Why are there so few contemporary historical references to Jesus?

             Acknowledgment that there was an actual Jewish man named Yeshua who lived in the areas of modern Israel and Palestine (the Herodian kingdom of Judea) during the first half of the first century is almost universal. Virtually no reputable scholars will deny that. That he existed is the only fact on which almost everyone can agree.

So, why are there so few contemporary historical references to Jesus? Well, the truth is there if you look. The best way to get noticed in those times was to be born wealthy or to be politically connected. Or, to cause trouble for those people, the ones who mattered.

Jesus was a nobody because he was not a Roman citizen. Almost none of the Jews of that day were.

Jesus was a nobody because he was from a hick country town. None of the residents of Nazareth mattered until it came time to pay taxes. They were considered to be uneducated, unsophisticated, and to have very odd strong speech accents.

Nazareth was a worker’s residential village of about 200 to 400 people. None of its residents were wealthy or politically important in any way.  John 1:46 echoes what was probably a common sentiment: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"

The town is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament, the Jewish Talmud, or the writings of contemporary historians like Josephus. The town was ignored and its residents were ignored.

A literal translation of the Greek text of John 1:46 reads like this: “and said to him nathaniel out of nazareth is able any good thing to be says to him philip come and see.” (There was no capitalization, punctuation, or spaces between words in these texts.)

At first, Jesus was ignored and rejected even in Nazareth. He was considered to be odd and just a carpenter. One time, his brothers went to get him before he embarrassed the family. Mark 3:21. They thought he was Ἐξέστη.

Ἐξέστη means to "to stand out of,” here meaning out of one’s mind, losing one’s senses, becoming irrational, out of one’s wits, or overwhelmed.

After he became established as a respected teacher, Jesus’ ministry was primarily in the rural towns among the poor people. All the Jewish wealth and power was concentrated in Jerusalem.

            It was not until the final three years of his life that Jesus was noticed outside of Nazareth. He soon became a very hot topic of intense discussion and he was quickly disposed of when he became a problem for the people who mattered.

Book Comment: A Survey of Old Testament Introduction

 

In his book, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, Dr. Gleason L. Archer presents a conservative discussion pf Old Testament canonicity, historicity, information about the Semitic languages, known textual problems, the “specific difficulties” presented by each book, archaeological evidences, how the Hebrew/Aramaic manuscripts were prepared and transmitted to new generations, and the challenges which can be presented by higher criticism.

Gleason sees the Old Testament as the preparation and the New Testament as the completion of the Christian message. He points out that “It made a great deal of difference that Greek was precise in expressing time values, and that Hebrew laid chief emphasis upon mode of action rather than upon tense.”

The survey takes each book verse by verse and discusses historical, textual, and modern questions. The text assumes some level of knowledge about archaeology, the Hebrew language, the history of the Middle East, various approaches to biblical criticism, and tends to become a little technical on some points. It is obviously intended for beginning college or seminary level students but is not above the understanding of the interested layman. Pastors and academics will definitely find it useful.

As with most books such as this, what you get from the book depends on what you bring with you. You may not agree with everything the author says. Luke (see below) advises you to think for yourself.

Information you will need to search for this book:

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A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Book Comment: Shocked by the Bible

 

In his book, Shocked by the Bible, Joe Kovacs points out numerous things which you probably did not know about the Bible. Kovacs makes no claim to be a Bible teacher. In fact, he says, ”I’m just a journalist fed up with the lack of accurate knowledge about what’s in the Bible.”

As with most books such as this, the author is not trying to tell you what to think. He specifically says that he does not expect you to agree with everything he says, He is trying to challenge you to read your Bible and to listen to what it says. Do not believe anything just because someone else told to believe it; let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth.

Some of the subjects Kovacs mentions include:

The Wise Men did not visit Jesus on the night of his birth in the manger in Bethlehem. No one knows how many wise men there were.

Some Christian theologians believe that Jesus appeared numerous times in the Old Testament.

Sex within marriage is celebrated.

What does “we are God’s children” really mean?

Information you will need to search for this book: Kovacs, Joe, Shocked by the Bible. The Most Astonishing Facts You’ve Never Been Told ((Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2008).

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A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Does 12-13-14 Have Any Special Meaning?

I imagine that the numerologists are very busy today looking for arcane messages in today’s date, 13 December 2014. This date can be represented as 12-13-14.  This alignment of dates will not happen again for 100 years.  Surely it must have some cosmic significance! Personally, I think it is just a coincidental arrangement of numbers due to our current dating system.

When I noticed the 12-13-14 arrangement, I thought about the significance of numbers, especially in the Bible, which does use numbers as symbols. Think of the numbers 3, 7, 666, and 1000. Some people think that they see beyond the obvious symbolic use of numbers and that they can detect many numerological messages secretly embedded in the text by God. This is on the same order as belief in the controversial Torah Bible Codes.

The hidden messages which do undeniably exit in the Bible were of human origin. For instance, investigate ATBASH. An example occurs at Jeremiah 25:26. These messages were meant by the writers to obscure the true meaning from hostile governmental authorities who might read the texts. The idea is "to hide in plain sight." Also investigate the use of acrostics, an intentional literary form used by some of the Old Testament writers. Two examples of biblical acrostics occur at Proverbs 31:10-31 and Psalms 119.

I do not believe that the Bible is full of hidden supernatural messages. That is a pagan Gnostic idea. God inspired the writing of the various books of the Bible as a coherent whole and it is intended to be understood. It is a tool, a book of revelation about the nature of God, not a book of puzzles.

The Bible tells us that God is not a man and that His ways are not our ways. God is totally other, unknowable, and perfect.  He moves in the sub-atomic places and in the cosmic places. The Bible is part of God’s effort to make the utterly unknowable (Himself) understandable, at least partly, to our inadequate tiny little minds. Over and over we are told, “the Kingdom of God is like ….” I believe that God has used the entire Jewish religious and cultural system to explain what He is like. The entire Bible points toward Jesus, Who is the ultimate revelation of Who God is.

Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: Links to Several Posts

Recently, there has a major burst of interest in the post on this blog about the messianic prophecy of the Star of Bethlehem.  Christians traditionally have believed that the Old Testament is full of references to Jesus and prophecies about Him.  Jewish scholars, of course, deny this and accuse Christians of misinterpreting scripture.  They say that we take words and phrases out of the context of the surrounding text.  Essentially, they are saying that we are practicing eisegesis.

Eisegesis (εἰς, eis, Greek = “into.”) is the process of interpreting a text or portion of text using one's own presuppositions, agendas, or biases. This is commonly referred to as reading your prior suppositions into the text.

Christian biblical scholars stress the need to practice exegesis of biblical texts and not eisegesis.  (Exegesis ἐξηγεῖσθαι (exegeisthai) The English meaning of this Greek word is “to explain,” or “to interpret.”  The idea is that the interpretation comes from within the text. This comes from the etymology of the word: ek (out) plus egeisthai (to lead), “to lead out.”

So, when Christians search the Old Testament for messianic prophecies about Jesus, are we guilty of practicing eisegesis?  The short answer is no and this is because Jesus Himself told us to do this.

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.” John 5:46

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:27

Listed below are the messianic prophecies discussed so far on this blog.  There will be others.  Click on the link to go to the post.

The Star of Bethlehem

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/07/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-star-of.html

He Will be Called Out of Egypt

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/02/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He is the Light of the World

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/02/messianic-prophecies-from-bible_24.html

Herod’s Slaughter of the Children of Bethlehem

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/03/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He Will Be from Nazareth

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/04/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

They Will Give Him Vinegar for His Thirst

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/06/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

A Prophecy Not Yet Fulfilled

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/07/messianic-prophecies-from-bible_29.html

He Will be Sold for Thirty Pieces of Silver

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2010/10/messianic-prophecies-from-bible.html

He Will Bring Light to the Lands of Zebulon and Naphtali

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2011/09/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

He Will Die Among the Wicked But be Buried With a Rich Man

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/01/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/05/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-he.html

God Has a Son

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/04/messianic-prophecies-from-bible-what-is.html

  

His Body Will Not Decay

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2012/12/messsianic-prophecies-acts-1610.html

Missing Something

On a calendar, we switched the page from March to April.   The next page said October, then November, then December. There was no sign of April through September.  This is the way that many people read their Bibles.

Many people don’t seem to realize that the Bible is one book.  They read only the New Testament.  They ignore, reinterpret, or “re-imagine” passages which are uncomfortable or which do not fit into their philosophy of life.

Messianic Prophecies From the Bible: The Star of Bethlehem

Messianic Prophecies is a recurrent segment in this blog.  To see links to several other posts, click here.

Old Testament:

“I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.” Numbers 24:17

New Testament:

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”  Matthew 2:1-2

In ancient times, stars and comets were often believed to be heralds of important events.  Stars were also seen as symbols of royal power.

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To see other posts about Messianic prophecies in the Bible, go to the Labels list at the bottom of this page.  The labels are in alphabetical order.  Click on "Messianic Prophecies."

Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: He Would Die Among the Wicked But Be Buried Among the Wealthy and Powerful

Old Testament Prophecy:

“And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.” Isaiah 53:9

New Testament Fulfillment:

Jesus was crucified and died between two thieves (Luke 23:32-43).  After Jesus’s death, a wealthy Israelite, Joseph of Arimathea (a secret believer and a member of the Sanhedrin; Matthew 27:57, Luke 23:50, Mark 15:43) asked Pontius Pilate for Jesus’ body (Mark 15:43-45).  The fact that Joseph was allowed to speak to Pilate attests to his social prominence.

Joseph and Nicodemus placed Jesus into Joseph’s tomb which Joseph had previously prepared for his own burial. (Matthew 27:59-60, Mark 15:46, Luke 23:53, John 19:38-42.)

Unusual Christian Places: Lexington Ice Center Miniature Golf

Lexington Ice Center Miniature Golf  in Lexington, Kentucky (USA) is described by Entertainmentdesigner.com  as “a mini-golf course God himself would be proud of. … we consider it kooky and memorable enough to make the top ten”

The complex is built around an ice skating/hockey rink to which has been added three 18-hole biblically themed miniature golf courses.  The three themes are : the New Testament, the Old Testament, and the Miracles course.  The individual holes are each based on a verse or passage of scripture, such as Jonah and the Whale, Mount Sinai, or the River of Blood.  

For those unfamiliar with miniature golf, it is usually played on short themed putting tracks which incorporate odd angles, obstacles, and themed characters or objects placed along the course.  At one famed course in Florida (USA) there once was a giant monkey whose tail swept regularly in front of the hole.

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Update: 27 July 2026: YouTube seems to have removed or blocked the previously attached video clip.

Jesus, the Suffering Servant

Yacov Rambsel, a Messianic Jewish rabbi, claims to have found the name Yeshua (Jesus) embedded in every major Old Testament messianic prophecy.  No matter what you think about the possibility of the reality of the Bible Codes, this is very interesting.  I am still very undecided on this.

Rabbi Rambsel says that in the "Suffering Servant" passage in Isaiah 53, counting every twelfth letter, the following is spelled out, "Jesus is my name."

The New and Old Testaments

The New Testament was originally written in all upper case letters with no spaces between consecutive words.  The Old Testament was originally written in all upper case letters with no spaces between consecutive words and with no vowels.  Neither language used any punctuation. The paragraph below will give you an idea of how this would look in modern English.

THENEWTESTAMENTWASORIGINALLYWRITTENINALLUPPERCASELETTERSWITHNOSPACESBETWEENCONSECTIVEWORDSTHELDTSTMNTWSRGNLLWRTTNNLLPPRCSLTTRSWTHNSPCSBTWNCNSCTVWRDSNDNVWELS

The Actual Hebrew Names of the Books of the Old Testament

The list below shows the Hebrew name of the book (with the translation) and the name under which the book is best known.  The order of the books is different than in the Christian Bible.

THE TORAH
Bereishith   In the Beginning   Genesis
Shemoth   The names   Exodus
Vayiqra   And He called   Leviticus
Bamidbar   In the wilderness   Numbers
Devarim  The words   Deuteronomy

THE PROPHETS
Yehoshua   Joshua
Shoftim   Judges
Shmuel   I & II Samuel
Melakhim  Kings   I & II Kings
Yeshayah   Isaiah
Yirmyah   Jeremiah
Yechezqel   Ezekiel

THE TWELVE
Hoshea   Hosea
Yoel   Joel
Amos   Amos
Ovadyah   Obadiah
Yonah   Jonah
Mikhah   Micah
Nachum   Nahum
Chavaqquq   Habbakuk
Tzefanyah   Zephaniah
Chaggai   Haggai
Zekharyah   Zechariah
Malakhi   Malachai

THE WRITINGS
Tehillim   Psalms
Mishlei   Poverbs
Iyov   Job
Shir Ha-Shirim   Song of Songs/Song of Solomon
Ruth   Ruth
Eikhah   Lamentations
Qoholeth   Ecclesiates
Esther   Esther
Daniel   Daniel
Ezra and Nehemiah are one book
Divrei Ha-Yamim   The words of the days   Chronicles

To read more from a jewish perspective, see here .

The Book of the Wars of the Lord

The Book of the Wars of the Lord is one of several otherwise unknown works mentioned in the Bible.  Gil Student, a Jewish scholar, in "On the Authorship of the Torah," at http://www.aishdas.org/toratemet/en_torah.html , says "... we have seen the talmudic and midrashic evidence that the forefathers, including Moshe, wrote books other than the Torah that were maintained and studied.  However, there is also much internal evidence that there were other books written."  The Book of the Wars of the Lord, quoted in Numbers 21:14-15, would be one of those books.

No one knows exactly what this book was but there have been many educated guesses: a collection of victory songs or poems; a book of Hebrew/ Israelite military history; another name for The Book of Jasher (mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18); a collection of sacred poems; and a military instruction manual written by Moses for use by Joshua.

Non-canonical books such as The Wars of the Lord are mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments and Paul even quoted pagan poets to make his points.

Book Comment: The Baptist Faith and Message

This book, The Baptist Faith and Message (1971), by Herschel H. Hobbs, was actually somewhat controversial upon its release.  Many called it ultra-conservative, even fundamentalist.  Actually it is a clear and concise statement of the beliefs of the majority of Southern Baptists.

Baptists come from the Anabaptist tradition, insisting on adult believer's baptism and denying the usefulness of infant baptism.  The name of the Southern Baptist Convention (the SBC) reflects our particular denomination's historical origins.  We arose during the conflict between North and South, the American Civil War.  We have long since left behind the main source of conflict with our northern brethren, a defense of the institution of slavery, and we are now worldwide, not merely "southern."  We number about 13,000,000.

The SBC is congregational; each church is autonomous and participation in state and national conventions is voluntary.  Each church calls its own pastor(s) and elects its own deacons (elders).  Elected representatives from the church attend the state and national conventions.  Statements by the conventions are "advisory" but are not binding on local churches.

The Baptist Faith and Message discusses our main doctrinal points.
1. We believe in "the competency of the soul in religion."  Man is endowed by God with the privilege of choice.  The relationship is between God and the individual believer.  Every person on Earth has an equal right to direct access to God.  The priesthood of all believers means that all believers have the right to read and interpret the scriptures as led by the Holy Spirit.
2. Baptism is by immersion only (βαπτίζω is Greek, meaning "I immerse").  Baptism is not a magical act, it is a statement of belief.
3. We practice "closed communion."
4. The Scriptures are inspired and inerrant in all their assertions.  They were written by men, divinely inspired, whose individual personalities and writing styles can be heard in their writings.  All doctrine must be based on the totality of scripture, not on hand-picked individual verses.  The ultimate criterion for interpretation of the Bible (Old and New Testaments) is Jesus Christ.
5. We are obligated by our salvation to offer this salvation to whoever will accept it.  We are not to compel or coerce belief.
6. We have a living faith, not a creedal one.
7. God is utterly holy and perfect.  He exists as one God in Three Persons, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  His ultimate revelation of Himself to man is Jesus Christ.
8. Man is created in God's image.  Every person on Earth is worthy of respect.
9. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, it is the freely given gift of God.
10. All believers are saints, "set apart."  The process of sanctification of the believer proceeds over our lifetime as we become increasingly like Christ; the believer's ultimate destiny is moral and spiritual perfection, like Jesus.  This is not the result of the believer's actions, but by the work of the Holy Spirit upon him or her.
11. All true believers endure to the end.
12. The Church, the Bride of Christ, is the ἐκκλησία, the body of all believers in Christ down through the ages and for all time to come.
13. The Lord's Supper (communion) is a symbolic act of obedience to Jesus.  It is for baptized believers only.

Names in the Bible: Amos

Amos: Hebrew for "burden bearer." Amos, a herdsman, was one of the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. Amos declared that God is the God of all the nations of the Earth, not just the God of the Israelites and that Israel, as God's Chosen People, has special responsibilities before God, not just on a corporate level, but each individual. Amos opposed ceremonial compliance without individual holiness.

Book Comment: A Song for Lovers

A Song for Lovers, by S. Craig Glickman, is a new take on The Song of Solomon. There were over 500 known commentaries written before 1700 Ad/CE and no one has stopped yet. In 1657, The Westminster Assembly said that all the commentaries served mainly to increase the cloud of obscurity surrounding the book. Glickman says that this may be because most of the commentaries work overtime to avoid a literal reading of the book, which would provide a Biblical affirmation of sex.

The interpretations include:
1. The book is a collection of unconnected love poems, with no coherent story or moral teaching.
2. The book is a liturgy for an unknown fertility cult.
3. The book is a piece of dramatic fiction about Shulamith's faithfulness to her shepherd lover in spite of Solomon's advances..
4. The book is a spiritual allegory with God as the groom and Israel as the bride; this is the traditional view of Orthodox judaism. Christian versions of this view substitute the Church, the New Israel as the bride. A few have said that the book is a pagan allegory about the deities Baal and Astarte.
5. The Syrian Wedding Feast Theory says the book is a collection of wedding songs for a seven-day festival. One objection to this idea is that the groom is crowned but the supposed queen is not.

Glickman prepared a new interpretation of the Hebrew text and noted especially that that Hebrew has a clearly defined male "you" and a female "you" so that it is possible to tell who is speaking to whom. He says it shows a chaste but intense courtship, a marriage ceremony, and a consummation, described enthusiastically and without flinching.

As Howard G. Hendricks, a professor of Christian Education at the Dallas Theological Seminary says in his introduction to the book, "Sensuous love with erotic overtones is God's intent for the marriage relationship.'

So, is The Song of Solomon an affirmation of chaste but highly sexual married love or is it an allegorical description of the relationship between God and His people?
Maybe it is both. God's ways are not our ways and His mind dwarfs ours. Regular readers of this blog know that, while not convinced, I am at least open to the possibility of the existence of the Bible Codes in, at least, the Torah. This would require a mind able to imbed phrases in seemingly unrelated material using complex mathematical formulae which can best be discovered using super computers. Perhaps God thinks on multiple levels at once. I would be willing to say He does.

Gematria

     In several of the prior posts I have been discussing the interesting subject of divinely inserted hidden codes which some believe that God placed into the Talmud, the first five books of the Bible.  Much of this work (or garbage depending on your belief about the subject) depends on the Cabalistic Jewish numerology system known as gematria.  

     The Cabalists believe that the Old Testament is written in a highly coded mathematically based  language.  Gematria, which originated in eighth century BCE Babylonia, is a system of numerology which assigns numbers to each letter of an alphabet (in this case, Hebrew). The numbers are used to decipher the true, hidden meaning of the texts.  It has been used in divination, magic, dream interpretation, and Old Testament interpretation.