The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ

by Gary Habermas

Publisher:

College Press

, 1996

Overview

Examining archaeological, textual, and extra-biblical evidence, Gary R. Habermas provides a strong foundation for the existence and deity of Jesus. He begins by surveying the past centuries of historical Jesus studies, highlighting key figures and offering an informed critique of their arguments. Habermas concludes with a convincing survey of the historical data available to the modern reader. His detailed engagement with early creedal statements, archaeological data, and other witnesses is both reasoned and convincing.

Contents

• Part One: Contemporary Challenges to the Historicity of Jesus
  • The Modern Quest for the Historical Jesus
  • Did Jesus Ever Live?
  • Limitations on the Historical Jesus
  • Reinterpretations of the Historical Jesus
  • The New Gnosticism
  • The Jesus Seminar and the Historical Jesus
• Part Two: Historical Data for the Life of Jesus
  • Primary Sources: Creeds and Facts
  • Archaeological Sources
  • Ancient Non-Christian Sources
  • Ancient Christian Sources (Non-New Testament)
  • Summary and Assessment
• Part Three: Appendixes
  • Historiography
  • An Apologetic Outline
  • A Selected Scholarly Bibliography for Non-Christian Sources

Top Highlights

“Even more persuasively, there is no known case of a mythical deity in the mystery religions where we have both clear and early evidence that a resurrection was taught prior to the late second century AD, obviously much later than the Christian message.” (Page 34)

“The emphasis in the majority of these studies was on Jesus as a great example for living, with the implication that we should pattern our lives after his. But at least two key elements in the Gospels were usually either denied or ignored. Supernatural aspects such as Jesus’ miracles were treated as nonhistorical. Further, dogmatic theology was eschewed, especially the doctrine of Jesus’ deity. It was assumed that, while Jesus was an outstanding moral pattern, he was only a man.” (Page 18)

“Namely, by pursuing this line of pre- and extrabiblical evidence, we run the risk of implying that Scripture is not a sufficient source of knowledge about Jesus or that we must have additional information about his life.” (Page 11)

“He held that the Gospels were chiefly mythological documents that utilized normal description in order to depict transcendental ideas in seemingly historical garb.” (Page 19)

“These creeds, then, actually predate the New Testament writings in which they occur.” (Page 30)

Product Details

• Title: The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ
• Author: Gary Habermas
• Publisher: College Press
• Print Publication Date: 1996
• Logos Release Date: 2009
• Pages: 298
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Jesus Christ › Historicity; Jesus Christ › Biography--History and criticism; Bible. N.T. Gospels › Evidences, authority, etc; Bible. N.T. Gospels › Extra-canonical parallels
• Resource ID: LLS:42.30.6
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-02-15T21:30:14Z

About Gary Habermas

Gary R. Habermas (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is Distinguished Research Professor and chair of the department of philosophy and theology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He is the author, coauthor or editor of twenty-seven books including Resurrected? An Atheist Deist Dialogue (with A. Flew), The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (with M. Licona), The Risen Jesus Future Hope, The Resurrection: Heart of New Testament Doctrine and The Resurrection: Heart of the Christian Life.