Michael's quest uncovers how the Christian message spread and grew through Roman expertise and technology, how it became more visible and therefore more vulnerable to attack by the Roman authorities, and how it organized itself and broke away from its Jewish roots. I am a small business owner and I live in northern Tasmania. Scholars who understand him in strictly human terms – as a religious reformer, or a social revolutionary, or an apocalyptic prophet, or even a Jewish jihadist –  plumb the political, economic, and social currents of first-century Galilee to discover the forces that gave rise to the man and his mission….. Others imagine the onslaught of Greco-Roman culture molding Jesus into a less Jewish, more cosmopolitan champion of social justice. Romey agrees the suggestion is groundless and is not supported by scholars. It is not really an “explosive question” because there is no debate among historians about the existence of Jesus of Nazareth. With their strange, secret and mysterious practices like communion, Christians are condemned as cannibals and deviants. Moreover, there were times when Jesus condemned violence (Matthew 5:39, 26:52). However, if Jesus had not been born in Bethlehem, his followers would have believed he was the Messiah. Getting back to Romey’s article, she also discusses the 1968 discovery of a first century house in Capernaum, Galilee, which was used as a meeting place and later converted into a Christian church. Although many Christians die, once again Christianity pulls through, this time with an organized hierarchy bound together by the struggle to survive. Forensic detectives, scientists, historians and archaeologists join forces to uncover the scientific underpinnings of the stories at the heart of the Scriptures in this National Geographic Channel presentation. Jesus: Rise To Power: Jesus: Rise To Power, Messiahs. It was more positive than I was expecting in a secular magazine. ( Log Out /  Archaeology cannot prove that everything in the New Testament happened or that Jesus was the Son of God. New Testament scholars talk about the criterion of multiple attestation to determine the authenticity of events in the Gospels. Romey writes about archaeology and the death of Jesus, “I marvel at the many archaeological discoveries made in Jerusalem and elsewhere over the years that lend credibility to the Scriptures and traditions surrounding the death of Jesus, including an ornate ossuary that may contain the bones of Caiaphas, an inscription attesting to the rule of Pontius Pilate and a heel bone driven through with an iron nail, found in the Jerusalem burial of a Jewish man named Yehohanan.” (p 68). Romey continues, “Crossan’s unorthodox thesis was inspired by archaeological discoveries showing that Galilee – long thought to have been a rural backwater and an isolated Jewish enclave – was in fact more urbanized and romanized than scholars once imagined, and partly by the fact that Jesus’ boyhood home was just three miles from Sepphoris, the Roman provincial capital.” (p 47). She says that some scholars doubt that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Watch full episodes, specials and documentaries with National Geographic TV channel online. It can be read online here. ( Log Out /  View all posts by Malcolm Nicholson. He did not sound like a political revolutionary. I discussed this in New Atheists and the existence of Jesus. All these attempts to reinvent Jesus do not make sense in that they do not explain why Jesus was crucified. In 1991 John Dominic Crossan published a bombshell of a book, The Historical Jesus, in which he put forward the theory that the real Jesus was a wandering  sage whose countercultural lifestyle and subversive sayings bore striking parallels to the cynics.” (p 46). Both camps claim archaeology as their ally, leading to some fractious debates and strange bedfellows.” (p 43), This is not really accurate. The Romans executed Jewish Messiah Jesus of Nazareth in the most humiliating way they could. Romey describes this division, “Scholars who study Jesus divide into two opposing camps separated by a very bright line: those who believe the wonder-working Jesus of the Gospels is the real Jesus and those who think the real Jesus – the man who inspired the myth – hides below the surface of the Gospels and must be revealed by historical research and literary analysis. However, Romey reports that in 2009 archaeologists discovered a first century synagogue in Magdala, Galilee, Mary Magdalene’s hometown (p 64-65). The so-called search for the historical Jesus often rejects the historical evidence. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. In an act of defiance at the Arena in Carthage, the martyr Perpetua assists her executioner by putting the sword to her own throat. For more than a decade before preaching at the age of 30, Jesus worked as a typical day laborer. Some skeptics claimed  that there were no synagogues in Galilee during Jesus’ lifetime, so the Gospel accounts of Jesus visiting synagogues must be wrong. Historians and archaeologists agree that Jesus existed, but not all of them believe Jesus was the Son of God who died and rose from the dead. What is Wrong with Holocaust Revisionism – Part One, What is Wrong with Holocaust Revisionism – Part Two. It is hard for some scholars to accept the supernatural details in the life of Jesus not because science has somehow disproved the supernatural and modern people no longer believe in the supernatural. In his quest to find out about the rise of Christianity within the Roman Empire, Dr. Michael Scott tackles the birth of the Christian religion. However, if that had been the case, the Romans would have crucified his followers who would have also been revolutionaries. The accounts of his birth in Matthew and Luke differ (p 46). Dr. Michael Scott sets outs across the historic landscapes of the ancient world to discover how and why, in just 400 years, the little-known Judaic cult of Jesus rises from a persecuted minority to become the official religion of the Roman Empire. Their claims have been disproved by archaeological discoveries  showing that Nazareth was there before Jesus was born (Robert Hutchinson, Searching for Jesus, Nelson Books, Tennessee, 2015, p 98-100). But he is not. | National Geographichttps://youtu.be/EJF18yvTF6gNational Geographichttps://www.youtube.com/natgeo Romey writes, “Jesus was raised in Nazareth, a small agricultural village in southern Galilee. Romes attempt to stamp out Christianity ends up inspiring it and ultimately helping it develop into a worldwide political and religious force. As Craig Evans, Professor at Acadia Divinity college, put it, “All this evidence leads to the firm conclusion that Sepphoris in Jesus’ day was a thoroughly Jewish city. Romey discusses the archaeological evidence for the events of Jesus’ life. Moreover, the archaeological evidence shows that Sepphoris was Jewish. Romey describes it as “an explosive question that lurks in the shadows of historical Jesus studies: Might it be possible that Jesus never even existed, that the whole stained glass story is pure invention?” (p  42-43). They come up with different and contradictory ideas about who Jesus “really” was because they do not want to belive what the actual historical documents, the New Testament, say Jesus was, the sinless, miracle-working Son of God. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account.