The Jesus Trial : Examining the Historical Evidence

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | 01/31/2006 | Joseph Farah

[SirLinksalot]

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The Jesus trial

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Posted: January 31, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Joseph Farah

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© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

If it wasn't so sad, you'd have to laugh at the Italian trial in which a Catholic priest is being sued by an atheist for deceiving people into thinking Jesus was an actual historical figure.

Of course, there is far more reason to believe Jesus actually walked the face of the Earth than there is to believe Socrates did. We not only have the biblical accounts of His life, but, for those who require them, extra-biblical ones from Roman historians Tacitus and Josephus.

But that really misses the point.

Simon Greenleaf, one of the principal founders of the Harvard Law School, was a skeptic like the Italian atheist. He set out from a scholarly and legal perspective to make a much narrower point – disprove Jesus was the Son of God and that He rose from the dead through a careful investigation of the Gospel witnesses.

But he came to the conclusion that the witnesses were reliable, and that the Resurrection actually happened.

"The great truths which the apostles declared, were that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in him, could men hope for salvation," wrote Greenleaf.

This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most appalling terrors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world.

The laws of every country were against the teaching of his disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them. Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes imprisonments, torments and cruel deaths.

Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience and unflinching courage.

They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually rose from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.

If it were morally possible for them to have been deceived in this matter, every human motive operated to lead them to discover and avow their error. To have persisted in so gross a falsehood, after it was known to them, was not only to encounter, for life, all the evils which man could inflict, from without, but to endure also the pangs of inward and conscious guilt; with no hope of future peace, no testimony of a good conscience, no expectation of honor or esteem among men, no hope of happiness in this life, or in the world to come.

Greenleaf explained that the apostles had absolutely no motive for fabrication – and every human motive to recant their stories. But they did not.

"It would also have been irreconcilable with the fact that they were good men," Greenleaf continued.

But it is impossible to read their writings, and not feel that we are conversing with men eminently holy, and of tender consciences, with men acting under an abiding sense of the presence and omniscience of God, and of their accountability to him, living in his fear, and walking in his ways. Now, though, in a single instance, a good man may fall, when under strong temptations, yet he is not found persisting, for years, in deliberated falsehood, asserted with the most solemn appeals to God, without the slightest temptation or motive, and against all the opposing interests which reign in the human breast.

If, on the contrary, they are supposed to have been bad men, it is incredible that such men should have chosen this form of imposture; enjoining, as it does, unfeigned repentance, the utter forsaking and abhorrence of all falsehood and of every other sin, the practice of daily self-denial, self-abasement and self-sacrifice, the crucifixion of the flesh with all its earthly appetites and desires, indifference to the honors, and hearty contempt of the vanities of the world; and inculcating perfect purity of heart and life, and intercourse of the soul with heaven. It is incredible, that bad men should invent falsehoods, to promote the religion of the God of truth. The supposition is suicidal.

If they did believe in a future state of retribution, a heaven and a hell hereafter, they took the most certain course, if false witnesses, to secure the latter for their portion. And if, still being bad men, they did not believe in future punishment, how came they to invent [that] which was to destroy all their prospects of worldly honor and happiness, and to ensure their misery in this life? From these absurdities there is no escape, but in the perfect conviction and admission that they were good men, testifying to that which they had carefully observed and considered, and well knew to be true.

Greenleaf concluded: "Either the men of Galilee were men of superlative wisdom, and extensive knowledge and experience, and of deeper skill in the arts of deception, than any and all others, before or after them, or they have truly stated the astonishing things which they saw and heard."

I agree.

Yet it seems the more learned we supposedly become, the more difficult it is for some to see the Truth.

What do you think? Were the apostles ordinary men who witnessed the extraordinary? Or were they extraordinary men who gave their own lives for the strange purpose of deceiving others?

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Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate. His latest book is "Taking America Back." He also edits the weekly online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, in which he utilizes his sources developed over 30 years in the news business.

[ApplegateRanch]

"The lawsuit has circulated around the Italian courts for years. The judge presiding over the case has tried, on a number of occasions, to dismiss it."

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/news-article.aspx?storyid=50539
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History of the case on Cascioli's own web site:

http://www.luigicascioli.it/tabella_eng.php
_______________________________________________

"Signor Cascioli, author of a book called The Fable of Christ, began legal proceedings against Father Righi three years ago after the priest denounced Signor Cascioli in the parish newsletter for questioning Christ’s historical existence."

"Yesterday Gaetano Mautone, a judge in Viterbo, set a preliminary hearing for the end of this month and ordered Father Righi to appear. The judge had earlier refused to take up the case, but was overruled last month by the Court of Appeal, which agreed that Signor Cascioli had a reasonable case for his accusation that Father Righi was “abusing popular credulity”."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550840/posts

[azhenfud]

2000 years ago, Jesus was tried in a "court of law", but the court was unjust and Jesus lost.

Little has changed since then, so he's not expected to "win the hearts and minds" of those who have prejudicedly rejected him.

No, you won't "find Jesus" in a "court of law". You'll either or not find him in the heart of a few good men.

[Onelifetogive]

And in this case, there is a specifc law in Italy about making money from making false claims.

Ron Popiel would be toast...

[SirLinksalot]

Thanks for the links.

[Old_Mil]

I find it curious that Joseph Smith, Muhammed, David Koresh, etc were all polygamists.

[azhenfud]

"As for the apostles: what evidence have you of their persecution?"

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Paul's own testimony is a good start. Notice Paul is very careful in stating the truth for a witness unto the Lord.

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"Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.
As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.
But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands."

[Old_Mil]

...come to think of it, they were into child brides as well.

[Raycpa]

If the apostles lied or were decieved, why do you think this account is accurate?

[orionblamblam]

That's my question to you.

Either the accounts are accurate and honest... or the whole thing is in serious doubt.

[orionblamblam]

>> "As for the apostles: what evidence have you of their persecution?"

> Paul's own testimony is a good start.

Is it. Ah, well.

[Raycpa]

If they were making it up wouldn't the account be a little "tighter" in regards the "next day" ? Why leave that doubt?

[colorado tanker]

IMHO, it was a mistake for the priest to participate in this case. He should simply have said that proving God's existence is not one of the things to be rendered to Caesar. It is my belief that the events described in the New Testament are true. If the Italian State wishes to punish me for my belief, so be it.

[orionblamblam]

> If they were making it up wouldn't the account be a little "tighter" in regards the "next day" ?

The more important question: if they *weren't* making it up, why would people today insist that it would be impossible to swipe a body that was left unguarded in an easy-to-get-to tomb?

But let's look at it your way: if they were making it up, why the obvious plot hole? Well, consider... there are, I believe, four separate accounts of this (Mat, Mark, Luke, John), and IIRC, only *one* mentions guards.

Perhaps the obvious gaping hole in the story... wasn't so "obviously" a gaping hole in the story back then. Consider that even today there are people who don't pick up on the unguarded-tomb bit. And these are people who, unlike those 1900 years ago, are largely literate and well eduacted. When one considers the fairly large number of "Messiahs" running around at the time (like Apollonius of Tyana), coupled with the virtually complete lack of understanding of science with consequent higher belief levels in superstition/supernatural, it makes sense that a lot of things would have gotten a pass then that would get questioned today.

[Raycpa]

So they were sloppy but not sloppy enough?

[azhenfud]

The more important question: if they *weren't* making it up, why would people today insist that it would be impossible to swipe a body that was left unguarded in an easy-to-get-to tomb?

LOL! Try to get a devout Jew to do anything on the Sabbath, let alone steal a dead body.

[orionblamblam]

> Try to get a devout Jew to do anything on the Sabbath, let alone steal a dead body.

Well, they had *two* days to choose from. The guards were assigned the next day... presumably during business hours.

[orionblamblam]

> So they were sloppy but not sloppy enough?

For a definite answer, help me fund my Time Machine project, then I'll go back and find out. Until that comes about, though, I'll have to rely on the meager evidence of biased testimony.

[azhenfud]

Well, they had *two* days to choose from.

Begging to differ, the *next* day was the day after the body was prepared to be placed into the tomb, and that *next* day was the Jewish Sabbath. The passage says, "Now the next day," and being more specific, "that followed the day of the preparation,"

It would have only given them until the sixth hour of the day preceeding the Sabbath (the day of preparation) or else they would have had to touch and move a dead body on the Jewish Sabbath.

[azhenfud]

"...I'll have to rely on the meager evidence of biased testimony."

Astutely put - I believe we all are in the same "fix"...;-)

[Raycpa]

I'll have to rely on the meager evidence of biased testimony.

But you are sure it creates a dillema?