Evidence That Demands a Verdict

The reality is that every single author who mentions Jesus—pagan, Christian, or Jewish—was fully convinced that he at least lived. Even the enemies of the Jesus movement thought so; among their many slurs against the religion, his nonexistence is never one of them. . . . Jesus certainly existed

While no archaeological evidence clearly points us to proof that Jesus existed, significant evidence supports cities and people described in the Bible. Therefore, one should give weight to the Bible’s claim that Jesus actually existed (not to mention its claims about what he did). As archaeology continues to support the Bible in other ways, it lends credence to a belief in the historical existence of Jesus Christ.

Every major city mentioned in the Gospels and Acts has been excavated; so have several villages. We have recovered a number of amazing inscriptions, including one that mentions Pilate, the Roman authority who condemned Jesus to the cross, and another one inscribed on a burial box that may be the name of the Jewish high priest Caiaphas, who interviewed Jesus. (Evans, JHW, 141)

If archaeologists and historians could not find correlation between archaeology and the biblical text, there would be no such thing as “biblical archaeology.” But of course they do find such correlation, and lots of it

Biblical scholars ultimately no longer have the presumed luxury of avoiding data from the times and places in which the biblical records took shape and were edited. For a New Testament scholar to disavow the importance of archaeology for New Testament studies, including Jesus research, is a form of myopia. It leaves the Gospels as mere stories or relics of ancient rhetoric. Archaeological work, perhaps unintentionally, helps the biblical scholar to rethink and re-create the past.

We have an independent witness not just to the life of Jesus as a historical figure but to some of his teachings and deeds. Like all sources that mention Jesus from outside the New Testament, the author of I Clement had no doubt about his real existence and no reason to defend it. Everyone knew he existed. (Ehrman, DJE, 105)

This certification of a chain of authority from God to Jesus to the apostles to the early Christian elders is interesting not only in that it was the basis for early doctrinal proclamation and church organization

The importance of the creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3ff. can hardly be overestimated. No longer can it be charged that there is no demonstrable early, eyewitness testimony for the resurrection or for the other most important tenets of Christianity [such as the fact that Jesus truly lived], for this creed provides just such evidential data concerning the facts of the gospel, which are the very center of the Christian faith. It links the events themselves with those who actually participated in time and space. As such this creed yields strong factual basis for Christianity through the early and eyewitness reports of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. (Habermas, HJ, 157)

And there can be no true discussion of the death and resurrection of Jesus unless he was, in fact, an actual man who walked the earth

Additionally, the independent beliefs themselves, which later composed the formalized creed, would then date back to the actual historical events. Therefore, we are dealing with material that proceeds directly [italics his] from the events in question and this creed is thus crucial in our discussion of the death and resurrection of Jesus.