Faith on Trial (26 page)

14. Greenleaf,
Testimony of the Evangelists
, 33.

15. Federal Rule of Evidence 601.

16. Ibid.

17. Neil Asher Silberman, “Searching for Jesus,”
Archaeology
, November–December 1994, vol. 4, 30–40.

18. William Barclay,
The Gospel of Luke
,
rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), 52.

19. Frederick T. Zugibe,
The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry
(Lanham, MD: M. Evans & Company, 2005), 12–14.

20. This aspect of the nature of Jesus is noted by Wilson, in
Jesus: The Evidence
,
54–55.

21. Werner Keller,
The Bible as History
(New York: William Morrow, 1981), 323–24; also see William Barclay,
The Gospel of Luke
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), 20.

22. Papyrus first-century census forms have been found indicating the census was required every fourteen years. John McRay,
Archeology & the New Testament
(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 154–55; see also Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
,
48. The Roman census order was found in Egypt and dates from
ad
104 during the reign of the emperor Trajan. It is analagous to the one described in the Gospel of Luke. Also see Barclay,
The Gospel of Luke
,
21.

23. Eric M. Meyers, “Galilee in the Time of Jesus,”
Archeology
,
November–December 1994, 41; also see Neil Asher Silberman, “Searching for Jesus,”
Archaeology
, 30–40.

24. The discovery is best described in Finegan,
Archeology of the New Testament
, 82; for pictures of the excavated fishing boat, see Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
,
80–83.

25. Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
,
82.

26. William Barclay,
The Gospel of John
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), vol. 2, 52–57.

27. Greenleaf,
Testimony of the Evangelists
, 47.

28. Ibid., 34.

29. The theorem has been paraphrased in English as follows: “All consistent axiomatic formulations of number theory include undecideable propositions.” See Douglas R. Hofstadter,
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
(New York: Vintage Books, 1980), 17 for a brilliant explanation of the theorem.

30. Roger Penrose,
Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 72.

31. See David J. Chalmers,
The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); Penrose,
Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness.

32. Dennis Overbye, “Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe,” July 4, 2012,
The New York Times, Science,
NYTimes.com; Gautam Nair, “Discovery May Help Tell Universe Secrets,” July 5, 2012,
The Wall Street Journal
, A3.

33. For a detailed description of the Big Bang cosmology and NASA’s research, go to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) website: WMAP’s Universe/Cosmology/Universe 101:Big Bang Theory, http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_theory.html.

34. See Paul Davies,
The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World
(New York: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, 1992); Stephen W. Hawking,
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
(New York: Bantam Books, 1998).

35. Ibid., NASA, Universe 101: Big Bang Theory.

36. For a general discussion of the scientific basis for these statements, see Patrick Glynn,
God: The Evidence
(Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 1997); Davies,
The Mind of God;
Hugh Ross,
The Creator and the Cosmos
(Peabody, MA: NavPress, 1993); Hawking,
A Brief History of Time.

37. See Hubert P. Yokey,
Information Theory and Molecular Bi
ology
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 257.

38. Ibid., 242.

39. See Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley, Roger L. Olsen,
The Mystery of Life’s Origin
(Dallas: Lewis and Stanley, 1984, 1992).

40. Robert Shapiro,
Origins: A Skeptic’s Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth
(Orangeville, Ontario: Summit Books, 1986), 104. Robert Shapiro was, until his death in 2011, a professor of chemistry at New York University. He remains a leading authority on origin of life research.

41.
Chemical & Engineering News
, October 20, 2008, 12; Claudia Dreifus, “A Marine Chemist Studies How Life Began,”
The New York Times
,
Science
, May 17, 2010.

42. Shapiro,
Origins: A Skeptic’s Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth
, 116.

43. “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome,”
Science
, July 2, 2010. Online publication at www.sciencemag.org: May 20, 2010. Also see: “Craig Venter Creates Synthetic Life Form,”
The Guardian
, May 20, 2010.

44. “Ethical Considerations in Synthesizing a Minimal Genome,”
Science
, December 10, 1999, vol. 286, no. 5447, 2087–90.

45. Ibid.

46. See Michael Behe,
Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
(New York: The Free Press, 1996), for a discussion of “irreducibly complex” biochemical systems of the human organism. Behe’s work is controversial, criticized by his adversaries first and foremost on the basis that his conclusions imply intelligent design. Given the time required (millions of generations), the number of organisms required, and other limitations involved in calculating the probability of all biological subcellular microsystems mutating productively, from a practical point of view we’ll probably never know which side is right, and from a theological side it doesn’t matter if you believe that a creator is perfectly capable of designing an evolutionary process. The issue for the jury at this moment, however, is not who is right but rather that here again the “unknown” is studied rather than disregarded.

47. The existence of dark matter, derived from indirect, circumstantial evidence, was first confirmed by results from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite announced on April 24, 1992. But in 2003 astronomers realized that dark matter made up only 24 percent of the density of the universe, and that 71.4 percent of density is a gravitationally repulsive dark energy. Nasa website: www.nasa.gov/universe/uni_matter.

48. “New Findings Suggest Massive Black Holes Lurk in the Hearts of Many Galaxies,”
The New York Times,
January 14, 1997, B9; also see Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
, and Ross,
The Creator and the Cosmos
. Observations by the Hubble telescope provide compelling evidence for the reality of black holes, and most scientists now accept that they exist.

49. Ibid.

50. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle holds that the position and the momentum of any subatomic particle cannot be known or measured simultaneously.

51. Simon Singh, “The Proof is in the Neutrino,”
The New York Times
, June 16, 1998, A31. Physicists in Japan have demonstrated the neutrino has mass.

52. Greenleaf,
Testimony of the Evangelists
, 38.

Chapter Six

1. Greenleaf,
The Testimony of the Evangelists
, 39.

2. Ibid., 40.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid., 43.

5. Chalmers,
Evidences of the Christian Revelation
, American ed., quoted in Greenleaf,
The Testimony of the Evangelists
, 44.

6. Tacitus, “
Annales xv:44
,” in Bettenson,
Documents of the Christian Church
, 1–2.

7. Seutonius, “Suet. Vita Claudii, xxv.4,” in Bettenson,
Documents of the Christian Church
, 2. Seutonius was a Roman historian under the emperor Hadrian.

8. Pliny (the Younger), “Epp. X (ad Traj.), xcvi,” in Bettenson,
Documents of the Christian Church,
3.

9. Ibid., 3–4.

10. Bruce,
The New Testament Documents
, 113.

11. Flavius Josephus,
Antiquities of the Jews
, bk. 18; chap. 3 (3). Reprinted in
The Complete Works of Josephus.

12. The monograph in Arabic was published by an Israeli scholar in 1971. See Wilkins and Moreland,
Jesus Under Fire
, 213. Also see Habermas
,
Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus
, 91–92.

13. Habermas, Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus, 92.

14. Flavius Josephus,
Antiquities of the Jews
, bk. 20, chap. 9 (1), in
The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus
, 423.

15. Habermas,
Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus
,
98. The Talmud contains several other references which may possibly be references to Jesus of Nazareth; however, many were written centuries later, and not all are positive.

16. Keller,
The Bible as History
, 328–29.

17. Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 48.

18. Justin Martyr, “Dialogue with the Jew Trypho,”
in
Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament,
30.

19. Origen, “
Against Celsus
. I 51,” in Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
, 30.

20. Ibid., 36.

21. Ibid., 43–49.

22. Ibid., 48.

23. Stuart Miller, “Sepphoris, the Well Remembered City,”
Biblical Archaeologist
,
June 1992, vol. 55; 74–83; Neil Asher Silberman, “Searching for Jesus,”
Archaeology
, 30–40.

24. Miller, “Sepphoris, the Well Remembered City.” Miller noted that this connection was first recognized by Richard A. Batey.

25. As noted in Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
,
61–63.

26. Ibid., 66.

27. Flavius Josephus,
Antiquities of the Jews
, book 18, chap. 5 (2), (4), in
The Complete Works of Josephus
.

28. Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
, 99.

29. Ibid., 104. Carbo specifically referred to a reference by Jesus from Luke 7:9
rsv
(“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith”). Also see Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
,
78.

30. Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 78.

31. Record of a pilgrimage by Aetheria, quoted by Peter the Deacon (
AD
381–384). The quote appears in Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
,
110.

32. “We come to Capernaum into the house of St. Peter, which is a basilica.” Anonymous of Piacenza, in
ad
570; quoted in Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
,
110.

33. Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
,
107–9. The floors of other houses located around the one identified with Peter were of beaten earth or basalt pebbles; in this house the floors were treated with crushed limestone, and its walls were constantly replastered and decorated, evidencing special attention throughout many centuries, back to the first century.

34. Ibid., 109; also see Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 8.

35. Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
, 109–10; also see Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence,
79. In the fourth century a new ceiling and additional rooms were added, and the venerated room appears to have begun to be used as a church.

36. Revised from a compilation in Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 81.

37. Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 82–83.

38. Ibid.

39. Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
, 156–62.

40. Pictures and a description of the excavations are contained in Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament,
158.

41. Ibid., 159.

42. Ibid., 81–82.

43. Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 82.

44. The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, New American Standard, 2,079.

45. Walter E. Rast,
Through the Ages in Palestinian Archaeology
(Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992), 134; also see John Rogerson and Philip Davies, “Siloam Tunnel,”
Archaeology
, September 1996, vol. 59, no. 3; “Rejoinder to Rogerson & Davies,”
Archaeology
, December 1996, vol. 59, no. 4.

46. Josephus,
Wars of the Jews,
book 5, chap. 5(6), in
The Complete Works of Josephus,
555.

47. Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 109–11.

48. Ibid., 112.

49. Ibid., 112–13.

50. Eusebius, “Onomasticon,” in Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament
, 175.

51. Account of the pilgrim, Aetheria (381–384) in Finegan,
The Archeology of the New Testament,
178.

52. Ibid., 181.

53. Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 123.

54. Silberman, “Searching for Jesus,”
Archaeology
, 38. Also see Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
, 106–7.

55. Silberman, “Searching for Jesus,”
Archaeology
, 38. Also see Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence,
108, 119.

56. The first reference is in
Antiquities of the Jews
, book 18, chap. 2 (2), in
The Complete Works of Josephus,
378. The second reference is in
Antiquities of the Jews
,
book 18, chap. 4(3), in
The Complete Works of Josephus
, 381.