Day 78: Jesus is Historical
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About 4 B.C. Jesus of Nazareth was born by virgin birth to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem; the event was witnessed by officials of the Judean king Herod and recorded by witnesses whose accounts were corroborated by thousands of contemporaries who observed this unique life over the next thirty-three years.

When he was thirty, Jesus became famous in Galilee for his faultless life, profound explanations of reality, miraculous actions and his startling statement that he was the divine son of God; he declared, “Before Abraham was, I am”.

The Roman authorities feared the Jews would use him to lead rebellion against them, so they crucified him despite their own view that he had done nothing wrong but live like the Son of God.

Jesus proved his transcendence of Abraham and death by rising from the dead and coming back to life thirteen times over the next thirty days.

The first accounts of his life, death and resurrection were circulating, being reproduced and corroborated by eye-witnesses during the next forty years.

By 100 A.D. the twenty-seven books of the New Testament history of his life had been written and copied, read and corroborated by hundreds alive during his life-time. These then were translated and copied scrupulously so that today in universities, museums and libraries around the world are more than 400,000 copies of this vital ancient history.

In 325 A.D. at the council of Chalcedon the emperor of Rome recognized Jesus Christ as the only Son of the Creator of the world – and the Western world divides its history before Christ as B.C. and after Christ as A.D.
This ensures that we are therefore dealing with some of the most reliable ancient history in our western civilization.