Why are there so few contemporary historical references to Jesus?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So, why are there so few contemporary historical references to Jesus?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.

References to Jesus in the Talmud

The Latin language work, Jesus in Talmude (1699), by Rudolph Martin Meelfuhrer in Altdorf, Germany, was the first book devoted entirely to the subject of references to Jesus in the Talmud.
Most modern Jewish scholars view the references as reactions to Christian proselytism of Jews.

During the Middle Ages, Jews and Christians argued over the references, which the Christians interpreted as insulting to Jesus.  Some of the Jewish scholars said the references were to someone else other than Jesus.  Some of the references were removed from later editions of the Talmud.  Since the early 20th Century most Talmuds include the references.

The most commonly identified references to Jesus in the Torah:
He was a sorceror. Bablyonian Sanhedrin 43a-b
Healing was performed in his name. Hullin 2:22f; Abodah Zarah 2:22/12; Jerusalem Shabbath 124:4/13; Qohelet Rabbah 1:8; Bablyonian Abodah Zarah 27b
He was a Torah teacher.  Bablyonian Abodah Zarah 17a; Hullin 1:8; Qohelet Rabbah1:8
He was a son who turned out badly.  Sanhedrin 193a/b; Berakoth 17b
He was a magician and an idolator.  Sanhedrin 107b; Sotah 47a
He was punished in hell.  Bablyonian Gittin 56b, 57a
He was executed.  Bablyonian Sanhedrin 43a-b
He was the son of Mary.  Shabbath 104b; Sanhedrin 67a

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: Cracking the Bible Code

"All that was, is, and will be unto the end of time is included in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible."  So said the Lithuanian (though born in Belarus) Talmudic scholar Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (1720 - 1797).  He was a mathematician and bible commentator who memorized the Talmud.  


When the rabbi was challenged, "Where is the Rambam?" (The 12th Century Rabbi Moses ben Maimonides), he instantly responded, "Rabot (may be multiplied) Moftai (my wonders) B'eretz (in the land of) Mitzraim (Egypt)."  This is Exodus 11:9.


Rabbi Moshe Cordevaro (1522-1570) had earlier said, "The secrets of our holy Torah are revealed through knowledge of combinations, numerology (gematria), switching letters, first-and-last letters, shapes of letters, first- and last- verses, skipping of letters (dilug otiot) and letter combinations."


Both men were echoing an ancient Jewish tradition that the Torah was dictated by God to Moses letter by letter and that it contained coded or encrypted information about the past, present, and future.*  This is the subject discussed by Jeffrey Satinover in Cracking the Bible Code (1997).  For example, Satinover points out that AHRN (Aaron) occurs twenty-five times in the Hebrew text at equidistant spaces in Leviticus 1:1-13, a passage in which Aaron is not mentioned.


The claim of hidden messages in the scriptures is at the heart of Kabballah, Jewish mysticism.  There are currently many teams of researchers using computers to search for names, sentences, predictions, etc.  Many claim to have found mentions of historical and modern persons and events.  Most are using the Old Testament Hebrew text; a few are attempting to use the same techniques on the Greek text of the New Testament.


Who knows?  It seems unlikely, but who would dare to insist it is not true?  Is it a situation like what is said in the film, The Number 21, "You're finding it because you're looking for it."?  It does seem dangerous, though, to base one's faith in the Bible on Bible Codes, religious relics, the Shroud of Turin, or other such things when we have the Bible itself and the witness of the Apostles.  The Bible Codes might be equivalent to seeing Jesus' face in a plate of spaghetti.    


















* Many modern theologians, including many Jewish scholars, believe that someone, possibly Moses, assembled the Torah from earlier, far more ancient, sources.  

The Acrostic in the Sign on Jesus' Cross

"And Pilate wrote a title, and put [it] on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, [and] Greek, [and] Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written I have written." John 19:19-22

Acrostics in the Bible are not the same thing as the Bible Codes which some believe that God has embedded into the Tanakh (Old Testament) and especially in the Talmud, the first five books. The Bible Codes are considered to be predictive of future events which would have been unknowable to the writers of the original texts. The Bible Codes would be, by their very nature, supernatural.

An acrostic is a poetic form in which the first, and sometimes the last, letters of a line in the poem form a word, a name, and sometimes a sentence. They are an intentional poetic form and occur in many places in the Old Testament. In "The Epitaph on the Cross of Yeshua," Chuck Missler suggests that the Hebrew line on the sign which Pilate wrote contained the acrostic YHWH, the Tetragrammaton, Yahweh, The Name of God. This would be an otherwise unknown ocurrance of the Hebrew poetic practice in the New Testament. http://xwalk.ca/yhwh.html

Pilate obviously meant to insult the Jewish leaders by what he wrote. Thinking that he understood the complexities of Hebrew poetry might be a stretch.

In "Acrostic Code Failure," Joel Stienke shows how the supposed acrostic in the sign could not be correct because it violates common Hebrew practice in the use of the letter "waw." The article is a highly technical explanation of Hebrew grammatical usage which shows that the words could not have spelled out YHWH, but instead probably YHHH or, more likely YHMH. There was probably no acrostic involved. http://xwalk.ca/acrostic.html

Joel Steinke holds a Masters of Divinity degree from Concordia Seminary and is a conservative Lutheran.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian. Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, their religious beliefs, or their actions. This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Barret Swatek: (b. 1977, Alabama) Figure skater, film, television, and internet actress,

Nicholas Donin: (.fl. 1240, France) aka: Nicolas Donin. Jewish convert to Roman Cathlicism, became a Franciscan. Virulently anti-Jewish. At his urging, Pope Gregort IX seized all copies of the Talmud. In France. About 12000 Talmuds were burned.

Dennis Colin Leary (b. 1957, Massachusetts) Actor, comedian, writer, director. Raised as a Roman Catholic.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu: (b. 1931, South Africa) Apartheid opponent, first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Capetown. 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.

Sven I: (b. 985 – d,. 1014) King of Denmark.