of eyewitness claims in Pauline epistles and gospels

  2. Aligning Historiography with Quran: Muslims believe the Quranic account corrected the historical record

Comparing Ancient Texts: Gospels vs. Q

  1. Q (Sayings Gospel): No mention of crucifixion or resurrection

    • Early source, deemed representative of pre-Pauline Jewish-Christian tradition

  2. Gospels’ Passion Narratives: Compiled later, lack historical plausibility in several key aspects

Fiction Towards Historical Narratives

  1. Criteria of Inclusion and Embellishment:
    • Garden Scene: Borrowed from Homer’s Odyssey (Gethsemane moment inspired by Odysseus’s inland isolation and prayer)
    • Naked Young Man: Overlap with Homer’s characterization of Elpenor
    • Judas Iscariot: Potentially derived from misinterpretation of