Transcription
In this video, I want to share with you some fascinating testimony from the first century about how some Christians did not believe that Jesus, in fact, was crucified. And this belief, of course, we find taught in Islam. It's there in the Quran. And I want to read a passage from a very prominent early Christian Bishop. His name is Ignatius. He's normally known in the church as Saint Ignatius of Antioch, and he was martyred. Actually, he was sent to Rome to be eaten by lions, apparently. And on route to Rome from Antioch, which is a very big Roman city in the ancient world, uh, it's hardly in existence today. It's found in modern Turkey, actually. On his way to Rome, he wrote seven letters. And one of them, uh, tells us about the beliefs of some people that Jesus wasn't crucified.
Now, this man, as I say, was a first-century Bishop. He was the second or third after Peter, according to some sources. And he was born in the early 30s A.D., so around the time that Jesus left the scene. So his life overlapped even with some of Jesus' disciples, like, uh, like his brother James, for example, Jesus' brother James, who was head of the church in Jerusalem, and we'll kind of come back to him in a minute. In the meantime, let's go back to the letter I mentioned, found in this book, uh, "Early Christian Writings," published by Penguin Classics. And one of the letters is called his Letter to the Magnesians. And in, uh, section 9, it says, as I read the passage, and then I'll try and unpack it a bit, because it's not always very clear, uh, to modern ears what he might be saying. He says, "We have seen how former adherents of the ancient customs have since attained to a new hope." He's talking about people who follow Judaism are becoming Christians, actually. So that they have given up keeping the Sabbath. So these good people have given up keeping the Sabbath and now order their lives by the Lord's Day instead.
Now, the Lord's Day, in the Christian calendar, of course, is Sunday rather than Saturday. So they switched from the Jewish to the Christian, uh, calendar now. And then he says, "The day when life first dawned for us, thanks to him," meaning Jesus, "and his death. That death, though Ignatius says, though some deny it, is the very mystery which has moved us to become believers." That little phrase, "though some deny," he's aware of people who call themselves Christians in the first century who deny that Jesus died on a cross. And as I say, this is a belief found in Islam, of course, in the Quran. So this is a remarkable first-century testimony from one Christian believer, a prominent Christian, about other Christians who did not agree with Ignatius. Now, Ignatius, of course, condemns these people. That's not my point. My point is they existed, and this is evidence that they existed from a prominent Christian source. So that's the first. It's got quite an interesting fact, really, isn't it? That these believers did exist. The Quran says, obviously, that Jesus wasn't crucified. And here we have evidence that first-century Christians, some also did not believe that Jesus was horribly put to death on a cross. That, in fact, it might have appeared that he was, according to the Quran, but in fact, God saved him. He supernaturally saved him from his enemies, as indeed Jesus appealed to God, according to the Gospels, that he'd be rescued. And God answered his prayer. That would be a, a possible Muslim view, I think.
So my second point, really, is to do with one of the greatest ironies of history. And again, this is to do with the origins of Christianity. And we come back to Ignatius again. Ignatius of Antioch, a bishop, uh, probably the second or third after Peter, according to some early records, um, a very well-known character who's still remembered in the liturgy of the church today, in the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, and so on. He says something very interesting in the same letter. This is Ignatius's Letter to the Magnesians, in section number 10, as it's called in this book. And I'm going to read what he says, and then I'm going to, this is with a great, great, I think it's one of the great ironies of world history. And he says, "To people," he's writing to, "to profess Jesus Christ while continuing to follow Jewish customs is an absurdity. He says, the Christian faith does not look to Judaism, but Judaism looks to Christianity, in which every other race and tongue that confesses their belief in God has now been comprehended."
Now, what I want to focus here is this clear sense that to be a Christian, for Ignatius, is that you do not follow Judaism. Indeed, to do so is an absurdity. Christian faith does not look to Judaism. Now, why is this ironic? I think this is a great irony, one of the biggest ironies in world history, as I say. Why? Because Jesus himself, even according to the Christian Gospels, and this is my Bible, the New Revised Standard Version, which is the gold standard, by the way, of translations of the Bible, according to the scholarly community. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said some very interesting things about the Jewish law, about Jewish customs, and so on. For example, Matthew chapter 23, the first four verses, where Jesus denounces these scribes and the Pharisees. These are Jewish, uh, people, of course. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees, they sit on Moses' seat." In other words, they teach the law. This is an authoritative statement. If you sit on Moses' seat, literally and figuratively, you are a teacher of the law. Therefore, says Jesus, "Do whatever they teach you, but don't, and follow it," he says, "but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them." And so on. That's the first interesting point. So Jesus is telling his disciples to obey the Jewish law. These are the 613 Commandments given by God himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, of course. You can read about this in the book of Exodus. And this is the Torah, the instruction, the teaching, the law given by God to Moses. Jesus is telling his disciples, as I say, those who, to those who sit on Moses' seat, "Do whatever they teach you and follow it, but don't do as they do because they're hypocrites, basically."
First piece of evidence. Secondly, this is the same chapter, verse 23: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others." Without neglecting the others. So you've got to get your priorities right. You've got to practice the law, the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, faith, but don't neglect the other matters of the law. So the law has to be obeyed. This is not being abrogated. And indeed, in, in the Sermon, the very famous Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, uh, verse 17, almost, Jesus says to his disciples, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law; no, no, I have not come to abolish it but to fulfill it. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot, not one tittle, will pass from the law until all is accomplished." So the law is still to be followed, albeit in the way that Jesus interpreted it. So the renewed emphasis on mercy and love and faith, the love of your neighbor and so on, yes, but the law itself is not abolished.
Now, that's interesting, isn't it? So remember what Ignatius said here. We have the, uh, "Early Christian Writings" book. "To profess Jesus Christ while continuing to follow Jewish customs is an absurdity. The Christian faith does not look to Judaism." But Judaism looks to Christianity. Remember, Jesus was advocating the practice of the Torah. The Torah is what Jews do, even today. Orthodox Jews, obviously, follow, try and follow, to the best of their ability, the Commandments of God found in the Torah. This is the Jewish faith. But what about the early church? So if we look at the book of Acts again, in my trusty red Bible here, who is the head of the church? Now, Catholics, of course, will tell you Peter. Peter was the first Pope. Hmm. What does the Bible say? Well, in the book of Acts, Acts is a book after the Gospels. It's basically a history of the earliest history of the church, mostly centered around Paul, actually. It's more to do with, it's more the acts of Paul than the Acts of the Apostles, but hey. Um, but it tells us, almost unwittingly, it kind of mentions that the head of the church in Jerusalem was a man called James. Why does he matter? Because all our evidence tells us in the Bible and in other multiply attested independent sources that James was not just the, he was the brother of Jesus, and he was the head of the church in Jerusalem. And he was a, he was appointed or elected, depending on which source, by other Apostles themselves, Peter, by John, for example. And Peter and others appointed him their leader. Why does this matter? Well, what do our sources tell us about the faith of James? Who was he? But what did he do religiously? He was, according to our sources, a practicing Jew. Not just like Paul, who had different views about the law, but he upheld the law and practiced it.
So, for example, in, uh, Acts 21, there's a story where Paul the Apostle Paul visits James at Jerusalem. And, uh, it says here, in verse 18, "The next day Paul went with us to visit James, and all the elders were present." So James, the head of the church, and his council, his elders. And, uh, Paul then said some things. But the point is here, "When they heard, when then they said to him, James and the elders then said this to Paul, 'You see how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the law.'" They are all zealous for the law. So these are people who are coming into the church, to the Jesus movement. And what's remarkable about them, what James singles them out for, is their zeal, their zealousness, their enthusiasm for the Torah. The Torah had been, now this is after Jesus left the scene. This is the early, early church, of course.
Now, what's interesting is that Paul has been accused by some people, according to Acts 21, of having, uh, taught false things about, uh, the law, telling people not to observe the law of Moses, to forsake Moses, as it says, uh, not to circumcise their children, not to observe the customs of the Jews. Verse 22, James says, "What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. And so we tell you, we have four men who are under a vow. Join these men," says James, "go through the rite of purification with them and pay for the shaving of their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what you have been, there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself observe and guard the law." So he, he's been invited to bear witness that, contrary to the rumors, to forsake that he has forsaken Moses, he has taught the abandonment of the law. Oh no, no, no. Paul guards and, uh, observes the law. And then Paul, it says here, uh, "took the men," this is verse 26, "having purified himself, he entered the temple with them, making public the completion of the days of purification, when the sacrifice would be made for each of them." Quote unquote, verse 20, uh, 26.
What, what does this matter? This matters because even Paul, according to Acts, is bearing witness that he upholds the law. Um, now, I don't think there's a problem here because we know from Paul's letters, like Galatians, like Ephesians, that Paul said the law had been abolished. If you look up Ephesians chapter 2, verse 15, Paul says, "the law and its commandments has been abolished." So is Paul dissembling here in Acts? Is he telling a lie? Is he bearing false witness? It looks like he is. But this isn't just telling lies to James, because he's been asked to undergo this rite of purification in the temple. He has purged himself before God. If one takes this passage as historical, and I don't know if it is or not, because because there is a false testimony involved here. Paul taught that you could eat kosher food, for example. You could, you could eat, sorry, you could eat food that is not kosher. All food is clean, he said. You can eat ham, for example. He said that the law says you can't. So there's a problem there.
So here we have the early church. James, very proudly telling Paul about these Jews who are zealous for the law. We know James himself, head of the church, to the, to the 60s, until the temple was destroyed. He was famous amongst the Jews, according to Josephus, the Jewish historian, for example, in the first century. He said that James was famous, uh, for his zeal for the law amongst the Jews themselves. And we know from other sources like Eusebius and, uh, Hegesippus in the second century, etc., that James was known as a Torah observer in Judaism. So this was the faith of the early Christian community. They were practicing Jews. And then we come, of course, to Ignatius of Antioch, who says, uh, towards the end of the, uh, of his life, as he was born in the early 30s into the end of his life, he says, "The Christian faith does not look to Judaism. Don't practice Judaism. We practice Christianity." You see the irony here? The irony is that the religion of Jesus, the religion of his own brother James, who headed the church, was what we would call Judaism. It was the faith of Israel. Ignatius says, "Don't follow that faith. Follow a different path. Christianity." And in fact, the word "Christianity," which we find in here, according to the note in this book, is the first time that word ever appears in world literature. This is the earliest usage of that noun "Christianity" in any literature.
So here we have a new religion being proudly proclaimed by Ignatius on his way to martyrdom, and a clear rejection of the religion of James, of the religion of Jesus. Remember Matthew 23, okay, where Jesus tells his disciples to listen to those who sit on Moses' seat. "Do whatever they tell you, whatever they teach, obey it, but don't do as they do because they're hypocrites." Remember that. They're Jews. They're Israelites. They follow the Torah. Ignatius says, "Don't do that." So it's very interesting how the emerging church, the Gentile church, Ignatius was a Gentile, of course, completely disowns the mother faith, the parent faith of Christianity, which is Judaism. Says, "Don't follow it." They're following a different religion, it seems, from that of the Apostles and of Jesus himself.
So when I say this is ironic, you see my point, hopefully. It's one of the great ironies of history that the later emergent Christianity, which claims Jesus as its founder, rejected the very religion of its founder, rejected it completely, explicitly. And we see that very early on, even in a Christian leader who was alive for most of the first century. Extraordinary, isn't it? It's one of the great ironies of history, I think. And incidentally, as I say, he, he testifies to the existence of Christians who did not share his belief that Jesus was crucified. I believe the non-crucifixion of Jesus, that is clearly articulated in the Quran. The Quran's not making up beliefs that only came about in the sixth century. It's, uh, endorsing a view that early Christian, first-century Christians held that indeed Jesus is not crucified. And of course, only God knows the truth. And depending on our beliefs about the Quran, we'll accept that testimony or not. So that's the end of my video about the, uh, the greatest irony in religious history and a very early first-century witness from an emerging Trinitarian church about the non-crucifixion of Jesus, uh, on the cross, a view that is obviously expressed in the Quran. Until next time.