Did Jesus Exist? Lecturer Says Yes

Author: Allison Damick

The lecture room on the second floor of Bicentennial Hall was filled with students, faculty and community members, warming the small space despite the frigid winds that blew outside on Friday afternoon. "The Historical Evidence for Jesus," was presented by Professor Edwin Yamauchi of Miami University of Ohio. This was the second lecture in a symposium entitled "Truth, Academia and the Christian Faith," which took place last weekend.

Yamauchi earned his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1964. Before teaching Ancient History at Miami University of Ohio, he taught the subject at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He has studied 22 languages, including Acadian, Aramaic, Coptic, Linear A and B, Egyptian, Italian, French and Russian. In addition he has authored over 14 books, including "The Stones and the Scriptures" (Harper Collins, 1973), "Archaeology of New Testament Cities in West Asia" (Wipf and Stock, 2003) and his newest book, forthcoming from Baker Book House in 2004, "Africa and the Bible." He has contributed numerous articles and reviews on the topics of ancient and biblical history and archaeology, and this lecture marked the 130th of this career. The topic was to address the archaeological and historical evidence for the life, trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Yamauchi began the lecture with an overview of the spread of the Christian faith throughout the historical world and his theories on the reasons for its popularity. He continued with the numerous persecutions of Christians throughout the ages and suggested that early Christians were eager martyrs because of their firm belief that Jesus had been resurrected. He remarked that the fervent spread of the Christian faith marked how strongly people believed in it, and that this was most logically explained by the idea that Jesus was, in fact, resurrected. He further supported this argument with an account, mostly drawn from the Bible and other historical sources written after the fact, of the conversion of the Biblical figure Paul from persecutor of to firm believer in Christianity, which he asserted can only be rationally accounted for by the resurrection of Christ.

The remainder of the lecture consisted of similar arguments based primarily on written Biblical and historical documents, most of which were written substantially after the recorded death of Christ, and many of which have been copied and recopied throughout history until they have reached us in their present form. Examples of such documents used include the "Antiquities" (the particular passage referring to Christ only appears in the early fourth century and is regarded as a forgery by most scholars), copies of the Jewish Talmud which accuse a man named Chrestus of magic, which Yamauchi counted as proof of Christ's working miracles, and excerpts from such Roman sources as Pliny the Younger (second century C.E.) and Tacitus, who lived under the reign of Nero (second half of the first century C.E.).

Archaeological evidence was presented all too briefly in the form of a recently uncovered ossuary (stone chest in which bones were buried after the body had decomposed) with the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" in Aramaic. Yamauchi emphasized the rarity of finding an inscription from that period with both paternal and fraternal relationships noted, but spent little time addressing the controversy surrounding the history of this particular piece, which was found in the collection of an antiquities dealer in Israel and officially declared a forgery by the Israeli Antiquities Authority at a news conference in June 2003. He also gave little credence to the fact that all three of those names were extremely common in both the time period and geographic region at hand, even when this fact was presented to him in the form of a question after the lecture. Mention was also made briefly of an ossuary inscribed with the name of the high priest before whom Christ was executed. Archaeological evidence for the practice of crucifixion in general during the time period surrounding the life and death of Christ was well delivered in the presentation of a skeleton found with iron nails still pinning the heel bones together and creases evident on the arm bones from similar nails.

Yamauchi concluded his lecture with a question-and-answer session, in which there was a great deal of audience interest and participation. A reception and dinner followed in the Great Hall before the symposium reconvened for the evening lecture.

David Kaufman '04 and Devon Parish '05 were the chief organizers of the symposium. For Kaufman, the motivation behind the symposium was a personal one. "As a Christian at Middlebury I feel that Christianity and faith in general is relegated to the private," he explained. "It is my belief, a belief that was supported and reinforced by a number of the speakers, that Christianity has a place in the public discourse at Middlebury."

The symposium began Thursday evening with an address by David O'Hara '91, a doctoral candidate in philosophy at Pennsylvania State University, on the topic "Truth, Religion and Postmodern Skepticism: Can Truth Be Known?" This was followed by a panel discussion with members of the Middlebury College Religion Department. Yamauchi's lecture was the next event on Friday afternoon, followed by a lecture later that evening by Daniel Harrell, associate minister of the Park Street Congregational Church in Boston, entitled, "Reason, Faith, and Reasons for Faith." Saturday's events began with a morning lecture by Dennis Okholm, professor of theology at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, Calif., on the subject "Is there Eternal Significance in Education?" That evening consisted of a workshop titled "Expressing Your Beliefs Through Music," led by Jeremy Casella, a folk-rock singer, songwriter and guitarist. The symposium closed that night with a performance by Casella and pianist Cason Cooley in Ross Fireplace Lounge.

All symposium events took place in Bicentennial Hall, except for the closing performance in Ross and the music workshop, which took place in Chateau Grand Salon. All events were free and open to the public. Kaufman remarked on the outcome of the events, "We [he and the other student organizers] were very pleased with the symposium." Approximately 300 different people attended the four lectures, Friday night barbeque, the music workshop and concert. "We were surprised by the number of attendees from Middlebury and the surrounding towns. I would estimate that at about 10 to 15 percent of attendees were community residents."

"Over the course of the symposium one issue was made especially clear to me. Mr. O'Hara's lecture on Thursday, supported by Yarbrough's comments, made clear the importance of searching after the truth no matter where the search takes us. Therefore, a Christian must not be lazy and must tackle the difficult questions of their faith and its relation to our world in the same way a non-Christian must not be lazy and must seek out the truth. It seems that people are too often concerned with where the journey will take them instead of trusting that the journey, guided by reason and faith, will deposit them in a better and more true place," he continued.