WHERE WE ARE

We are in the process of critically evaluating the final objection in a group of a dozen objections that constitute a 21st-century case by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell against the Swoon Theory. I have previously shown that the other eleven objections in this case fail. So, whether this case as a whole fails or succeeds now depends on whether this last objection fails or not.

I call this last objection of the McDowell’s 21st-century case against the Swoon Theory, the Early Writers Objection. This last objection consists of two arguments:

• The Non-Christian Historian Argument
• The Early Christian Writers Argument

Both of these arguments support the same intermediate conclusion:

A. Jesus died while he was on the cross.

If the conclusion (A) can be shown to be true, that would also show that the Swoon Theory is false:

A. Jesus died while he was on the cross.

L. IF Jesus died while he was on the cross, THEN the Swoon Theory is false.

THEREFORE:

M. The Swoon Theory is false.

In Part 5 of this series, I showed that the Non-Christian Historians Argument was a bad argument. and that it should be rejected. So, at this point, the only hope remaining for the McDowells’ case is the Early Christian Writers Argument. If that second argument also turns out to be weak or defective, then the Early Writers Objection against the Swoon Theory fails, and the 21st-century case against the Swoon Theory by the McDowells would also fail.

In this current post, we will critically examine the Early Christian Writers Argument for the intermediate conclusion (A).

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITERS ARGUMENT

Here is the second argument given by the McDowells for the intermediate conclusion (A):

4a. The earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

K. The earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth provide us with accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus of Nazareth.

THEREFORE:

A. Jesus died while he was on the cross.

As with the first argument, this is NOT a deductively valid argument. That is because even when a historian generally provides accurate and reliable information about a person, the historian might also provide some false or inaccurate information about that same person. Historical accuracy and reliability does NOT imply that 100% of the historical information is 100% accurate. Based on such a high standard, no ancient historian or writer would count as providing accurate and reliable historical information about anyone.

However, if premise (4a) and premise (K) were both true, then that would give us a good reason to believe the conclusion (A). So, I am not going to challenge the inference in this core argument. If there is a significant problem here, it will be with the truth or falsehood of the premises.

THE SUB-ARGUMENT FOR THE KEY PREMISE (4a)

Here is the sub-argument for the key premise (4a):

5. Polycarp asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

D. Polycarp was one of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

6. Ignatius asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

E. Ignatius was one of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

THEREFORE:

4a. The earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

This inference of this sub-argument seems fine to me, unless we take the quantification of (4a) to be “ALL”:

4b. ALL of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

Premise (4b) might be true, but it might also be false. However, I don’t think this objection by the McDowells requires such a strong claim. Something like the following weaker claim would be sufficient:

4c. A FEW of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ (including Ignatius and Polycarp) asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

Two examples (such as Ignatius and Polycarp) would give us a good reason to believe that (4c) was true. So, with this clarification, understanding (4c) to be the intended meaning of (4a), I accept the inference in this argument.

THE UNSTATED PREMISES OF THE ARGUMENT FOR (4c) ARE DUBIOUS

Premises (D) and (E) are both dubious, because (a) it is not clear that the writings attributed to Ignatius and Polycarp are authentic; they might not have been written by Ignatius and by Polycarp, and (b) it is not clear that the original words and sentences of these writings have been accurately preserved in the copies of them that currently exist. Because of doubts about authenticity and textual preservation of these writings, premises (5) and (6) are also dubious. I will argue that premises (D) and (E) are dubious later, in a separate post.

EVALUATION OF THE STATED PREMISES OF THE ARGUMENT FOR (4c)

Setting aside, for the moment, doubts about the authenticity and textual preservation of these writings, premise (6) appears to be correct:

6. Ignatius asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

Although letters allegedly by Ignatius do not clearly state that “Jesus died while on the cross,” this is strongly implied in the Epistle to the Trallians:

…Jesus Christ…who really was persecuted under Pontius Pilate, who really was crucified and died while those in heaven and on earth and under the earth looked on…

(The Apostolic Fathers, edited and Revised by Michael Holmes, updated edition, 1999, p.165)

Victims of crucifixion were on public display, both as a warning to would-be criminals and rebels and also as a way to humiliate the crucified person. So, the idea that people “looked on” as Jesus died implies that Jesus died while he was still hanging from the cross. If Jesus had died after being taken down from the cross or after being placed into a stone tomb, then only a few people or none at all would have been looking at Jesus when he died.

Even if we set aside doubts about authenticity and textual preservation, premise (5) is false:

5. Polycarp asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

The McDowells don’t bother to provide any actual quotes from Ignatius or Polycarp. They just make historical claims about these people without providing any actual historical evidence to support their claims. The McDowells and other Christian apologists, as we have seen, frequently make FACT-FREE arguments based on historical claims and historical assumptions without providing actual historical facts or evidence to support their claims.

There is only one letter by Polycarp that still exists: his Epistle to the Philippians. I have read that letter in three different translations, and Polycarp never states that “Jesus was crucified” nor that “Jesus was nailed to a cross” nor that “Jesus was hung from a cross” nor that “Jesus died as a result of crucifixion”. Polycarp’s letter never uses the words “crucify”, “crucified”, or “crucifixion”. He does use the word “cross” twice, but does not state that Jesus was nailed, hung, tied, or attached to a cross. Polycarp does not state that “Jesus died on a cross.”

The closest that Polycarp comes to asserting that Jesus was crucified and died on a cross is this sentence:

…Christ Jesus, “who bore our sins in his body upon a tree,”…

(The Apostolic Fathers, edited and Revised by Michael Holmes, updated edition, 1999, p.165, Letter to the Philippians, 8.1)

Polycarp does not say that Jesus “bore our sins upon a cross”, nor that Jesus was “crucified for our sins”, and he does not state that Jesus “died upon a cross” or that “Jesus died on the day he was crucified” or even that Jesus “died upon a tree”. Polycarp does not say that “Jesus was hung upon a tree” nor that “Jesus was nailed to a tree” nor that Jesus “Jesus was tied to a tree” nor that “Jesus was attached to a tree.” Clearly, suffering on a tree is NOT the same thing as dying on a cross. Polycarp did not clearly assert that Jesus was crucified nor that Jesus died while hanging on the cross. Therefore, premise (5) is false.

Because premise (5) is false, the argument for the key premise (4c) is a bad argument and it should be rejected. Thus, the McDowells have failed to provide a good reason to believe that the key premise (4c) is true, and (4c) might well be false. Furthermore, premise (4c) implies that (5) is true, so the key premise (4c) is actually false. This gives us a good reason to reject the Early Christian Writers Argument portion of the Early Writers Objection.

THE SUB-ARGUMENT FOR THE KEY PREMISE (K)

The other key premise of the Early Christian Writers Argument is (K). Here is the sub-argument for premise (K):

D. Polycarp was one of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

H. Polycarp provides us with accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus of Nazareth.

E. Ignatius was one of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

I. Ignatius provides us with accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus of Nazareth.

THEREFORE:

K. The earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth provide us with accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus of Nazareth.

The inference from the premises to the conclusion seems OK, so long as we understand the quantification of the claim (K) to be modest:

K1. A FEW of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth (including Ignatius and Polycarp) provide us with accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus of Nazareth.

As with Tacitus and Josephus, the McDowells provide ZERO evidence for the accuracy and reliability of the historical information about Jesus provided by Ignatius and Polycarp. But without the assumption that they provide accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus, without the assumption (K1), the Early Christian Writers Argument fails.

There are a couple of important questions about Ignatius and Polycarp that are relevant to determining the accuracy and reliability of their historical claims about Jesus:

Q1. Were Ignatius and Polycarp familiar with some of the four Gospels?
Q2. How much of the information they provide about Jesus appears to have come from one or more of the four Gospels ?

If Ignatius and Polycarp were familiar with some of the four Gospels, and if their information about Jesus came mostly from one or more of the four Gospels, then the information they provide about Jesus is no more accurate or reliable than the information we already have from the Gospels. This is the same problem that we saw previously with the accuracy and reliability of Tacitus’s information about Jesus. Tacitus probably got his information about Jesus from Christian believers who in turn learned about Jesus from the Gospels.

Ignatius and Polycarp were familiar with some of the Gospels, and what they say about Jesus appears to be based on what they read in the Gospels. Therefore, the historical information that they provide about Jesus is no more accurate or reliable than the Gospels, which we have previously seen to be historically unreliable accounts of the life, trials, and crucifixion of Jesus.

Because these Christian leaders were familiar with the Gospels and because their information about Jesus can reasonably be traced back to what they read in the Gospels, their historical claims about Jesus are dubious and provide no additional evidence beyond the weak and dubious contents of the Gospels. Therefore, the key premise (K1) is false.

POLYCARP WAS FAMILIAR WITH SOME OF THE FOUR GOSPELS

Setting aside doubts about the authenticity and textual preservation of the Letter to the Philippians, it is clear that Polycarp was familiar with the Gospel of Matthew, because he quotes or uses phrases and sentences from that Gospel that do not appear in the other three Gospels:

Blessed are …they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

(Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians, 2.3, Lightfoot Translation)

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

(Matthew 5:10, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Pray also…for them that persecute and hate you…

(Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians, 12.3, Lightfoot Translation)

44 But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…

Matthew 5:44, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Polycarp also quotes or uses phrases and sentences that are found in both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, so he might have also been familiar with the Gospel of Luke:

…but remembering the words which the Lord spake, as He taught; Judge not that ye be not judged. Forgive, and it shall be forgiven to you. Have mercy that ye may receive mercy. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again; and again Blessed are the poor and they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

(Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians, 2.3, Lightfoot Translation)

7 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.

(Matthew 7:1, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

14 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

(Matthew 6:14-15, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;

(Luke 6:37, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

One indication that Polycarp was familiar with the Gospel of Luke is that he uses this phrase:

Blessed are the poor and they that…

(Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians, 2.3, Lightfoot Translation)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus blesses the “poor”, but in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus blesses the “poor in spirit”:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

(Matthew 5:3, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Another indication that Polycarp was familiar with the Gospel of Luke is that Polycarp appears to be familiar with Acts, which was a companion volume to the Gospel of Luke that was written by the same author.

…our Lord Jesus Christ… whom God raised, having loosed the pangs of Hades;

(Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians, 1.2, Lightfoot Translation)

²⁴ But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

(Acts 2:24, Revised Standard Version)

…”believing in him who raised” our Lord Jesus Christ “from the dead and gave him glory” and a throne at his right hand; to whom all things in heaven and on earth were subjected, whom every breathing creature serves, who is coming as “Judge of the living and the dead,” for whose blood God will hod responsible those who disobey him.

(from The Apostolic Fathers, edited and Revised by Michael Holmes, p.207 & 209)

⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.

(Acts 10:42, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Surprisingly, the phrase “judge of the living and the dead” occurs only once in the New Testament, and that is in the above verse from Chapter 10 of Acts.

Polycarp also used a sentence found in both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark, so it is possible that he was also familiar with the Gospel of Mark:

…according as the Lord said, The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.

(Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians, 7.2, Lightfoot Translation)

41 Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

(Matthew 26:41, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

38 Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Mark 14:38, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Based on the above evidence, Polycarp was familiar with the Gospel of Matthew and with Acts, and it is likely that he was also familiar with the Gospel of Luke. Polycarp might have also been familiar with the Gospel of Mark, but that is less certain.

Although Polycarp does not clearly state that Jesus was crucified or that Jesus was hung on a cross, because he was familiar with the Gospel of Matthew and with Acts, he must have been aware of the story that Jesus had been crucified and that Jesus had (allegedly) died on the cross, according to the Gospel of Matthew and Acts. Furthermore, when Polycarp stated that Jesus “bore our sins in his body upon a tree” (Letter to the Philippians, 8.1) it is reasonable to interpret the word “tree” as a reference to the cross, because Acts often speaks of Jesus’ cross as a “tree” (Acts 5:30, 10:39, and 13:29).

Thus, although Polycarp does NOT clearly state that Jesus was crucified and that Jesus died on the cross, it is very likely that Polycarp believed that this was the case, based on his familiarity with the Gospel of Matthew, and with Acts, and probably with the Gospel of Luke, and based on his reliance on these books for information about Jesus.

WHAT POLYCARP WROTE ABOUT JESUS WAS BASED ON THE GOSPELS

Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians does not contain much information about the life and ministry of Jesus, but it does refer to the alleged death and resurrection of Jesus and to various teachings of Jesus about how his followers should live and behave.

Polycarp probably believed that Jesus was crucified and that Jesus died on the cross, and he clearly believed that Jesus taught people to be loving, forgiving, non-judgmental, and so on. But the things that Polycarp believed about Jesus all correspond to what the Gospel of Matthew, the Gosepl of Luke, and Acts say about Jesus. Polycarp does not appear to have any “knowledge” or information about Jesus that goes beyond what these Gospels and Acts say about Jesus.

It is reasonable to conclude that Polycarp’s information about the life, ministry, teachings, trials, crucifixion, and death of Jesus was based on the Gospels, at least the Gospel of Matthew, and on Acts, and probably on the Gospel of Luke. For this reason, the information that Polycarp provides about Jesus in his Letter to the Philippians (the only writing by Polycarp that still exists) is no more accurate or reliable than the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Luke, and Acts.

The Letter to the Philippians does not add any further evidence to the claim that Jesus died on the cross beyond the dubious evidence that we already have from the Gospels and from Acts. Thus, the key premise (K1) of the Early Christian Writers Argument is false. Therefore, the Early Christian Writers Argument is a bad argument that we should reject. It fails to provide a good reason to believe the intermediate conclusion (A).

IGNATIUS WAS FAMILIAR WITH SOME OF THE FOUR GOSPELS

Setting aside doubts about the authenticity and textual preservation of the seven letters of Ignatius, it is clear that Ignatius was familiar with the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, and with Acts.

There are at least four passages where Ignatius quotes from or references passages from the Gospel of Matthew:

(Ephesians 14.2, from: Ignatius of Antioch by William Schoedel, p.75)

33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

(Matthew 12:33, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

(Smyrnaeans 6:1, from: Ignatius of Antioch by William Schoedel, p.230)

12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”

(Matthew 19:12, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

(Polycarp 2:2, from: Ignatius of Antioch by William Schoedel, p.262)

16 “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

(Matthew 10:16, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

(Magnesians 5.1, from: Ignatius of Antioch by William Schoedel, p.108)

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

(Matthew 22:15-22, New International Version)

(Smyrnaeans 3.2, from: Ignatius of Antioch by William Schoedel, p.225)

³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

(Luke 24:39, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

(Magnesians 5.1, from: Ignatius of Antioch by William Schoedel, p.108)

25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”

(Acts 1:25, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

WHAT IGNATIUS WROTE ABOUT JESUS WAS BASED ON THE GOSPELS

The Christian apologist Gary Habermas has examined the letters of Ignatius and pointed out several claims about Jesus in them (See The Historical Jesus by Gary Habermas, pages 231-233):

• Jesus was of the lineage of David
• Jesus was born of Mary
• Jesus really lived, ate, and drank on the earth
• Jesus was crucified and died at the hands of Pontius Pilate
• After Jesus was crucified, God raised Jesus from the dead
• Jesus was the Son of God as shown by his virgin birth
• Jesus was baptized by John
• Jesus was nailed to the cross under both Pilate and Herod
• Jesus was raised in the flesh (a physical body)
• After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to Peter and the disciples and told them to touch his body, which they did

[NOTE: That “God raised Jesus from the dead” is NOT a historical claim. It is primarily a philosophical or theological claim, although it does have a historical component (it implies the historical claim that Jesus died on the cross, and the historical claim that Jesus was alive a few days after he was removed from the cross).]

All of the above claims about Jesus are asserted or implied by the Gospel of Matthew and/or the Gospel of Luke, so it does not appear that Ignatius had other sources of information about the historical Jesus beyond what he learned from those Gospels. Thus, the letters of Ignatius, even assuming them to be authentic and assuming the text of the originals has been well preserved, the statements about Jesus in those letters are probably based on the Gospels and thus are no more accurate or reliable than the information about Jesus presented in the Gospels. The letters of Ignatius fail to provide any further or additional evidence about Jesus beyond the unreliable information in the Gospels, and we may reasonably conclude that premise (I) is false:

I. Ignatius provides us with accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus of Nazareth.

Because premise (I) is false, the sub-argument for the key premise (K1) is a bad argument that we should reject. Thus, premise (K1) is dubious. Furthermore, the key premise (K1) implies that premise (I) is true, so the key premise (K1) is actually false. That gives us a good reason to conclude that the Early Christian Writers Argument is a bad argument that fails to support the intermediate conclusion (A).

EVALUATION OF THE EARLY WRITERS OBJECTION

The Early Writers Objection basically consists of two arguments for this intermediate conclusion:

A. Jesus died while he was on the cross.

The two arguments were these:

• The Non-Christian Historian Argument
• The Early Christian Writers Argument

If either of these two arguments were a strong and solid argument, that would give us a good reason to believe that (A) was true, and that would imply that the Swoon Theory was false. However, both of these arguments are bad arguments.

Here is the core argument of the Non-Christian Historian Argument:

1a. Non-Christian historians from the first and second centuries recorded the death of Jesus of Nazareth as taking place while Jesus was hanging on the cross.

J. Non-Christian historians from the first and second centuries who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth provide us with accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus of Nazareth.

THEREFORE:

A. Jesus died while he was on the cross.

In Part 5 of this series, I showed that premise (1a) was false, and that premise (J) was probably false. So, we should reject this bad argument for the intermediate conclusion (A).

Here is the core argument of the Christian Writers Argument:

4c. A FEW of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ (including Ignatius and Polycarp) asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died while on the cross.

K1. A FEW of the earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ who wrote about the death of Jesus of Nazareth (including Ignatius and Polycarp) provide us with accurate and reliable historical information about Jesus of Nazareth.

THEREFORE:

A. Jesus died while he was on the cross.

In this current post, I have shown that the key premise (4c) is false, and that the key premise (K1) is also false. So, we should reject this argument. Thus, the Christian Writers Argument fails to give us a good reason to believe the intermediate conclusion (A).

Because both of these arguments are bad arguments, the McDowells have failed to give us a good reason to believe the intermediate conclusion (A), and thus (A) is dubious and might well be false. Therefore, the Early Writers Objection against the Swoon Theory fails, just like all of the eleven other objections in the 21st-century case by the McDowells fail.