Is Christianity Based on Fraud?

Written by Pamela Binnings Ewen

In answer to the question of motive to falsify, history teaches that the authors wrote their Gospels at a time when they had absolutely no incentive to be dishonest in relating the events they narrated. It is a historical fact that it was politically and socially dangerous to preach the gospel in Palestine, Rome, or the surrounding areas in the first century. Even if it were possible to deceive so many people into believing that Jesus had risen from his grave three days after burial, the witnesses would have had great incentive to conclude that this was not true. The authors of the Gospels certainly had nothing to gain materially or politically from telling the stories. All of them suffered greatly for the rest of their lives, and most of them died as a result of their belief that this resurrection occurred. For example, in A.D. 115 Ignatius, a bishop in the early Christian church in Antioch, Syria, wrote that as a result of persecution for their beliefs, "Peter was crucified, Paul and James were slain with the sword; John was banished to [the island of] Patmos; Stephen was stoned to death . . ."{1}

The danger inherent in the position of the authors of the Gospels or that of any other person preaching the word of the Gospels in the first century is evident in the historically verified treatment of that group of people. In A.D. 37 the mad Caligula became emperor of Rome, and worship of any god in preference to him was an invitation to cruel oppression. Any reference to Jesus as the "Messiah" or with an indication of divinity or even kingship was inflammatory. Caligula was replaced by Claudius in A.D. 41, and followers of Jesus were temporarily expelled from Rome because they were viewed as troublemakers—as a monotheistic group they refused to recognize the emperor as god.{2} Agrippa I, a grandchild of Herod the Great, became the client-king of Judea under Caligula and continued to reign under Claudius. As members of a messianic movement disliked by both the Jewish leadership and the Romans, Christians became an attractive target for Agrippa.{3} The followers of Jesus were isolated. Their situation became precarious, from everyday economic deprivation to the terror of relentless persecution.

In A.D. 67 the emperor Nero treated the people of Rome to a great circus of events, using Christians as the entertainment. The early writer Tacitus described it this way: "Besides being put to death they were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were clad in the hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed. Nero had thrown open his grounds for the display, and was putting on a show in the circus, where he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or drove about in his chariot."{4} Tacitus lived between A.D. 55 and 117 and was known to have hated both Christians and Jews alike. He referred to Christians as "a class hated for their abominations."{5}

A letter from Pliny (the Younger), governor of Bithynia, in what is now known as Turkey, to the emperor Trajan during the same period, made it clear that in general a follower of the teachings of Jesus could escape punishment easily by recanting his or her belief in Christianity.{6} He described his method of interrogation: "I ask them if they are Christians. If they admit it I repeat the question a second and third time, threatening capital punishment; if they persist, I sentence them to death. For I do not doubt that, whatever kind of crime it may be to which they have confessed, their pertinacity and inflexible obstinacy should certainly be punished. . . . All who denied that they were or had been Christians I considered should be discharged . . ."{7}

A picture of the prison in Rome known as the Mamertine in which many followers of Jesus died and in which the apostle Peter is believed to have been held for nine months illustrates what awaited anyone who held to the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. The Mamertine was a dungeon, described as a dank underground hole cut out of surrounding rock, with only two ten-foot-deep chambers. Prisoners were thrown into the hole through one entrance in the ceiling. No fresh air or light could enter, and it was never cleaned. Prisoners went mad in this dungeon; almost everyone who entered the Mamertine died there.{8}

The historical facts do not support an argument that a reasonable motive existed for falsification of the Gospel testimony. We may therefore assume, unless otherwise contradictory evidence comes to light, that the authors of the Gospels had no motive for fabrication.

References

1. "The Epistle of Ignatius to the Tarsians," in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986), 107.
2. Seutonius, "Suet. Vita Claudii, xxv.4," in Documents of the Christian Church, selected and edited by Henry Bettenson (Oxford University Press, 1963. Second Edition), p. 2. Also see: A. N. Wilson, Paul: The Mind of the Apostle (W.W. Norton & Company, 1997), pp. 94–106.  
3. Paul: The Mind of the Apostle, pp. 99–100.
4. Tacitus, "Annales, xv.44. The Neronian Persecution," in Documents of the Christian Church, 2.
5. Ibid.
6. Pliny (the Younger), "Plin. Epp.x (Ad. Traj.), xcvi," in Documents of the Christian Church, p. 3.
7. Ibid.
8. George F. Jowett, The Drama of the Lost Disciples (London: Covenant Publishing Co., Ltd., 1970).

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