Below this comment, I attach an article that claims the discovery of a contemporary eye-witness account of a miracle by Jesus Christ. Here is my comment.
1. Outside the special case of the Herculaneum library, there is not a single surviving autograph by a known ancient writer, or even a second or third generation manuscript.
2. The article says the text is written on parchment that can be dated to the first century. The photograph, however, is plainly of wooden writing tablets – you can see the holes by which they were tied together. It is unlikely that a member of the Roman elite would have used these for writing or dictation. It is very unlikely that the text of an elite writer would have beencopied onto wood. Such tablets were for ephemeral use only.
3. How do we know the text is by Marcus Velleius Paterculus? I can’t see the words, but there is nothing here that suggests a heading. There is no evidence that he went on a diplomatic mission to Parthia in or around 31AD. Indeed, it is generally supposed that he was put to death in that year on account of his association with Sejanus.
4. What is the provenance of the text? The Papal archives began to fill up around the fifth century. How did a first century autograph survive on wood long enough to get there? Why did no one notice its significance at the time? Why has no one else noticed it in the past fifteen hundred years?
I say this is a fake.
PS I’ve just had another look at the article. The claimed description of Christ as “Iēsous de Nazarenus” is no kind of Latin. The whole thing really is a fake. Why are so many people falling for it?
Newly-Found Document Holds Eyewitness Account of Jesus Performing Miracle
Rome| An Italian expert studying a first century document written by the Roman historian Marcus Velleius Paterculus that was recently discovered in the archives of the Vatican, found what is presumed to be the first eyewitness account ever recorded of a miracle of Jesus Christ. The author describes a scene that he allegedly witnessed, in which a prophet and teacher that he names Iēsous de Nazarenus, resuscitated a stillborn boy and handed him back to his mother.
Historian and archivist Ignazio Perrucci, was hired by the Vatican authorities in 2012, to sort, analyze and classify some 6,000 ancient documents that had been uncovered in the gigantic archive vaults. He was already very excited when he noticed that the author of the text was the famous Roman historian Velleius, but he was completely stunned when he realized the nature of the content.
Professor Perrucci found the text in the archives of the Vatican, while searching amongst a bundle of personal letters and other trivial documents dating from the Roman era.
The text as a whole is a narrative of the author’s return journey from Parthia to Rome that occurred in 31 AD, recorded in a highly rhetorical style of four sheets of parchment. He describes many different episodes taking place during his trip, like a a violent sandstorm in Mesopotamia and visit to a temple in Melitta (modern day Mdina, in Malta).
The part of the text that really caught M. Perrucci’s attention is an episode taking place in the city of Sebaste (near modern day Nablus, in the West Bank). The author first describes the arrival of a great leader in the town with a group of disciples and followers, causing many of the lower class people from neighbouring villages to gather around them. According to Velleius, that great man’s name was Iēsous de Nazarenus, a Greco-Latin translation of Jesus’ Hebrew name, Yeshua haNotzri.
Upon entering town, Jesus would have visited the house of a woman named Elisheba, who had just given birth to a stillborn child. Jesus picked up the dead child and uttered a prayer in Aramaic to the heavens, which unfortunately the author describes as “immensus”, meaning incomprehensible. To the crowd’s surprise and amazement, the baby came back to life almost immediately, crying and squirming like a healthy newborn.
Marcus Velleius Paterculus, being a Roman officer of Campanian origins, seems to perceive Jesus Christ as a great doctor and miracle man, without associating him in any way to the Jewish concept of Messiah.
Many tests and analysis have been realized over the last weeks to determine the authenticity of the manuscript. The composition of the parchment and ink, the literary style and handwriting have all been carefully scrutinized and were considered to be entirely legitimate. The dating analysis also revealed that the sheepskin parchment on which the text is written, does indeed date from the 1st century of this era, more precisely from between 20-45 AD.
This new text from an author known for his reliability, brings a brand new perspective on the life of the historical character that is Jesus of Nazareth. It comes to confirm the Gospels on the facts that he was known for accomplishing miracles and that his sheer presence in a town was enough to attract crowds of people.
A complete and official translation of the document should be made available online in many different languages over the next few weeks, but the impact of the discovery is already felt in the scientific community. Many scholars have already saluted the finding as one of the greatest breakthrough ever realized in the study of the historical life of Jesus, while others have expressed doubts about the conclusions of Professor Perrucci and demand for more tests to be performed by other scientific institutions before drawing any conclusions.
– See more at: http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/newly-found-document-holds-eyewitness-account-of-jesus-performing-miracle/#sthash.GZRdpulw.dpuf
Most likely this is indeed a fake.
As for miracles in general…..
The central miracle is the empty tomb – not a “trick with bones” (as a former of Bishop of Durham put it – although he may have been quoted out of context), but the central message of Christianity, the ability of God to raise an individual from death, to restore that individual to life.
If this miracle is false (if the resurrection did not happen) then Christianity is nonsense – talk of its “message” or its “philosophy” is just a hollow effort to dodge this. But if the miracle is true (if the resurrection really did happen) then Christianity is of fundamental importance.
So the poster seasoned scholars have made their decree. We have to accept these posters opinion as they have many long years of experience and training.lol
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindolanda_tablets This is what the article refers to. As l used lol in my post as l was having some fun. My goal was to post on Nazareth.
“Iesous de Nazarenus”? Doesn’t he know that “de” means “on the subject of” (never “from” and never “of”) and takes the ablative case?
He didn’t come from Nazareth anyway, there was no such place. That we are sure of. It’s a midrashic garbling of Nazarite.
Anyway, yes, an eye witness account surfacing after these two millennia would be an absolute game-changer, so this needs rather better provenance than this. I agree with Sean. Besides all else, it’s unbelievable that the Vatican would have such a bombshell and not even bother about it.
From the famous liberal scholar a well know skeptic Ehrman http://ehrmanblog.org/did-nazareth-exist/. I contacted the Authority in Israel as Dr. Ehrman had done after l returned from there as we were not able to go to Nazareth then. Security was of concern at this time. They confirmed to me ( ‘we don’t believe Nazareth as well as Bethlehem existed in the first century we know it’!)Nazareth as well as Bethlehem did exist in the first century which confirmed my years of research.
To say otherwise is entering the same so called mythic fantasyland posters on secular skeptic sites claim others accept as reality and fact!
I checked out the site, and the headline crawl included an item about somebody shooting down a UFO near Area 51. Maybe it was Randy Quaid? “I’m ba-a-ack!”
I went back to double-check, and the headline wasn’t up there. Lots of other interesting-looking stuff in the sidebar, though. For instance:
I never did trust those NASA folks. Moon landings! I never! 😉
However, I can easily imagine that the event with the stillborn newborn happened. In fact I would bet it’s happened many, many times down through the History of Man. Essentially when the doc swats the newborn on the tushie to make it cry, isn’t the purpose at least partly to clear any mucus which might be clogging the breathing pipes? I always thought so. (Maybe it also stimulates activity in the autonomic nervous system? I wouldn’t know.)
It would depend on what criteria are used to judge that the infant is stillborn, of course.
[…] Is It Fake? Almost too good to be true (like the ‘Hitler Diaries’?) it may be fake (what can you believe on the internet these days?). The Libertarian Alliance thinks it’s fake (but they would, wouldn’t they). Their opinion here. […]
Unfortunately, this article is a hoax… That archivist that is mentioned here doesn’t exist, the image of the supposed “manuscript” is taken from another place (first brittain written documents, the “Vindolanda tablets”).
I’m a Christian, and by no means I need this kind of lies to believe in The Lord.
People like the author of this kind of scams take fun from the ignorance of people, they believe that people with Faith in God are fools for believing in something not material. You are wrong, whoever you are, by doing this kind of things you may think you are a great joker or a smart ass, but you are really a dumb ass, playing with the hopes of people is an really miserable act and you are gonna pay for it.
Our Faith has been attacked many times before in different ways, the first attack was led by the jewish religious system, then were the romans an their lions, then the inquisition, now capitalism, the system has always tried to extinguish our hopes, but we have always prevailed, our enemy has taken many shapes along history, in modern era you can find liberalism, materialism, hedonism, communism, capitalism, atheism and many other shapes from the same foe. Our enemy has always been the same under diferent names, but with only one objetive, lead humanity to desperation and desolation, to take away our dreams and hopes…
Capitalism attacks Christianity?. The American expression is, I believe, “Say What?”.
Perhaps the “Social Gospel” Mr Ecks – not a good thing.
The problem with articles like this is that people do NOT expect a supposed news agency to disseminate False information. Anyone not familiar with the finer details of the article, like the bogus Latin, or the non-existent Volts of the Vatican will believe the information as valid. I’m a free speech kind of person, but people that pull this kind of nonsense should have to put the disclaimer RIGHT AT THE Beginning of the articles they spew out.
It is a scandal that this was put out and that anyone believed it.
There are already well established eye witness accounts. There are the biographies written by Matthew and John, and there are Jewish and Roman historians who reference Jesus.
WDNR’s bio on the “expert” reporter who filed this article is highly dubious. Note that when you click on the link to her name, at the bottom of the left-hand side of the page, it says “Barbara Jennings.” But the alleged reporter is Barbara Johnson.
Something additionally fishy … Here’s “Barbara Johnson’s bio on WDNR’s website. You really think a new piece of religious history this remarkable would be given to such a reporter to research and post?
Here’s Barbara Jennings and/or Johnson’s official bio: “Barbara Johnson is a young reporter who has made a name for herself thanks to her thorough researching and formal writing style. A former pornstar, she has rapidly reached the summit in her new profession thanks to her good looks and “social” skills.”
Note; there’s also no photo of the purported reporter.
clearly says the writting is on sheep skin parchment. the debunker knows little and is showing bias in disregard for the factual evidences. purely skeptical for skeptics sake. its fine to be suspicious, but an honest skeptic is good for everyone, as the first comment suggest, this is a weighty issue.