The reliability of the New Testament in comparison with other ancient textsJesus of Nazareth and historyIt is often thought that only the Christian Scriptures speak of Jesus of Nazareth and that there are no other clues or references to him outside of them. But this is not so.
If, in fact, on the one hand we have the so-called "canonical" sources (i.e. those texts accepted and recognized by the Catholic Church as inspired by God and, therefore, sacred: the four canonical Gospels, the Acts of the ApostlesOn the other hand, we have the non-canonical ones, which we can divide into non-Christian and Christian (in the latter group we find the so-called "apocryphal" ones, that is, the apocryphal Gospels, the "ágrafa" and the "logia Iesu"). Then there are the archaeological sources, which constitute a separate category.
In this article we will briefly discuss non-Christian and non-canonical Christian sources.
Non-evangelical sources: non-Christian historical documents
Among these sources are references to Jesus or especially to his followers. They are the work of ancient non-Christian authors, such as Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, Lucian of Samosata, Marcus Aurelius and Minucius Felix. Allusions to Jesus of Nazareth can also be read in the Babylonian Talmud. However, the information provided by these sources is not particularly useful, since they do not provide detailed information about Jesus.
Sometimes, in fact, wishing to diminish his importance or the legitimacy of the cult born of him, they refer to him inaccurately and slanderously, speaking of him, for example, as the son of a comb-maker, or of a magician, or even of a certain Panther, a name which is a transcription and misinterpretation of the Greek word "parthenos" (virgin), already used by the early Christians to refer to the person of Christ, son of the Virgin.
However, non-Christian historical documents already provide some confirmation of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth, albeit through fragmentary reports.
The "Testimonium Flavianum".
Of all the non-Christian historical documents about Jesus of Nazareth, the most famous is undoubtedly the "Testimonium Flavianum" by the Jewish author Josephus Flavius (c. 37-100).
The passage in question is found in the work "Jewish Antiquities" (XVIII, 63-64). Until 1971 a version circulated that referred to Jesus of Nazareth in terms considered excessively sensationalist and pious for an observant Jew like Josephus Flavius. In fact, it was suspected that the Greek translation known until then had been reworked by Christians.
In 1971, Professor Shlomo Pines (1908-1990) of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem published a different translation, based on a version he had found in a 10th century Arabic manuscript, the "Universal History of Agapius of Hierapolis" (d. 941). It is considered a more reliable text, since no possible interpolations are found in it, and today it is universally regarded as the oldest account of Jesus of Nazareth in a non-Christian source (the work "Jewish Antiquities" dates from 94 A.D.).
Here is the passage: "At that time there was a wise man named Jesus, who showed a good conduct of life and was considered virtuous, and he had many disciples among the Jews and other peoples. Pilate condemned him to crucifixion and death, but those who had been his disciples did not deny his doctrine and reported that he had appeared to them three days after the crucifixion and that he was alive, and that he was probably the Christ of whom the prophets had spoken".
Josephus Flavius himself describes, again in "Jewish Antiquities" (XX, 200), the stoning of the apostle James (head of the Christian community in Jerusalem): "Ananus (the high priest Annas) [...] summoned the Sanhedrin to judge him and led there the brother of Jesus, called the Christ, called James, and some others, accusing them of transgressing the law and condemning them to stoning". This description coincides with that given by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians (1.19). In another passage (XCIII, 116-119) the historian points to the figure of John the Baptist.
Another important testimony is that of the pagan Tacitus, who, in his "Annals" (around 117 A.D.), in dealing with Nero and the burning of Rome in 64 A.D., relates (XV, 44) that the emperor, in order to deflect the rumors that blamed him for the disaster that had almost totally destroyed the capital of the Empire, blamed the Christians, then known to the people as Chrestines: "The author of this name, Christ, under the empire of Tiberius, had been condemned to torture by the procurator Pontius Pilate; but, repressed for the moment, the execrable superstition broke out again, not only for Judea, the origin of that evil, but also for Urbe, where from all sides flow and exalt all atrocious and shameful things...".
Non-evangelical sources: non-canonical Christian documents
Ágrafa and "logia Iesu".
Grafè, i.e., "unwritten", are short sayings or aphorisms attributed to Jesus, which, however, have been handed down outside Sacred Scripture (Grafè) in general or the Gospels in particular (for example, the phrase "It is more blessed to give than to receive", which Paul records in Acts 20:35 but which is not found in any of the Gospels).
A similar argument can be made in the case of the "logia Iesu" (sayings), also short phrases attributed to the Nazarene, in this respect quite similar to the Agrapha, except that the latter are more typically found in works of the Fathers of the Church (authors of patristic literature, for example, Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, John Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, John Damascene) or recounted in ancient documents such as the Acts of the Apostles or found in ancient documents such as papyri, like those of Oxyrhynchus (between the first and sixth centuries AD, found in Egypt between the first and sixth centuries AD), or found in ancient documents such as the papyri of Oxyrhynchus (between the first and sixth centuries AD, found in Egypt between the first and sixth centuries AD, found in Egypt between the first and sixth centuries AD).C, found in Egypt between the 19th and 20th centuries and containing fragments of authors such as Homer, Euclid, Livy, etc.).
From a historical point of view, these sources are not considered totally reliable.
Apocryphal Gospels
Here we speak finally of the apocryphal Gospels. By this term, which derives from the Greek ἀπόκρυϕος ("apocryphos," i.e., "hidden," "secret," and, by extension, of unknown author) we refer to those numerous (about fifteen) and heterogeneous writings about Jesus of Nazareth that do not fit into the Christian biblical canon for various reasons:
- late compared to the canonical Gospels (an average difference of a century: for the canonical Gospels we speak of a redaction dating from the second half of the first century A.D., for the apocrypha from the middle of the second century A.D.);
- textual form different from the canonical one (the canonical Gospels are recognizable by their expressive and linguistic organicity and their simple style devoid of sensationalism, while the apocryphal ones by their legendary and fairy-tale aura);
- transmit doctrines that contradict the official ones (they are often gnostic documents "cleverly" constructed to spread new doctrines and justify political and religious positions of individuals or groups).
However, the apocryphal Gospels are not entirely unreliable (for example, the Protoevangelium of James contains accounts and traditions of the infancy of Jesus, the life of Mary or of apostles that have entered the popular Christian imagination). In fact, they offer us a religious and cultural panorama of the environment in the second century A.D. However, the contradictions they contain, their disagreement with the texts considered official, as well as the evident deficiencies of doctrine, veracity and independence of the sources do not allow us to attribute authority to them from a historical point of view.
