Archeological evidence of Jesus doesn't quell faith for believers

COLUMBIA — Centuries after his life and death, scholars, believers and skeptics alike debate the existence of Jesus Christ.

Is there any physical evidence of this man whose life lies at the center of a religion practiced by roughly a third of the world's population and defines the West and its calendar?

About 150 people gathered in Columbia recently to hear and talk about evidence of Jesus Christ's existence. Katharina Galor, a scholar with 20 years of archaeological experience in Israel, explored this question in her lecture "Jesus: What is the Archaeological Evidence?"

The lecture, held earlier this month at MU's Keller Auditorium, was sponsored by the Central Missouri chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America as part of its lecture series.

Galor, a Brown University professor, specializes in the archaeology of the location and era that encompasses the period of Jesus' life. Much of her talk focused on the archaeological evidence for the structure and layout of Jerusalem in the first century.

Early in the lecture, Galor made a half-serious claim: "I could navigate first-century Jerusalem better than today's."

Pat Kraff and Nancy Mebed came to the lecture because of an interest in the relationship between science and religion. They said their faith was not in question, regardless of what the archaeology revealed.

"I don't depend on historical evidence for my belief," Kraff said.

Yet belief might have to suffice for any physical evidence of Jesus' life, according to Galor's lecture.

Galor said at the time many people believe Jesus lived, Jerusalem was surrounded by a wall, which has been expanded at different times in history. Today it encloses the part of Jerusalem referred to as the Old City. The Old City encompasses the Temple on the Mount, the site of the first Jewish temple and near the purported site of Jesus' crucifixion and tomb.

In the lecture, Galor described how archaeological evidence paired with textual study has been used to develop a picture of first-century Jerusalem.

A first-century historian, Josephus, left several works that corroborate archaeological discoveries. Matching his accounts with remnants of the Old City provides a fairly accurate picture of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' life, Galor said.

Most of what we know about Jesus' life, Galor added, comes from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament of the Bible. The Gospels chronicle different aspects of Jesus' life from different angles; however, Galor said they aren't the best guides to reconstruct the physical landscape touched on in their stories

"The Gospels are not concerned with physical descriptions of locations, and when they are, it is very vague," Galor said.

There is one site in Jerusalem that has not been ruled out by physical evidence, Galor said. In 325, Constantine the Great's mother, Helena, visited Jerusalem to find Jesus' grave and crucifixion site. During her visit and search, Helena was directed to the spot where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands as the location of Jesus' burial and crucifixion, Galor said.

Archaeological evidence supports the possibility that Helena's location was correct, she said. The church has two first-century tombs on site and is located outside the first-century city walls, where burials of the time usually took place.

"All you can really say is that the evidence doesn't discount it," Galor said.

LeRoy Olson asked Galor the critical question about the authority of Helena's siting of the temple: "What went on from 70 c.e. [the date of Roman occupation] until Helena's visit?"

Galor said the accuracy of Helena's site cannot be archaeologically or historically verified.

"We haven't uncovered any archaeological evidence for Jesus individually, and there is not much hope that we ever will," she said.

Finding physical evidence for a single individual is extremely rare, Galor explained. Usually, only the very wealthy can afford the tombs and memorials that allow for individual identification by archaeologists.

And the Gospels don't present a wealthy Jesus.

Christina Cunningham, who attended the lecture, rephrased Galor's summary. When asked about the lecture's relationship to her religion, she quoted the well-known saying of faith, which must, it appears, satisfy the scientific quest for physical evidence of Jesus' existence: "If you have faith, no evidence is necessary. If you lack faith, no evidence is sufficient."