Fabricating Jesus: Craig Evans Weighs in on the Jesus Debates

When CNN or Dateline NBC has a question about the historical Jesus, they call Craig Evans. Evans is a Gospels scholar and the author of numerous academic and popular books on the subject. With all the crazy theories swirling around about the historical Jesus these days—from the Da Vinci Code’s assertion that He was married, to the popularity of new gospels that present a very different Jesus—New Man thought Evans would be the perfect guy to clear up all the confusion. He did just that. And he didn’t pull any punches.

New Man: Your book, Fabricating Jesus, has a very accessible style, but it gets into some fairly technical topics, such as the dating of the Gospels and establishing the Bible’s authenticity. Why should the average Christian guy care about this stuff? Why can’t we just read the Bible and not worry about it?

Craig Evans: There are Christians who think that way, but they’re just putting their head in the sand. Not everybody has to be a scholar or apologist, but there had better be some within the church. Otherwise Christian faith will become detached from history and evidence and ultimately it will become detached from reason. It will be reduced to subjectivity. There needs to be some Christians in the church who know this stuff very well. All Christians need to know that their faith is not based on myths and legends.

New Man: In the book you write that it’s fine to say that the Spirit of God tells me the Bible is true, but that it isn’t very convincing to an outsider.

Evans: Yes, what do you say to a person who says, “The Spirit of God isn’t telling me anything?” After all Mormons will say that if you pray and ask God to show you that Joseph Smith told the truth and the Book of Mormon is true. Well I don’t believe that for one second. It’s rubbish! That’s because there is no evidential basis to believe it. I’d hate for Christians, who really have something that is credible, sell out and reduce their witness to a Mormon level.

New Man: Let’s talk about some of the books out there. Lately there’s been a huge interest in extracanonical gospels (gospels that are not in the Bible). Should any of these gospels be on par with the ones we have in the Bible?

Evans: No! Not by a mile. And it’s not because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are in the New Testament and have special privilege. I’m speaking as a historian and as a scholar who looks at evidence and, believe me, if the gospel of Thomas (the extracanonical gospel some claim to be as early as the biblical accounts) could really be dated to the first century and really did provide us with some new material about Jesus I would welcome that. But that’s a pipe dream. The evidence just doesn’t bear it out.

New Man: If these gospels—like Thomas—are so late, how do you account for their popularity and the fact that some scholars have championed them?

Evans: I would have to be able to read minds to answer that. I have no idea. It’s like the gospel of Peter. This gospel has a talking cross in it and angels whose heads reach into the heavens. And yet, believe it or not scholars like Dominic Crossan and a few others actually argue that a part of the gospel of Peter goes right back to the A.D. 40s and are the very source that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John used! That is absolutely nuts! Yet they make the argument. How do they make the case for these gospels? Not on the basis of rationality. Is it a anti-ecclesiastical bent? That’s probably part of it. It may be a desire to be outrageous and shocking and come up with a theory to grab headlines. To me, it is whacko. I think it’s reflective of our postmodern, anti-rational age that we live in where there’s a lot of subjectivity. Look at these scholars who are doing this—we’re talking about a bunch of hippies who are now 60 and it’s anti-establishmentarianism. But I’m just guessing.

New Man: I talked to a gentleman the other day who insisted that Jesus was gay. Others are saying He was married. There’s a new book out claiming Jesus and John the Baptist tried to overthrow Rome and failed. Then there are the theories about Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene. Where do all these theories come from?

Evans: These theories almost always come from something that gets misinterpreted. For example Jesus as married. There are two Gnostic gospels—neither one with any historical credibility—the gospel of Philip and the gospel of Mary. Both of them say something to the effect that Jesus loved Mary. The serious Gnostic scholars interpret these gospels correctly. They say this doesn’t suggest romantic love because that’s taking a 20th century definition of love and importing it to the second or third century when these texts were written. It just means Jesus respected Mary like He respected His male disciples. So the whole idea is to lionize Mary and change her into a true expositor of Jesus’ words. So that’s where the whole theory about Jesus being married comes from and it’s rubbish. The Jesus as gay theory is based on a hoax called the Secret Gospel of Mark. Morton Smith made it up. He wrote it up and claimed he found it at a monastery. I’m older than Secret Gospel of Mark.

New Man: The Jesus Seminar: Are these guys onto anything?

Evans: No. The Jesus Seminar under the leadership of the late Robert Funk and the still-living Dominic Crossan—they’re interested in a Jesus very much like themselves—a Jesus who isn’t interested in eschatology (end-times events), a Jesus whose references to the kingdom of God just meant an egalitarian club, where people say I’m OK and you’re OK. Everybody likes Jesus and wants Jesus on their side. It’s kind of a left-handed compliment. Jesus is acknowledged as a very important person and His endorsement is coveted but they don’t want to let the credible historical sources with apostolic links, namely Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They really don’t want to hear them until they’ve been refracted through the lens of the Gospel of Thomas and some Gnostic gospels. Then they can come up with Jesus as a talking head whose advice to us is, “Hey relax, just be a passerby.” They want to make Jesus in their own image and then they are very comfortable with Him.

New Man: What about the documentary James Cameron made called The Lost Tomb of Jesus? That’s shaken a lot of people’s faith.

Evans: It shouldn’t. It’s actually based on a hoax too. Israeli archeologists don’t buy it. James Cameron is just naïve. He’s silly. He says, “Well I’m not a theologist.” Well that’s a good one. I don’t know what a “theologist” is, but I’m sure that he’s not one of them. Simcha Jacobovici—the film’s maker—he’s not only naïve, he’s devious. He misquotes people and misrepresents them in the film. That’s caused a lot of outrage. So I don’t think there’s one single archeologist who agrees with him. Now Jacobovici is doing another documentary on “the Jesus boat,” a boat they found on the Sea of Galilee. Jacobovici is now proposing that Jesus fished in this boat, that He knew a lot about boating and spend most of His life on the Mediterranean Sea (I don’t know how he gets Jesus from the sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean) where He lived with his wife on the sea and his father, Pantera, whose grave they’ve found in Germany. And then it ties in to the Da Vinci Code plot line because Jesus then sails over to France. So this screwball stuff just keeps coming out.

New Man: Do you have your devotions in Greek?

Evans: (Laughing) As a matter of fact, sometimes I do. I just find the Greek text is handier, it’s right on my desk and computer. I don’t have a favorite translation. I like the RSV but it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. So often times it’s just the original text that I find myself musing over. I think you’re being tongue-in-cheek of course, but I can say yes. I don’t bring the Greek New Testament with me to church. I don’t want to be conspicuous. And I sure don’t want the pastor to be intimidated. What drives me crazy in church is they use PowerPoint and what they put on the screen is the NIV. It’s not even a translation. It’s a paraphrase! So I sit there and try not to scowl or frown.

To buy Craig Evans new book Fabricating Jesus click here