4.21 Accusation: Greater impact theory

Published by 1c15 on 4th December 20194th December 2019

This I nickname the boom argument, why didn’t Jesus have more boom? If Jesus performed all these miracles, then why isn’t he mentioned much beyond a few Christian sources? Why isn’t he mentioned by non-Christians in the first century of rising from the dead? Surely a risen Jesus would have made more of an impact on the culture. Well, again this theory is wrapped with problems and assumptions,

1. People did not have access to all our convenient ways to record and preserve the facts about an event.

Much of what was recorded in the past (all history) has been lost. New Testament scholar Craig Bloomberg who contributed to a large scholarly work on the gospels, gives 4 reasons why more was not written of Jesus in his time.

1. The humble beginnings of Christianity.
2. The remote location of Palestine on the eastern frontiers of the Roman Empire.
3. The very small percentage of Greco-Roman works that have survived.
4. Lack of attention paid by those which are extant to Jewish figures in general.

2. Lost works

We know half of what Tacitus wrote is now lost. We only have a fragment of Thallus’ work on Mediterranean history that has survived. Suetonius is aware of writings from Asclepiades of Mendes, yet his writings are lost also. Herod the Great’s secretary, Nicholas of Damascus wrote ‘A universal history’ in 144 books, none of which have survived. Livy, the great Roman historian has suffered a similar fate. Only his early books and excerpts have survived.

3. Early Christian writings

We know of many early Christian writings that are no longer available. Papias, an influential church leader wrote 5 books quoted by several early church fathers. Only a few citations and a summary survived. Quadratus was a Christian leader who wrote a defense of the Christian faith to Roman Emperor Hadrian in 125. If Eusebius had not quoted his work, we would have no idea of its existence as we have none of Quadratus’ writings. The 5 books of reconciliations by Hegesippus in the 2nd century, have been lost. Only fragments preserved by Eusebius survived.

4. Jesus

We have an impressive amount for Jesus actually. We have 9 traditional authors of the New Testament. If we consider the critical thesis that other authors wrote pastoral letters and such letters as Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians, we’d have an even larger number. Another 20 authors and 4 heretical writings mention Jesus within 150 years of the cross. (Christian writings — Clement of Rome’s letter to the church in Corinth; 2 Clement whose author is unknown; the seven letters of Ignatius; Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians; The Martyrdom of Polycarp; Didache; the letter of Barnabas; The Shepherd of Hermas; Fragments of Papias; the letter of Diognetus; the Apocalypse of Peter (not to be confused with the Nag Hammadi text of similar name); the Gospel of Peter; the Epistula Apostolorum; and the works of Justin Martyr, Aristides, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Quadratus, Aristo of Pella, and Melito of Sardis. It is possible that Diognetus and the Gospel of Peter were written at about our 150-year boundary. In either case, it is impossible to arrive at a precise date. It is also difficult to categorize the Gospel of Peter because of its brevity and because it may contain some Gnostic ideas).  (Heretical writings — These include at least the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Truth, Apocryphon of John, and Treatise on Resurrection (which may have been written slightly later than 150 years after Jesus’ death).

9 secular, non-christian sources mention Jesus within 150 years. They are, Josephus, Jewish historian; Tacitus, Roman historian: Pliny the younger, Roman politician; Phlegon, freed slave who wrote histories; Lucian, Greek satirist; Celsus, Roman Philosopher; and likely Suetonius; Thallus and Mara Bar-Serapion, prisoner.

42 authors, 9 of them secular, mention Jesus within 150 years of his death

5. Two Caesars

Julius Caesar, famous Roman figure has only 5 sources report his military achievements. They are: Writings of Caesar himself, Cicero, Livy, the Salona decree and Appian. If Julius Caesar made such an impact on Roman society, why was more not written about him? No one questions the impact Julius Caesar made, it is evident he did.

Now let’s look at Tiberius Caesar, an even better example as he was emperor at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. 10 sources mention him within 150 years of his death: Tacitus; Suetonius; Velleius; Paterculus; Plutarch; Pliny the Elder; Strabo; Seneca; Valerius Maximus; Josephus and Luke. Compare that to 42 sources in the same length of time that mention Jesus, that’s considerably more. If we consider only secular, non-Christian sources, who mention Jesus or Tiberius then they are both equal on 9. Within 150 years of their lives

Structured response

1. People did not have access to all our convenient ways to record and preserve the facts about an event.
2. What about the Lost works?
3. We have many early Christian writings
4. We have an impressive amount of early evidence for Jesus, even outside of Christianity 

Sources on ‘Greater Impact’

• Blomberg book — Gospel Perspectives.
• Blomberg 4 facts — Blomberg, Historical Reliability, 197. See Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus (Joplin, Mo.: College Press, 1996), 64–67.
• Lost works — We are indebted to Paul Maier, Distinguished Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, for the information on Nicholas of Damascus and Livy.
• Papius — Papias, Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord. For a detailed discussion of Papias see Robert H. Gundry, Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 1026–45. 
• Papius — See the Fragments of Papias for direct quotes and information contained in these books. Papias’s five books are mentioned in fragments 3, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19.
• Eusebius’ preservation — Ecclesiastical History 3: 37; 4: 3.
• Heretical writings — Habermas, Historical Jesus, 208–15. 
• Appian — Appian is early second century and may have written more than 150 years after Caesar’s death in 44 B.C. The passages of all five sources have been translated and appear in James Sabben-Clare, trans., Caesar and Roman Politics 60–50 BC: Source Material in Translation (London: Bristol Classical, 1995), 51–68.
• Tiberius Caesar evidence — we thank Paul Maier for this information. We are only considering extant sources here. Cassius Dio likewise mentions Tiberius. But as an early third-century source, he is roughly 170 years or more removed from Tiberius. If we were to extend our 150-year period by just twenty years in order to include Cassius Dio for Tiberius, we would add Dionysius of Corinth, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and perhaps Clement of Alexandria to those testifying of Jesus.
• Tiberius sources — Tiberius’s number reduces from ten to nine since Luke is a Christian source