Peeling Back the Layers of History to Uncover the ‘Historical’ Jesus

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Archeologists have been sifting through the evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ for more than 150 years. Leading the scientific effort has been a small group of friars belonging to the Order of St. Francis. The Order of Friars Minor, also known as the Franciscans, has been present in the Holy Land since 1217, six years after St. Francis of Assisi founded the order.

For 700 years, the Franciscans have made it their work to protect the dozens of historic sites where it is said Jesus walked, performed miracles, gathered his disciples, died, was buried, and rose from the dead. It’s a tall order. In the last 150 years, they have engaged in a scientific exploration of these sites, trying to answer questions about the life of Jesus Christ.

In Jerusalem, at the Monastery of the Flagellation, where it is said Christ was whipped by the Romans before being led to his death, Father Eugenio Alliata is making remarkable discoveries about the historical man Jesus. Considering that looking for clues to the existence of a single man who lived more than 2,000 years ago might be considered by some archeologists as a fool’s errand, the good father is confident that those clues are already being uncovered.

“It will be something rare, strange, to have archaeological proof for [a specific person] 2,000 years ago,” he concedes. “But you can’t say Jesus doesn’t have a trace in history.”

The most obvious trace can be found in the New Testament, where the gospels tell the story of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. 

But the gospels diverge on some points and were written, it is believed, about a half-century after Christ was on Earth. There’s also the political aspect of the early church wanting to “standardize” the life of Christ. Some early, popular gospels were jettisoned in favor of a uniform retelling of the life of Jesus.

“I don’t know any mainstream scholar who doubts the historicity of Jesus,” said Eric Meyers, an archaeologist and emeritus professor in Judaic studies at Duke University. “The details have been debated for centuries, but no one who is serious doubts that he’s a historical figure.”

This is why the search for the historical Jesus is important. Not to disprove (or prove) his divinity. That’s impossible. It’s a search to uncover the truth of Christ’s existence and possibly learn some specifics about how he lived. That, in turn, will tell us how ordinary people lived at the time, which is one of the major goals of archeology. 

National Geographic:

Scholars who study Jesus divide into two opposing camps separated by a very bright line: those who believe the wonder-working Jesus of the Gospels is the real Jesus, and those who think the real Jesus—the man who inspired the myth—hides below the surface of the Gospels and must be revealed by historical research and literary analysis. Both camps claim archaeology as their ally, leading to some fractious debates and strange bedfellows.

The discovery of the tomb of Caiaphas in 1990 was “an important confirmation of the New Testament account, and facilitates understanding of the historical Jesus,” according to the New York Times. As Christ’s main antagonist in the Bible, the confirmation that Caiaphas existed sheds another sliver of light on the times Christ lived in.

No such light will be shed on where and when exactly Christ was born. Two gospels claim that Bethlehem was the Savior’s birthplace, but the other two are silent, and there’s suspicion that Bethlehem was chosen by some early gospel writers in order to better line up with the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah.

Archaeology is largely silent on the matter. After all, what are the odds of unearthing any evidence of a peasant couple’s fleeting visit two millennia ago? Excavations at and around the Church of the Nativity have so far turned up no artifacts dating to the time of Christ, nor any sign that early Christians considered the site sacred. The first clear evidence of veneration comes from the third century, when the theologian Origen of Alexandria visited Palestine and noted, “In Bethlehem there is shown the cave where [Jesus] was born.” Early in the fourth century, the emperor Constantine sent an imperial delegation to the Holy Land to identify places associated with the life of Christ and hallow them with churches and shrines. Having located what they believed was the site of the Nativity grotto, the delegates erected an elaborate church, the forerunner of the present-day basilica.

Believers will say it’s not important to find historical traces of Jesus. For the devout, it doesn’t matter. “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.” That’s the way it has always been and how it will always be.