ZEITGEIST: THE MOVIE

That a man named Jesus, an obscure religious teacher, the basis of the fabulous Christ, lived in
Palestine about nineteen hundred years ago, may be true. But of this man we know nothing. His
biography has not been written. 334
In other words, when the mythological layers are peeled, there is no core to the onion. And, a composite
of 20 people, real or mythical, is no one.
55. However, to be fair, that doesn’t mean defenders of the historical Jesus haven’t
claimed the contrary. Four historians are typically referenced to justify Jesus’s
existence: Pliny the younger, Suetonius, Tacitus are the first three. Each one of their
entries consists of only a few sentences at best and only refer to “Christus” or the
Christ, which in fact is not name but a title. It means the “Anointed one.” The fourth
source is Josephus, and this source has been proven to be a forgery for hundreds of
years. Sadly, it is still cited as truth.
Before this subject is addressed, it is often argued that possibly the reason the biblically defined Jesus is
not discussed outside of the gospels is because he was largely ―unknown.‖ However, this argument is
contradicted by a wealth of evidence in the Bible itself. As Murdock comments in Who Was Jesus?
regarding the silence of contemporary historians:
…This silence is singularly astounding, in consideration of the repeated assertions in the gospels
that Christ was famed far and wide, drawing great crowds because of his miraculous healings,
causing a fracas with the local and imperial authorities, and, upon his death, creating astonishing
and awesome miracles and wonders the world had never seen before, including not only an
earthquake and the darkening of the sun and moon, but also dead people rising from their graves
and visiting people in town….
These ―great crowds‖ and ―multitudes,‖ along with Jesus‘s fame, are repeatedly referred to in the
gospels, including at the following: Mt 4:23-25, 5:1, 8:1, 8:18, 9:8, 9:31, 9:33, 9:36, 11:7, 12:15,
13:2, 14:1, 14:13, 14:22, 15:30, 19:2, 21:9, 26:55; Mk 1:28, 10:1; Lk 4:14, 4:37, 5:15, 14:25,
etc. 335
In this regard, Jim Walker says:
If, indeed, the Gospels portray a historical look at the life of Jesus, then the one feature that
stands out prominently within the stories shows that people claimed to know Jesus far and wide,
not only by a great multitude of followers but by the great priests, the Roman governor Pilate, and
Herod who claims that he had heard ―of the fame of Jesus.‖ (Matt 14:1) One need only read Matt:
4:25 where it claims that ―there followed him [Jesus] great multitudes of people from Galilee, and
from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.‖ The gospels
mention, countless times, the great multitude that followed Jesus and crowds of people who
congregated to hear him. So crowded had some of these gatherings grown, that Luke 12:1
alleges that an ―innumerable multitude of people... trode one upon another.‖ Luke 5:15 says that
there grew ―a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear...‖ The persecution
of Jesus in Jerusalem drew so much attention that all the chief priests and scribes, including the
high priest Caiaphas, not only knew about him but helped in his alleged crucifixion. (see Matt
21:15-23, 26:3, Luke 19:47, 23:13). The multitude of people thought of Jesus, not only as a
teacher and a miracle healer, but a prophet (see Matt:14:5). So, to say Jesus wasn‘t well known
is obviously contradictory to the Gospel claims. 336
As concerns the purported evidence of this widely famed, miraculous advent, the most disputed and
defended of the four historians listed above are Josephus and Tacitus, so it is to them that we will turn in
our analysis here. (For more information about the others, as well as Thallus, Phlegon and Mara Bar-
Serapion, see Murdock‘s Who Was Jesus?)
334 Remsburg, 24,
335 Murdock, WWJ, 84-85. See p. 85 for the list of historians and other writers as found in ―ZEITGEIST.‖
336 Walker, J., ―Did a historical Jesus exist?‖