Did Jesus Really Exist?

HE WAS neither rich nor powerful.  He did  not even have a home that he could call his own. Yet his teachings have influenced millions.  Did Jesus Christ really exist? What do both modern and ancient authorities say?

* Michael Grant,  a historian and an expert on ancient classical civilization, noted: "If we apply to the New Testament, as we should, the same sort of criteria as we should apply to other ancient writings containing historical material, we can no more reject Jesus' existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned."

* Rudolf Bultmann,  a professor of New Testament studies, stated:  "The doubt as to whether Jesus really existed is unfounded and not worth refutation. No sane person can doubt that Jesus stands as founder behind the historical movement whose first  distinct stage is represented by the oldest Palestinian community of [Christians]." 

* Will Durant, a historian writer, a philosopher, wrote:  "that a few simple men [the Gospel writers] should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty and ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels."

* Albert Einstein,  a German-born Jewish physicist, asserted:  "I am a Jew, but I am enthralled  by the luminous figure of the Nazarene."  When asked if he viewed Jesus as a historical person, he responded;  "Unquestionably! not one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus.  His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.

Next time: Did Jesus Really Exist?/WHAT DOES HISTORY REVEAL? 

From the Awake! magazine