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Jesus asked many questions. In fact, the Gospels record that Jesus asked more than 300 questions. I believe the most important is recorded in Matthew 16:15, where Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?

How we answer that question determines the kind of life we live today—it also determines our eternal destiny. The ramifications of how we answer that simple question are profound.

Who is Jesus? Let’s begin by determining whether or not Jesus was an actual historical figure.

Many larger-than-life characters in literature are but myth. Gilgamesh, Sinbad, Captain Hook, Sherlock Holmes, Ebeneezer Scrooge…These characters are fiction, invented stories—some to entertain—some to inspire.

So what about Jesus? Was he an actual historical figure? His story is recorded in the Bible, but is he mentioned in historical records outside of Scripture?

The answer is yes.

• Jewish Rabbinical literature from the first and second centuries, including the Babylonian Talmud, contains multiple references to Jesus.

• The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-100) wrote a landmark history book in about 93 AD. Called the Antiquities of the Jews, academics consider his writing the gold standard of compiling ancient history. In his work, Josephus writes of Jesus, John the Baptist, and other New Testament figures. Of Jesus, Josephus wrote: “He was a wise man…a doer of wonderful works…Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us…condemned him to the cross [but] he appeared…alive again the third day…”

• Tacitus (A.D. 56-120) was a Roman historian. His writings confirm that Jesus was crucified on orders of Pontius Pilate.

• Pliny the Younger (A.D. 62-111) was a Roman governor in the eastern realm of the empire. He wrote that Christians there worshipped Jesus as God.

• Lucian, born (c. AD 125 – 180), was a sharp-tongued satirical writer who mocked Christians but, in doing so, acknowledged the existence of Jesus and the growing number of Christians in his day. Lucian wrote: “Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…”
• Celsus (2nd century) was a philosopher who argued against the teachings of Christianity and, in doing so, acknowledged the existence of Jesus and his miracles (though he attributed them to “sorcery”).

Historians — Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and secular — authenticate the existence of Jesus. So now we return to the original question in Matthew 16: Who do you say that I am? Some believe Jesus was a good man, teacher, or even prophet, but was he more?

To answer that question, it seems logical to begin by considering who Jesus himself said he was.

Yes, Jesus spoke words of prophecy but did not claim to be a prophet. He was more than a profit. He claimed to be the fulfillment of prophecy.

Jesus claimed that the prophecies concerning the Messiah pointed to him.

Jesus did not claim to know about God, he claimed to be God. Not just one in purpose with God, but one in essence with God. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” Jesus said, “I will lay my life down, and I will raise it up again.” These are deity statements.

So, when Jesus asked, Who do you say that I am? He wants us to affirm not that he was a good man, or a good teacher, or a great prophet, but that he, as John 1:1 states, “Was with God and is God.”

These are profound claims. How do we verify whether or not they are true? Again, it is important to search out the truth in this matter because the answer to the question, Who do you say that I am? has profound, eternal ramifications.

Logically, we must see that if it can be shown that the Bible is true, then what Jesus said about himself must be true.

Is that possible? It seems rather easy to show that a book such as the Bible has inconsistencies or is somehow inaccurate.

The Bible is a collection of 66 books, written over a period of approximately 40 generations by approximately 40 different human authors.

The book is ancient. It was written by people with different educational backgrounds and training, who were living in different countries, and writing in different languages. And no author had access to all of the other writings (to somehow check for consistency). And yet somehow, all 31,102 verses in the Bible complement each other. The message is seamless and perfect.

There are a few apparent contradictions. For example, and Mark, we read that Jesus was crucified at the third hour, and in John, we read that Jesus was crucified at the sixth hour.

However, that apparent contradiction, and all the others, can be easily resolved. In this case, scholars note that Mark referenced a Hebrew system of keeping time, while John referenced the Roman system of keeping time. Both reference the same time.

It is the same as noting that an event will take place at 2 PM, or that it will occur at 14:00 hours. The two designations are different, but the meaning is the same.

The study of the reliability or integrity of an ancient text is called manuscript attestation. It is a scientific and well-respected field of study. And in this field of study, the Bible stands apart as having no equal.

After a thorough review of the biblical text, including a side-by-side comparison of the oldest known Hebrew copy of the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Christian and secular scholars found that no book begins to match the ratings assigned to the Bible by standards established by lead researchers in the field of manuscript attestation.

These integrity markers include harmony among the ancient texts, the field of distribution of ancient texts, dating of the oldest surviving copies relative to the original writing, the total number of early generation copies, and many other important factors. On every count, the biblical record rates several thousand percent higher than the so-called best-preserved works of antiquity.

Another way to judge the accuracy and integrity of the Bible is to determine if there have been archaeological discoveries that dispute the biblical record. Do archeological finds prove the biblical record to be an error? The answer is no.

In fact, the opposite is true. Archaeological finds continue to validate the reliability of the biblical record. For example…

For centuries, the existence of the biblical city of Nazareth was disputed, as ancient Jewish and Roman records, as well as the Old Testament, make no mention of the city.

The city of Nazareth in Israel today is not the same Nazareth where Jesus was born. However, in 1963 archaeologists discovered the very small ancient city, thus verifying the accuracy of the biblical record.

Other fairly recent archeological discoveries verifying the biblical record include:

• The Amarna Tablets, discovered in 1988, confirm the disputed biblical account of Joshua’s conquest of Gezer, Ashkelon, and Lachish.
• The biblical city of Bethel was found in 1919.
• The biblical city of Jericho was found in 1930.
• The Mari Tablets, found in 1933, confirm the existence of the disputed city, Nahor, as recorded in Gen. 24:10.
• The Elba Tablets, found in 1970, verify the existence of the long-disputed listing of cities Moses recorded in Genesis 14.
• The burial chamber of the High Priest Caiaphas was found in 1990. Its contents verified several aspects of the crucifixion story.
• The biblical city of Dan was found in 1993.
• The biblical city of Hazor was found in 1996.
• The first non-biblical reference to King David was found in 1976.

There are many similar examples. Suffice to say that the study of archeology confirms the biblical record is true. NO archeological find has disproven the biblical record.

And finally, I believe one of the most important ways to verify the integrity of the biblical record is to consider the accuracy of Bible prophecy. There are more than 1000 Bible prophecies in Scripture, and more than 90% of them should have been fulfilled by this point in history. If just ONE of these prophecies can be proven false—the claimed inerrancy of the Bible is undermined.

So the question is, are there any Bible prophecies that have been shown to be inaccurate, partially accurate, or outright in error? The answer is no.

Bible prophecy has been scrutinized by skeptics and believers. Though not all agree on what this means, all agree that the accuracy rate of Bible prophecy is 100%. The statistical probability of this happening, without divine, supernatural intervention, is zero.

That is not a spiritual statement, it is a mathematical statement.

Lee Stroble writes that Jesus fulfilled more than 125 prophecies when he walked the Earth approximately 2000 years ago.

The statistical probability of Jesus fulfilling, less than half of those prophecies is 10¹²⁹ power to 1.

That number is staggering—virtually unimaginable. It approximates the number of atoms, not in our solar system, not in our galaxy, but in the universe.

One in 10 to the 129^th  power is statistically zero. That is, the mathematical probability of Jesus fulfilling, less than half of the Messianic prophecies attributed to him is statistically zero.

It’s impossible. And remember, we’re talking about 50 or so prophecies and more than 900 prophecies have been proven to have unfolded exactly as foretold.

And these prophecies are not general, fortune-cookie-type prophecies, such as you will encounter a stranger in the future. No, biblical prophecies are specific. Such as Queen Jezebel dying and being eaten by dogs, or the sons of Eli dying on the same day, Jesus being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, His crucified body would be placed in the tomb of a rich man, that his side would be pierced but no bones would be broken. And the list goes on and on and on. Every prophecy was fulfilled exactly as foretold.

So historians verify that Jesus was an actual historical figure—not a myth

Manuscript specialists verify the profound uniqueness and integrity of the biblical text. Archeologists verify the biblical record is true.

Prophecies in the Bible verify the supernatural (or inspired) nature of Scripture.

The evidence is incontrovertible—and so, if the Bible is true, then what Jesus said about himself, as recorded in Scripture, is true.

In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me.

John 3:16 records that Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus spoke of our salvation because he is the Savior. In Hebrews 2:10 we read that Jesus is the author of our salvation.

He demonstrated his love for us by humbling himself—emptying himself, according to the Bible, and taking the form of a human, a servant.

He taught us how to live—he showed us how to live. And through his death, made it possible for us to have everlasting life. Who do you say that he is?  Is he your Lord and Savior?

Scripture encourages us to believe in him, to confess our sins to him, and to commit our lives to him, because in doing so, we will find salvation in him.

Title: Who is Jesus?