Did Jesus Exist? Insight from Christian, Atheist and Agnostic Scholars

Christians engaging with social media are likely to encounter posts asserting that Jesus never existed. This idea is based on outdated myths that have been discredited in academic and historical research. Nevertheless, it continues to hold sway among a small segment of militant atheists, even though the majority will concede that Jesus at the very least a real historical figure.

The following statements come from a diverse group of scholars concerning the historical reality of Jesus. Some of these quotes are from atheists or agnostic sources. Regardless of one’s beliefs about Him, a man named Jesus of Nazareth did exist.

No reputable scholar today questions that a Jew named Jesus son of Joseph lived; most readily admit that we now know a considerable amount about his actions and his basic teachings.  – James H. Charlesworth,  Jesus and Archaeology

There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more. – Richard A. Burridge, Jesus Now and Then  pg 34

To sum up, modern critical methods fail to support the Christ-myth theory. It has ‘again and again been answered and annihilated by first-rank scholars’. In recent years ‘no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus’—or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary. Michael Grant, Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels, pg. 200

I think that there are hardly any historians today, in fact I don’t know of any historians today, who doubt the existence of Jesus… So I think that question can be put to rest. N. T. Wright, “The Self-Revelation of God in Human History: A Dialogue on Jesus with N. T. Wright”, in Antony Flew & Roy Abraham Vargese, There is a God,  pg. 188

“With respect to Jesus, we have numerous, independent accounts of his life…sources that originated in Jesus’s native tongue…and that can be dated to within just a year or two of his life…Historical sources like that are pretty astounding for an ancient figure of any kind…The claim that Jesus was simply made up falters on every ground.” – Bart Erhman, Huffington Post 3/20/2012

The reality is that whatever else you may think about Jesus, he certainly did exist….Serious historians of the early Christian movement—all of them—have spent many years preparing to be experts in their field. Just to read the ancient sources requires expertise in a range of ancient languages: Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and often Aramaic, Syriac, and Coptic, not to mention the modern languages of scholarship (for example, German and French). And that is just for starters. Expertise requires years of patiently examining ancient texts and a thorough grounding in the history and culture of Greek and Roman antiquity, the religions of the ancient Mediterranean world, both pagan and Jewish, knowledge of the history of the Christian church and the development of its social life and theology, and, well, lots of other things. It is striking that virtually everyone who has spent all the years needed to attain these qualifications is convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was a real historical figure. This is not a piece of evidence, but if nothing else, it should give one pause. In the field of biology, evolution may be “just” a theory (as some politicians painfully point out), but it is the theory subscribed to, for good reason, by every real scientist in every established university in the Western world. – Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?

“I do not expect to convince anyone in that boat. What I do hope is to convince genuine seekers who really want to know how we know that Jesus did exist, as virtually every scholar of antiquity, of biblical studies, of classics, and of Christian origins in this country and, in fact, in the Western world agrees. Many of these scholars have no vested interest in the matter. As it turns out, I myself do not either. I am not a Christian, and I have no interest in promoting a Christian cause or a Christian agenda. I am an agnostic with atheist leanings, and my life and views of the world would be approximately the same whether or not Jesus existed. My beliefs would vary little. The answer to the question of Jesus’s historical existence will not make me more or less happy, content, hopeful, likable, rich, famous, or immortal….But as a historian I think evidence matters. And the past matters. And for anyone to whom both evidence and the past matter, a dispassionate consideration of the case makes it quite plain: Jesus did exist. -IBID

In short, if there is any conspiracy here, it is not on the part of the ancient Christians who made up Jesus but on the part of modern authors who make up stories about the ancient Christians and what they believed about Jesus. – IBID

The denial that Christ was crucified is like the denial of the Holocaust. For some it’s simply too horrific to affirm. For others it’s an elaborate conspiracy to coerce religious sympathy. But the deniers live in a historical dreamworld. -IBID, interview with Reginald V. Finley Sr., “Who Changed The New Testament and Why”

“While we do not have the fullness of biographical detail and the wealth of firsthand accounts that are available for recent public figures, such as Winston Churchill or Mother Teresa, we nonetheless have much more data on Jesus than we do for such ancient figures as Alexander the Great… Along with the scholarly and popular works, there is a good deal of pseudoscholarship on Jesus that finds its way into print. During the last two centuries more than a hundred books and articles have denied the historical existence of Jesus….Today innumerable websites carry the same message… Most scholars regard the arguments for Jesus’ non-existence as unworthy of any response—on a par with claims that the Jewish Holocaust never occurred or that the Apollo moon landing took place in a Hollywood studio.” – Michael James McClymond, Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth, 8 & 23–24)

Some writers may toy with the fancy of a ‘Christ-myth,’ but they do not do so on the ground of historical evidence. The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the ‘Christ-myth’ theories.  – F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?pg. 123

The theory of Jesus’ nonexistence is now effectively dead as a scholarly question.” and “The nonhistoricity thesis has always been controversial, and it has consistently failed to convince scholars of many disciplines and religious creeds… Biblical scholars and classical historians now regard it as effectively refuted. Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence, pg. 14 & 16

You know that you can try to minimize your biases, but you can’t eliminate them. That’s why you have to put certain checks and balances in place… Under this approach, we only consider facts that meet two criteria. First, there must be very strong historical evidence supporting them. And secondly, the evidence must be so strong that the vast majority of today’s scholars on the subject—including skeptical ones—accept these as historical facts. You’re never going to get everyone to agree. There are always people who deny the Holocaust or question whether Jesus ever existed, but they’re on the fringe. –  Micael R. Licona, as quoted by Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus, pg. 112

In a society in which people still claim the Holocaust did not happen, and in which there are resounding claims that the American president is, in fact, a Muslim born on foreign soil, is it any surprise to learn that the greatest figure in the history of Western civilization, the man on whom the most powerful and influential social, political, economic, cultural and religious institution in the world — the Christian church — was built, the man worshipped, literally, by billions of people today — is it any surprise to hear that Jesus never even existed? -IBID,  “Did Jesus Exist?”, Huffington Post, March 30, 2012

“I don’t know any mainstream scholar who doubts the historicity of Jesus,”….”The details have been debated for centuries, but no one who is serious doubts that he’s a historical figure.” – Archaeologist Eric Meyers, emeritus professor in Judaic studies at Duke University.

We can be certain that Jesus really existed (despite a few highly motivated skeptics who refuse to be convinced), that he was a Jewish teacher in Galilee, and that he was crucified by the Roman government around 30 CE”– Robert J. Miller, The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics, pg. 38

“Some skeptics have maintained that the best account of the biblical and historical evidence is the theory that Jesus never existed; that is, that Jesus’ existence is a myth (Well 1999). Such a view is controversial and not widely held even by anti-Christian thinkers.” –Michael Martin, “Skeptical Perspectives on Jesus’ Resurrection”, in Delbert Burkett’s The Blackwell Companion to Jesus, pg 285

“Both Jewish historians like Josephus, and Roman ones like Tacitus and later Suetonius are perfectly clear Jesus actually existed, and Tacitus tells us he died on a cross, being executed under Pilate. Apparently, Mr. Joseph [producer of Zeitgeist] couldn’t even give this one fact straight. There is more historical evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for the historical existence of Julius Caesar for example….The only persons who doubt the existence of Jesus of Nazareth are those who either hate Christianity and so want it to disappear, or those who have not bothered to do the proper historical homework.” – Ben Witherington, The Zeitgeist of the ‘Zeitgeist Movie’

“To insist that Jesus Christ is a myth—that He never existed—as the Zeitgeist movie does, is foolish. Beside the twenty seven New Testament documents that verify He lived, there are more than thirty sources outside of the Bible, written within 150 years of Jesus life that mention Him. These sources include the Jewish Talmud, the Roman historian Tacitus, the Didache, Flavius Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, the Gnostic gospels (e.g., the gospel of Thomas), etc. These extrabiblical sources reveal to us more than 100 facts about His life, teaching, death and even resurrection. The Encyclopedia Britannica, fifteenth edition, devotes 20,000 words to the person of Jesus Christ and never once hints that He didn’t exist. Don’t be fooled by Zeitgeist, “ – Charlie Campbell, Archaeological Evidence for the Bible

“Now I am normally a cordial and collegial chap, but to be honest, I have little time or patience to invest in debunking the wild fantasies of “Jesus mythicists”, as they are known. That is because, to be frank, those of us who work in the academic profession of religion and history simply have a hard time taking them seriously.” – Michael Bird, who is on the editorial board for the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, as well is a Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity

mythicists of this ilk should not be surprised that their views are not taken seriously by real scholars, that their books are not reviewed in scholarly journals, mentioned by experts in the field, or even read by them. The book is fill with so many factual errors and outlandish assertions that it is hard to believe that the author is serious. If she is serious, it is hard to believe that she has ever encountered anything resembling historical scholarship. – Acharya S, (D. M. Murdock), The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold.

“When they say that Christian beliefs about Jesus are derived from pagan mythology, I think you should laugh. Then look at them wide-eyed and with a big grin, and exclaim, “Do you really believe that?” Act as though you’ve just met a flat earther or Roswell conspirator. You could say something like, “Man, those old theories have been dead for over a hundred years! Where are you getting this stuff?” Tell them this is just sensationalist junk, not serious scholarship. If they persist, then ask them to show you the actual passages narrating the supposed parallel. They’re the ones who are swimming against the scholarly consensus, so make them work hard to save their religion. I think you’ll find that they’ve never even read the primary sources.” – William Lane Craig

A hundred and fifty years ago a fairly well respected scholar named Bruno Bauer maintained that the historical person Jesus never existed. Anyone who says that today—in the academic world at least—gets grouped with the skinheads who say there was no Holocaust and the scientific holdouts who want to believe the world is flat. – Mark Allan Powell, Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee,, p. 168

Sir William Ramsey is was a historian and archaeologist. He wanted to prove that the author of Acts was incorrect historiacally, so he devoted his life to this task. However, after a lifetime of study, however, he concluded:

‘Further study … showed that the book could bear the most minute scrutiny as an authority for the facts of the Aegean world, and that it was written with such judgment, skill, art and perception of truth as to be a model of historical statement’ “ One example was his archaeological research in areas Luke wrote about.

 “What is driving the mythicist’s agenda? Why do they work so hard at showing that Jesus never really lived? I do not have a definitive answer to that question, but I do have a hunch. It is no accident that virtually all mythicists (in fact, all of them, to my knowledge), are either atheists or agnostics. The ones I know anything about are quite virulently, even militantly atheist.” – Bart Ehrman

Conclusion

The assertion that Jesus did not exist is predominantly held by militant atheists who often lack a comprehensive understanding of historical and academic research that has debunked this myth. It is our intention that the quotations included in this post can be used as a resource for Christians seeking answers or for those engaged in evangelism towards individuals who remain uninformed about the historical reality of Christ’s existence.

For more on the Myths about Christianity see below:

Extra Biblical Evidence that Jesus Did Exist

Scholarship On the Claim that the Resurrection Was Copied From Paganism

Debunking the Atheist Myth That Jesus Was Copied From Other Pagan Deities and Other Myths

Scholarship On The Crucifixion Being A Historical Fact

Scholarship Proves the New Testament is More Accurate than Any Other Historical Text

Debunking Claims about Christmas and Paganism:

Part 1: December 25th was not an Ancient Pagan Holiday
Part 2: Jesus’ Death, Christmas and the Early Church
Part 3: The Winter Birth
Part 4: Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

On Claims about Easter, Halloween and Paganism:

Ishtar and the Easter Connection

Despite the Modern Myths, Halloween is not rooted in Paganism