Editorial December 16, 1972 Issue

Did Jesus Really Exist?

Naomi Price

From time to time people express doubts as to whether the character and life of Christ Jesus are authentically portrayed in the Gospels—or even whether he actually existed as a person at all.

There are comparatively few and brief references to Jesus by Jewish or Roman writers near his day. Many believe that all we know of his life and teaching was handed down by word of mouth to followers who had not personally known him. It was probably not until three or four decades after the ascension that the first of the Gospels was written. Yet these recorded incidents and teachings have had (and still do have) profound influence upon countless millions of people. They have inspired, comforted, reformed, and healed humanity, and raised both the morally and physically dead to useful, happy lives. They have enriched, guarded, guided mankind, replaced hate with love, injustice with justice, sickness with health, ugliness with beauty—and they do today.

Could such blessings have come to the human race through unfounded faith? Could a fictional character have so influenced a world for good for nearly two thousand years?

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