The Strand Study Bible

LUKE LUKE NOTE -While it is true that many of the OT prophets and saints may not have understood the actual death, burial and resurrection of CHRIST ( Lk 18:34 and I Pet 1:10 a ), it is also true that every O.T. saint understood the “facts” behind the actual death, burial and resurrection of CHRIST , and it is the “facts” behind the Gospel that save a person ( I Cor 15:1 ). 2:39 After the death of Herod, the kingdom was divided amongst his three sons: Archelaus (Judah and Samaria), Antipas (Galilee and Perea), and Philip (NE Palestine). The reason Joseph and Mary “ returned into Galilee ” is because “ Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod ” (Mt 2:22), and like his father, he too was a wicked, bloody king. 2:40 Despite the argument made by skeptics and infidels that the biblical Jesus never existed, there are numerous accounts within secular antiquity literature that prove otherwise. The oldest testimony to the existence of Jesus ( And the child grew ) is in the Syriac letter of Mara, a philosopher, to his son Serapion (c. AD 74), in which Mara compares Jesus to Socrates and Pythagoras, noting that the Jewish nation that killed “the wise king of the Jews” was justly punished for murdering Him. 2 Note some of the other sources: Flavius Josephus (c. AD 37-101), the famed Jewish historian, in The Antiquities of the Jews noted: 1623 Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works – a teacher of such man as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. 3 Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus ( Jesus – my emphasis ), from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broike out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. 4 They ( the Christians – my emphasis ) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to do any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food – but food of an ordinary and innocent kind. 5 The Talmud (c. AD 200), the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is much quoted in rabbinic literature, notes: On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, “He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.” But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of the Passover. 6 Lucian (c. AD 125- 180), a Greek writer and rhetorician who was noted for his witty and scoffing nature, noted: The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day – the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account… 7 Although there are numerous accounts within secular antiquity literature that proves the biblical Jesus to have existed, all one truly needs for proof is the Bible. Why? Because as Norman Geisler puts it: Tacitus (c. AD 55- 117), a Roman historian, noted: Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, in his tenth book called Natural History noted (c. AD 112): For example, there are over 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament. There are also some 86,000 quotations from the early church fathers and several thousand Lectionaries (church-service books containing Scripture quotations used in the early centuries of Christianity). Point being: The New Testament has an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting its reliability ( Lk 10:22 ). By comparing the manuscript support for the Bible with manuscript support for other ancient documents and books, it becomes overwhelmingly clear that no other ancient piece of literature can stand up to the Bible. F.H.A. Scrivener (1813-1891), one of the greatest textual critics of the past, in Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament notes: As the New Testament far surpasses all other remains of antiquity in value and interest, so are the copies of it yet existing in manuscript and dating from the fourth century of our era downwards, far more numerous than those of the most celebrated writers of Greece or Rome. 9 F.F. Bruce, who served as professor of biblical criticism and exegesis at the University of Manchester, in The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? notes: No other book is even a close second to the Bible on either the number or early dating of the copies. The average secular work from antiquity survives on only a handful of manuscripts; the New Testament boasts thousands. 8

The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of lassical authors, the authenticity of which no one dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generality be regarded as beyond all doubt. It is a curious fact that