Mobile Ed: NT313 Jesus and the Witness of the Outsiders (1 hour course)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
In this course, Dr. Craig Evans explores various ancient sources that refer to Christ. He focuses on the evidence from extrabiblical sources, and looks at what they reveal about the life of Christ and how Jesus was perceived by early non-Christian witnesses. He examines references to Jesus in Roman, Jewish, and other writings, and looks at where Jesus’ name was invoked in both Christian and pagan charms and incantations.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion you should be able to:
- List several early Roman writers who referred to Jesus
- Describe how Josephus referred to Christ in his writings
- List places where Jesus’ name was invoked in charms or incantations
- Describe how the early references to Jesus by non-Christian sources relate to the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospels
- Explain how these early references shed light on the origins of Christianity
Course Outline
Introduction
- Introducing the Speaker and the Course
Unit 1: The Witness of Roman Writers
- Tacitus and Suetonius
- Pliny the Younger
- Celsus and Lucian
- Using Clippings to Document Ancient Non-Christian Witnesses to Christ
- Mara bar Serapion
Unit 2: The Witness of Jewish Writers
- Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities
- Using Timelines in Logos to Find Events in Jesus’ Life
- Translations of Josephus and Rabbinic Literature
- The Qur’an and Other Writings
- Building and Searching a Collection of Ancient Non-Christian Witnesses to Christ
Unit 3: Invocations of the Name of Jesus
- The Greek Magical Papyrus
- Silver Phylactery from Beirut
- Magic Bowls
- Curse Tablets and Lamellae
- The “Jesus Cup”
Conclusion
- Relevance of These Witnesses
Product Details
- Title: NT313 Jesus and the Witness of the Outsiders
- Instructor: Craig A. Evans
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2015
- Product Type: Logos Mobile Education
- Resource Type: Courseware, including transcripts, audio, and video resources
- Courses: 1
- Video Hours: 1
About Craig A. Evans
Dr. Craig A. Evans received his PhD in New Testament from Claremont Graduate University and his DHabil from the Karoli Gaspar Reformed University in Budapest. He is the John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins at Houston Baptist University in Texas.
Evans taught at Trinity Western University in British Columbia for 21 years, where he directed the graduate program in biblical studies and founded the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute. He has recently served on the advisory board for the Gospel of Judas for National Geographic Society and has appeared frequently as an expert commentator on network television programs.
Evans has written and edited extensively on the historical Jesus and the Jewish background of the New Testament era. His published works include From Prophecy to Testament, Jesus and the Ossuaries, Jesus: The Final Days, and Dictionary of New Testament Background.
Getting the most out of Mobile Ed
Logos Mobile Education is a highly effective cross-platform learning environment that integrates world class teaching with the powerful study tools and theological libraries available in Logos Bible Software. Every course provides links to additional resources and suggested readings that supplement the lecture material at the end of every transcript segment.
This course was produced with screencast videos. These videos provide tutorials showing you how to use Logos Bible Software in ways that are tied directly into the content of the course. We are now producing Activities resources as a replacement for screencast videos. We plan on updating this course to include this additional Activities resource in the future for no extra charge.
Reviews
48 ratings
Mark Dietsch
7/20/2023
Forrest Cole
11/9/2021
Shane Lems
5/12/2021
Richard
12/28/2020
I listened in one row through the course and even when I knew some of the mentioned facts, I still learned many new things. I believe that this course is useful for everyone that wants to know more about Jesus and witnesses from sources outside the Bible. On the one hand, is the course dense in information and could be listened twice. On the other hand, it is quite short and could have been longer. At last, this course gives a strong defence that Jesus Christ is not some fictional character that the early Christian Church invented.Dapo Olaoye
10/17/2019
Don Mikitta
3/28/2019
Andrew Heckmaster
3/2/2019
Rev. Prof. José Carlos Bertoni
2/9/2019
