The Truth About Jesus : Is He a Myth? / Illustrated

by M. M. Mangasarian

REV. DR. CRAPSEY: "We have of Jesus a very distinctly outlined history. There is nothing vague about him." (p. 12, Ibid.)

ANSWER: But in the same sentence the doctor takes all this back by adding: "There are a great many things in his history that are not historical." If so, then we do not possess "a very distinctly outlined history," but at best a mixture of fact and fiction.

REV. DR. CRAPSEY: "We can follow Jesus' history from the time that he entered upon his public career until the time that career closed, just as easily as we can follow Caesar, etc." (p. 12, Ibid.)

ANSWER: How long was "the time from the opening of Jesus' public career until the time that it closed?"—One year!—according to the three gospels. It sounds quite a period to speak of "following his public career" from beginning to end, especially when compared with Caesar's, until it is remembered that the entire public career of Jesus covers the space of only one year. This is a most decisive argument against the historicity of Jesus. With the exception of one year, his whole life is hid in impenetrable darkness. We know nothing of his childhood, nothing of his old age, if he lived to be old, and of his youth, we know just enough to fill up a year. Under the circumstances, there is no comparison between the public career of a Caesar or a Socrates covering from fifty to seventy years of time, and that of a Jesus of whose life only one brief year is thrown upon the canvas.

An historical Jesus who lived only a year!

REV. DR. CRAPSEY: The Christ I admit to be purely mythological....the word Christ, you know, means the anointed one....they (the Hebrews) expected the coming of that Christ....But that is purely a mythical title. (The Debate—p. 35.)

ANSWER: Did the Hebrews then expect the coming of a title? Were they looking forward to seeing the ancient throne of David restored by a title? By Messiah or Christ the Jews did not mean a name, but a man—a real flesh and bone savior, anointed or appointed by heaven.

But if the 'Christ' which the Hebrews expected was "purely mythical," what makes the same 'Christ' in the supposed Tacitus passage historical? The New Testament Jesus is Jesus Christ, and the apostle John speaks of those "who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh"—mark his words—not Christ, but Jesus Christ. The apostle does not separate the two names. There were those, then, in the early church who denied the historicity, not of a title,—for what meaning would there be in denying that a title "is come in the flesh,"—but of a person, known as Jesus Christ.

And what could the doctor mean when he speaks of a title being "mythological?" There are no mythological titles. Titles are words, and we do not speak of the historicity or the non-historicity of words. We cannot say of words as we do of men, that some are historical and others are mythical. William Tell is a myth—not the name, but the man the name stands for. William is the name of many real people, and so is Tell. There were many anointed kings, who are historical, and the question is, Is Jesus Christ—or Jesus the Anointed—also historical? To answer that Jesus is historical, but The Anointed is not, is to evade the question.

When Mosheim declares that "The prevalent opinion among early Christians was that Christ existed in appearance only," he could not have meant by 'Christ' only a title. There is no meaning in saying that a man's title "existed in appearance only?"