THE HISTORICAL JESUS

•Jesus - late form of the Hebrew name, Joshua, Yehoshua•Literal translation of the name - “Yahweh is salvation.” •Matthew alludes to this name when he quotes the angel speaking to Joseph, “she is to have a son and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins” (1:21). • This common Jewish name meant “Yahweh saves” or “Savior” for short.

What is in

a

name?

• Christ – not the last name of Jesus

• Christ - a title which means Messiah or “anointed one.”

• Christ - one of the most important titles the

early Church gave Jesus, since it reflected what the early Christian community believed about him.

To distinguish Jesus from the other men of his day named Jesus? His surname would have been one of the following:

2. Jesus the Carpenter. Another frequent designation of a person was by way

of profession. One of the most common English surnames, Smith, designates a heritage of blacksmithing or some similar trade. Mark’s Gospel informs us that Jesus worked as a carpenter before he began to preach (6:3).

1. Jesus from Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene. It was typical to identify a person by his place of residence. Nazareth was a small, hilly town in northern Palestine in the geographical region of Galilee.

Jesus could have been known as Jesus, the son of Joseph, or in Aramaic/Hebrew, Jesus bar (ben) Joseph.

• People - known by their fathers’ names

e.g. Irish prefix “Fitz” means “son of” Fitzgerald, signifies “son of Gerald.”

• Mark - designates Jesus by his mother’s name, “Jesus, the son of Mary” (Mk. 6:3)

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS: Non-believers

1. Suetonius - Roman author - compiled biographies of the first 12 Roman

emperors, from Julius Caesar onward - Writing about 120 AD in his Life of Claudius

he says of the emperor: “he expelled the Jews from Rome, on account of the riots in which they were constantly indulging, at the instigation of Chrestus.”

- made a mistake in retelling of the Jewish expulsion from Rome in 49 AD in assuming that Christ was there…

2. Tacitus - Roman historian - writes in his Annals (15. 44.) of the great fire

which swept through the city of Rome in 64 AD.

- in 115-117 AD recounts the story of the fire and Nero’s successful attempt to fix the blame on the Christians

- He writes, “They got their name from Christ, who was executed by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius.”

3. Pliny the Younger

- known to history as a master letter writer

- advised Trajan to set free any accused Christian if he/she rejected Christ and worshiped the pagan gods of the emperor

Source:

Finley, J. and M. Pennock. (1977). Jesus and You: Discovering Jesus the Real Christ. Ave

Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana.