The Historicity and Character of Jesus

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The Christian case needs Jesus to have actually existed and to have lived the kind of life the prophecies described. This page makes three points: he is a real historical figure, his character matches the messianic profile, and the contrast between him and Muhammad is significant.

He really existed

The historical existence of Jesus is not seriously disputed by mainstream scholars. Bart Ehrman, an agnostic critic of Christianity, devotes his book Did Jesus Exist? (HarperOne, 2012) to exactly this question and concludes that the case for Jesus’s historicity is “as strong as that for any figure of antiquity.” Mythicism (the view that Jesus is a wholly invented figure) has no following in serious New Testament scholarship.

Five independent non-Christian sources confirm the basic facts.

Tacitus, the Roman historian, writing around 116 AD: “Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.” (Annals 15.44)

Josephus, the Jewish historian, writing around 93 AD, mentions Jesus twice. The longer reference (Antiquities 18.3.3) has been edited by later Christian copyists, but scholars have recovered the original core: Jesus was a wise teacher, was condemned by Pilate, and his followers continued to love him. The shorter reference (Antiquities 20.9.1) mentions “the brother of Jesus who was called Christ, whose name was James.” Both passages are accepted as historically authentic.

Pliny the Younger, Roman governor of Bithynia, writing around 112 AD, describes Christian assemblies he had investigated: they “sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ as to a god.”

Mara bar Serapion, a Syriac Stoic letter writer, references a “wise king of the Jews” who was put to death and whose teachings survived in his followers.

The Babylonian Talmud at Sanhedrin 43a: “On the eve of Passover Yeshu was hanged.”

These five sources span Roman, Jewish, and Syriac cultures and writers of different religious commitments. They all confirm: Jesus existed; he was a Jewish teacher in first-century Judea; he was executed under Pontius Pilate; his followers continued the movement after his death.

This is more independent attestation than survives for most figures of comparable status in classical antiquity.

The Gospels as primary sources

Once the existence question is settled and the manuscript reliability is established (chapter 1), the Christian sources are evaluable as first-century primary documents. The Gospels were written within 40 to 70 years of the events they describe. By the standards of ancient biography, this is very early. The earliest substantial biography of Alexander the Great is roughly 400 years after Alexander. The earliest written life of Muhammad (Ibn Ishaq’s sirah) is about 140 years after Muhammad’s death. The Gospels are written within the lifetime of eyewitnesses.

Paul’s earliest letters, written in the 50s AD, contain creedal material that goes back even further. 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 cites a fixed Christian formula about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that Paul says he “received” from the earlier disciples. Most scholars date this creed to within five years of the crucifixion. It is the earliest documentary evidence we have for the resurrection.

His character: what the Quran says

The Quran itself confirms much of what Christians say about Jesus’s character.

Virgin birth. Q 19:19-22: “He said: ‘I am only a Messenger of your Lord, [sent] to grant you a pure boy.’ She said: ‘How shall I have a boy when no man has touched me, and I have not been unchaste?’ He said: ‘Thus it will be.’”

Miracles. Q 5:110: Jesus speaks from the cradle, designs birds from clay and breathes life into them, heals the blind and the leper, brings forth the dead.

Unique titles. Q 4:171: Jesus is “the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary… His Word which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit from Him.” No other prophet in the Quran is called the Word of Allah or a Spirit from Him.

Sinlessness. The Quran never accuses Jesus of any sin. It never tells him to seek forgiveness (in contrast to Muhammad, see below). The hadith reinforces this. Sahih al-Bukhari 3431: “When any human being is born, Satan touches him at both sides of the body with his two fingers, except Jesus, the son of Mary, whom Satan tried to touch but failed.”

The Christian and Muslim sources converge on the affirmative content of Jesus’s character. They diverge sharply on his death (see The Crucifixion Denial) and his divinity. But on his virgin birth, his miracles, his sinlessness, and his unique titles, the Quran agrees with the Christian sources.

The contrast with Muhammad

The Quran is just as explicit about Muhammad in three respects.

He sought forgiveness for his sins. This is unambiguous in the Quran itself:

Q 47:19: “Know that there is no deity except Allah and ask forgiveness for your sin.”
Q 48:2: “That Allah may forgive for you what preceded of your sin and what will follow.”
Q 40:55: “Be patient… and ask forgiveness for your sin.”
Q 110:3: “Glorify the praise of your Lord and ask for His forgiveness.”

The hadith literature records that Muhammad performed istighfar (seeking forgiveness) up to a hundred times a day.

He commanded armies and shed blood. Muhammad fought battles. Badr (624), Uhud (625), the Trench (627), the conquest of Mecca (630). He died as the political ruler of much of the Arabian Peninsula.

He accumulated wealth, property, and slaves. Q 8:1 and Q 8:41 specify the distribution of war spoils, with one-fifth assigned to Muhammad and his family. He owned property and held political office.

Jesus had none of these. No army. No battles. No political power. No property beyond what he carried. No slaves. He acquired no territory. He died a poor man, executed by the Roman state at the request of the religious authorities he had challenged.

The asymmetry

A Muslim reader who takes the Quran’s own data seriously should weigh the asymmetry. The figure the Quran describes as sinless, virgin born, miracle working, Word of God, and Spirit from God, is the figure who held no political power. The figure the Quran commands to seek forgiveness for sin and to fight battles is the one who held the army and the territory.

This is the data the Quran itself gives. The question is which figure’s authority rests on who he is, and which figure’s authority rests on what he did with worldly instruments.

The historical Jesus founded the largest religious movement in human history without an army, without wealth, and without political power. The expansion of Christianity in its first three centuries, before any state support, is documented in Rodney Stark’s The Rise of Christianity (Princeton, 1996). The movement grew because it grew, not because it conquered.

What this means for the chain

Jesus is real. His character, in both Christian and Muslim sources, matches the messianic profile the previous chapter laid out. His life is the kind of life the prophecies pointed to. The next chapter walks through the fit between his life and the predictions in detail.