The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ

by Brant Pitre

there are compelling reasons for concluding that the four Gospels are first-century biographies of Jesus, written within the lifetime of the apostles, and based directly on eyewitness testimony.

And by the way, in a first-century Jewish context, it wasn’t blasphemy to claim to be the Messiah. But it was blasphemy to claim to be God.

In the words of John Meier: “[O]ne of the most striking things about Jesus was his crucifixion or execution by Rome. A Jesus whose words and deeds would not alienate people, especially powerful people, is not the historical Jesus.”4

First, Psalm 22 is a song of trust that God will save his suffering servant despite the appearance that God has abandoned him.

whenever you see the word “nations” in the Old Testament, that is an English translation of the Hebrew word for all non-Jewish peoples—the Gentile “nations” (Hebrew goyim). Thus, Psalm 22 begins with the persecution and execution of the king of Israel, but it ends with the miraculous conversion of the pagan “nations” to the worship of the LORD, the God of Israel!

How can Jesus say such a thing? For a first-century Jew, what could possibly be greater than the Temple? What could be greater than the dwelling place of God on earth? Only God himself, present in the flesh.41

According to Jesus, it is not just his resurrection from the dead that will be a reason for believing in him. It is also the inexplicable conversion of the pagan nations of the world—the Gentiles.