Last year, 2014 AD, news made its rounds that Michael Paulkovich claimed that his historical research has resulted in the assertion that Jesus never even existed. Considering that it has been, at least one year, it seems that his radical claim that not only was Jesus not God but that He never even existed as a person has been weighed and found wanting.
Michael Paulkovich claims to base his conclusion on his perusal of 126 texts that were penned around Jesus’ time: during and shortly after His death, resurrection and ascension. He wrote an article titled “The Fable of the Christ” and a book titled “No Meek Messiah.”
The Americans Against the Tea Party is a good example of the utter ruin of scholarship as it titled a post “Was Jesus a Real Person? One Biblical Scholar says ‘No’” and again refers to the “Biblical scholar Michael Paulkovich.” Well, his own book’s site, essentially, describes him as a pro-Atheist, “a freelance writer and inventor, Contributing Editor for The American Rationalist, Columnist for American Atheist Magazine and Contributor for Free Inquiry and other journals.”
Just because you have internet access does not mean that you are a Biblical scholar. In fact, DJR aka The Failed Atheist noted, “Michael Paulkovich is an easy target because his ‘research’ is so poor, I’d never heard of him before the internet started fanning the flames of his terribly historically inept work on the historical Jesus…I can’t find out any information but I truly doubt that he has any historical training whatsoever, in fact I’ll close my blog if he has a Phd in History!”
Not surprisingly, the freelance writer and inventor writes, “I must conclude that Christ is a mythical character.”
Well, I am also not a Biblical scholar and so he and I are evenly matched. I found this report fascinating as a few years ago I personally conducted research on documents written 70 AD to 280 AD and chronicled 237 texts that reference Jesus.
The number refers to the texts themselves and not to the number of times that Jesus is referenced in each text. Counting each reference would take us well beyond the 237 total. Furthermore, the number refers to the texts and not to each manuscript behind each text. Counting each manuscript would also take us well beyond the 237 total.
For the evidence, see Historical Jesus – two centuries worth of citations and my section on Jesus in general as it cover the issue of the Josephus reference, etc.
An article on the topic that has been posted about a trillion times on the web states, take careful note, “Even the Apostle Paul, the New Testament figure credited with spreading the new religion that came to be called ‘Christianity’ shortly after the supposed death of Jesus, never says that Jesus was a real person — even in the Bible itself.”
Can you imagine Paul writing the following?
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures…oh yeah and, like, He was totally was a real person and stuff; you know, in case my being jailed, beaten, starved, etc. for Him was not enough to make that clear. Oh, and my meeting with people who personally knew Him. Oh, and all of this stuff I say about Him being prophesied “even in the Bible itself” and, like, whatever and stuff.
As for more about “in the Bible itself,” Paulkovich actually claims:
Paul is unaware of the virgin mother, and ignorant of Jesus’ nativity, parentage, life events, ministry, miracles, apostles, betrayal, trial and harrowing passion. Paul knows neither where nor when Jesus lived, and considers the crucifixion metaphorical.
Firstly, based on the Paul “never says that Jesus was a real person” standards Paulkovich would have to provide us a quotation from Paul stating:
Oh yeah, by the way: I am unaware of the virgin mother, ignorant of Jesus’ nativity, parentage, life events, ministry, miracles, apostles, betrayal, trial and harrowing passion, do not even know where nor when Jesus lived and, by the way, the crucifixion may have been metaphorical even though I not only stated to you that “I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received” which is technical terminology for passing on authoritative accounts, how that the actual Christ actually died for our sins according to the actual scriptures and that he was actually buried and that he actually rose again the actual third day according to the actual scriptures.
DJR notes that “serious historians have demonstrated” the “Mythical Jesus” which claims that Jesus resembles mythological figures “to be nonsense, that’s why only one trained historian, Richard Carrier advocates it and why someone like Bart Ehrman who is no friend of Christianity can write a whole book defending a historical Jesus against such inept tripe.”
Well, both Carrier and Ehrman are no friend of Christianity: Carrier is an Atheist (a PhD in ancient history and polyamorous dog and Ehrman is an Agnostic (of course, so are most Atheists).
Richard Carrier thoroughly discredited Kersey Graves’ Mythical Jesus book “The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Or Christianity Before Christ.” Graves was the Michael Paulkovich of his time much like someone else will be the Michael Paulkovich of the near future: makes a splash and fades away.
For Carrier’s account on this, see my Christ myth – historical Jesus, Mythras, Horus, Inanna , Santa, etc. 2 of 2.
Bart Ehrmann engaged in that which pop-culture’s common parlance would refer to as a classic smack down PWNAGE of Atheist Reginald Finley aka the Infidel Guy specifically on the specific issue of the historical Jesus, see: Infidel Guy to the left of Bart Ehrman on Jesus which includes the audio of their exchange which was utterly devastating to the Guy.
Let us consider some of the references that Michael Paulkovich gives for his view that “Christ is a mythical character”[1]:
Lesbonax: died before Jesus was born (I must admit that he may have been able to access a time machine and thus, the fact that he died before Jesus’ time is no excuse for him to not mention Jesus).
Dead Sea Scrolls: predate Jesus (see comment on Lesbonax).
Soranus: gynecologist (perhaps those referring to Paulkovich as a Biblical Scholar and blindly copying and pasting his article will not comprehend this but expecting a gynecologist to write about Jesus in his works of gynecology is tantamount to well, expecting a gynecologist to write about Jesus in his works of gynecology).
Titus: successfully led Roman troops against the Jewish uprising in AD 70, in Judea. The only writings we have by Titus are correspondence: letters, mail. We actually learn of him via Josephus (who mentioned Jesus), Tacitus (who mentions Christians), Suetonius (who mentioned Jesus) and Dio…no, not the heavy metal singer, see next entry.
Lucius aka Claudius aka Cassius Dio aka Dio Cassius: he wrote a few lines regarding Titus and the Jewish War (recall that this was circa 40 years after Jesus). He mentions no Jews by name whatsoever. Oh yeah, by the way Dio’s lifespan is 155-235 AD…wait, I thought that we could not trust someone who lived even one year much less one decade much less circa a century after Jesus’ time to tell us anything about Jesus.
Lucian of Samosata : Steven Bollinger notes that “The closest any of his works come to Jerusalem or Nazareth is that Adversus Indoctum mocks a Syrian book-collector.”[1] The fact is that Lucian does mention Jesus in The Death of Peregrine which is why he made my list as he wrote that Christians:
…picked up their queer creed. I can tell you, he pretty soon convinced them of his superiority; prophet, elder, ruler of the Synagogue—he was everything at once; expounded their books, commented on them, wrote books himself. They took him for a God, accepted his laws, and declared him their president. The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account.
Soterichus Oasites: was a poet (from circa AD 300) who wrote poems about Dionysus and Alexander the Great but, apparently, did not want to write poems about Jesus.
Damis of Hierapolis: he studied under Apollonius of Tyana (1st to 2nd century AD). The only writings we have preserved from Damis are correspondence. Otherwise, that which we know about Damis is via Apollonius’ biographer Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana (dated to 217-238 AD).
Paulkovich has an odd way of reasoning since, for example, he states that “Damis was unaware of Jesus” and of Apollonius, “surely it seems he was unaware of Jesus of Nazareth.” I am unsure as to what surely it seems means but in any case, the logic appears to be that if, for example, if we have no existing writings by Damis and Apollonius (or their biographers) that reference Jesus then they must not have been aware of Him.
This actually, is not too bad an argument since just because their names are known to us today does not mean that they were know-it-alls or would otherwise case about Jew who, like so many others, gathered disciples about Himself. Yet, that they must not have been aware of Jesus simply does not logically result in that therefore, Jesus did not even exist as a historical human person.
I will say that I really look forwards to Michael Paulkovich’s book about how Muhammad never existed…but I will not hold my breath.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note:
[1] An Open Letter To Michael Paulkovich And Free Inquiry, The Wrong Monkey, September 29, 2014 AD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.
Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.