"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar — when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene — during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness" (Luke 3:1-2).This story occurred during the period of time when the lives of seven different historical figures overlap. Why would someone waste ink and parchment on a detail like that?
Luke wanted to make sure we knew that the story he was about the tell is grounded in history. The story of Jesus didn't happen "once upon a time." It didn't happen "a long time ago, in a [place] far, far away." It happened "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar ...."
Why is that important? So that you and I can know the apostles "did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power" (2Pet 1:16).
The Gospel is not just a nice story to tell sitting around the campfire; it is supposed to turn your life upside down. So it's important to know that this really happened.
Authors of fiction often place their characters into acutual locations and historical timelines to create a sense of realism.
ReplyDeleteIf the events described in Luke had been set in Mordor, we'd know for sure that they were fiction - but is the reverse true? Does setting a narrative in an actual location, and a specific time make it more credible?
Events in the Harry Potter books clearly take place in a contemporary London, for example King's Cross Station is a real place, in London - an actual city that you can fly to in under 8 hours. Does this make us any less certain that the story is pure fiction?
Perhaps we might look for more objective criteria that an event is history: The best would be contemporary accounts that confirm the events described in the book. Say, perhaps we found Harry Potter's school-records or a Judean police-report concerning that rabble-rouser Jesus.