Carrier's Entire List

Blooper, Carrier! · Carrier's Entire List

Here is the list of evidence Carrier gives for Caligula, restricted to contemporary:

• We have busts and statues of Caligula carved from life. Indeed, Wikipedia correctly says “Based on scientific reconstructions of his official painted busts, Caligula had brown hair, brown eyes, and fair skin” (source: The Smithsonian). Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We have a huge number of coins minted by and naming and depicting Caligula as the extant emperor (numerous examples are also depicted and discussed at Wikipedia; here’s another; and another). Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We have a huge number of papyri, actually written during Caligula’s life, mentioning him as the reigning emperor (e.g. as Gaius Caesar Germanicus Augustus). Because that was how documents were dated (example; example; example). Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We have a huge number of contemporary inscriptions, erected by Caligula himself and eyewitnesses to his reign. Examples. Examples. Examples. Examples. Examples. Examples. Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We have excavated several of Caligula’s most peculiar ships. Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We have actual wine barrels from Caligula’s private vineyard, with his name on them. Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We have his mother’s tombstone, declaring him her child. Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• Pliny the Elder, an eyewitness to Caligula, supplies us a great deal of information directly from his own observations, and from government records and other eyewitness and contemporary sources. Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• Other eyewitnesses and contemporaries who report on Caligula include Philo of Alexandria and Seneca, who both met with him personally, and record several things about him (e.g. Philo’s Flaccus and On [My] Embassy to Gaius [Caligula]; Seneca’s On Consolation to My Mother Helvia and On Rage and On the Constancy of the Wise).
  
  
• We have extensive accounts of Caligula in Josephus (a historian born when Caligula reigned, discussing Caligula within only 35 years of his death, and more extensively only 52 years after his death), an account that is exactly in Josephan style and rich with realistic detail (Antiquities of the Jews 18-19, written c. 93 A.D.; and Jewish War 2.184-203, written c. 76 A.D.). Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No. Not even the alleged Josephan mentions of Jesus qualify on any relevant point.
  
  
• We know eyewitnesses and contemporaries of Caligula wrote works about him that are lost but that are discussed and used by later writers. These include Seneca’s own friend Fabius Rusticus; Cluvius Rufus, a senator actually involved in the assassination of Caligula (very likely these were the sources employed by Josephus, who even mentions and quotes Cluvius); the memoirs of Claudius (Caligula’s successor); the published correspondence of Augustus; and various poets (e.g. Gaetulicus). Even Caligula’s sister, Nero’s mother, Agrippina the Younger, wrote up her own memoirs that were cited and used as a source for Caligula by several later historians. Do we have anything like any of this for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We have several later critical historians writing about Caligula who name, cite and quote eyewitness, documentary, and contemporary sources for Caligula: e.g. besides Suetonius (whose example of this I already discussed), also Tacitus, Life of Agricola 10 (written c. 98 A.D.), and Annals 13.20 (written c. 116 A.D.), and even Dio Cassius (not even two hundred years after the fact). Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We even have government documents that do this: for example, we have unearthed a bronze tablet copy (dating c. 168 A.D.) of a letter personally written by Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Journal of Roman Studies 1973.63) that mentions him consulting the extant register of those granted citizenship by Caligula (in a list of such registers from other emperors as well). Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• Oh…and we have Caligula him-fracking-self! An inscription recording his own letter, in his own words, to the Achaean League, dated 19 August 37 A.D. (Inscriptiones Graecae 7.2711, ll. 21-43). Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.
  
  
• We also have declarations of alliance and celebration from many localities at the accession to power of Caligila. For example, the Oath declared by the Aritensians, inscribed on stone shortly after 11 May 37 A.D., elaborately asserting they shall ally with Caligula and declare his enemies their enemies; similarly the Cyzicans as well; and the Oath and Decree of Celebration of the Assians of the same year, which says they are sending an embassy “to seek an audience with and congratulate him, and beg him to remember” their city “as he personally promised when together with his father Germanicus he first set foot in our city’s province” (see Lewis & Reinhold, Vol. 2, § 3 and 9). So here we have the eyewitness, original autograph testimony, of an entire city of people. Caligula was with his father at the age of six when he visited their region (so they are trucking rather hard on the utterance of a toddler). But you don’t say this of, or send embassies to, a guy who doesn’t exist. Do we have anything like that for Jesus? Hell to the no.

Now, the main point on each item, since neither the pastor nor I are in fact trying to pretend Caligula is a myth, is Carrier's refrain : Do we have anything like that for Jesus? No.

This is therefore what I intend to answer. For each item. On some, "we would not expect to". On most, yes, we do have sth like that for Jesus.

• We have busts and statues of Caligula carved from life. - And we have the miraculous likenesses sent to King Abgar, the Sudarium of Oviedo and the shroud of Turin.
  
  
• We have a huge number of coins minted by and naming and depicting Caligula as the extant emperor ... - and since Jesus was living as a subject under Herod and Augustus, and under Pilate and Tiberius, we do not at all exspect any coins to have His image in His lifetime.
  
  
• We have a huge number of papyri, actually written during Caligula’s life, mentioning him as the reigning emperor (e.g. as Gaius Caesar Germanicus Augustus). Because that was how documents were dated - and as AD dating was not yet a thing, we do not exspect to have sth like that for Jesus.
  
  
• We have a huge number of contemporary inscriptions, erected by Caligula himself and eyewitnesses to his reign. - Jesus was probably not building too many houses that still stand, since Romans swept off many in the Jewish war, back when He was serving His fosterfather as a carpenter.
  
  
• We have excavated several of Caligula’s most peculiar ships. - I'm not sure anyone claims to have timbers of St Peter's or St John's bark as relics, otherwise we do not exspect such a thing.
  
  
• We have actual wine barrels from Caligula’s private vineyard, with his name on them. - The miracle of Cana was a wine which was drunk up very quickly.
  
  
• We have his mother’s tombstone, declaring him her child. - We have the belt and the veil of the Blessed Virgin. We also have His own glorious sepulchre.
  
  
• Pliny the Elder ... - dealt with, previous post. Pliny is not so convincing as proof as Carrier would pretend, and is certainly inferior to Gospels in giving details.
  
  
• Other eyewitnesses and contemporaries who report on Caligula include Philo of Alexandria and Seneca, who both met with him personally, and record several things about him (e.g. Philo’s Flaccus and On [My] Embassy to Gaius [Caligula]; Seneca’s On Consolation to My Mother Helvia and On Rage and On the Constancy of the Wise). - Pliny, Philo and Seneca all give less information in* Caligula than Gospels do about Our Lord Jesus Christ. Citing them would be like having no Gospels and only citing Epistles and perhaps Apocalypse.
  
  
• We have extensive accounts of Caligula in Josephus (a historian born when Caligula reigned, discussing Caligula within only 35 years of his death, and more extensively only 52 years after his death), an account that is exactly in Josephan style and rich with realistic detail (Antiquities of the Jews 18-19, written c. 93 A.D.; and Jewish War 2.184-203, written c. 76 A.D.). - If I got this correctly, 22 chapters in Josephus deal with Caligula. Matthew 28, Mark 16 (44), Luke 24 (68), John 21 (89), Acts 1:st chapter (90).
  
  
• We know eyewitnesses and contemporaries of Caligula wrote works about him that are lost but that are discussed and used by later writers. These include Seneca’s own friend Fabius Rusticus; Cluvius Rufus, a senator actually involved in the assassination of Caligula (very likely these were the sources employed by Josephus, who even mentions and quotes Cluvius); the memoirs of Claudius (Caligula’s successor); the published correspondence of Augustus; and various poets (e.g. Gaetulicus). Even Caligula’s sister, Nero’s mother, Agrippina the Younger, wrote up her own memoirs that were cited and used as a source for Caligula by several later historians. - Indeed. Indeed. No, we do not have a plethora of named lost writers, since the plethora mentioned collectively by St Luke is not named and the 50 odd non-canonical Gospels cannot all be assigned to pre-Gospel tries. This is the point I was making : contemporary writers (who as adults saw events) are there for Jesus, namely four of them in continuous narrative (not mentioning all event related scraps in Epistles and Apocalypse which would arguably more than just rival Pliny), while the contemporary writers for continuous narrative about Tiberius (unless you count Velleius Paterculus as giving continuous narrative about him too!), Caligula, Claudius, Nero, even up to Domitian are gone, excepting perhaps what Josephus had to say on some Flavians, which I had overlooked when earlier stating this. They are gone, and their witness survives only second hand, in authors quoting lost authors after Domitian died (again, excepting Josephus, OK).
  
  
• We have several later critical historians writing about Caligula who name, cite and quote eyewitness, documentary, and contemporary sources for Caligula: e.g. besides Suetonius (whose example of this I already discussed), also Tacitus, Life of Agricola 10 (written c. 98 A.D.), and Annals 13.20 (written c. 116 A.D.), and even Dio Cassius (not even two hundred years after the fact). - You are omitting Early Church Fathers quoting Gospels, presumably because the Gospels are not lost.
  
  Also, calling Suetonius, Tacitus and Dio Cassius (guys who wrote after Domitian died, as I mentioned) "critical historians" is somewhat equivocal. If by "critical" you mean they are not uncritical of the Caesars in question, granted (easy to criticise a dead Caesar, except Julius and Augustus, right?). If you mean they are not uncritical of their sources, well, they do not show the modern kind of criticism to them - they are not as critical to Agrippina's life of her son as Carrier is of the Gospels.
  
  
• We even have government documents that do this: for example, we have unearthed a bronze tablet copy (dating c. 168 A.D.) of a letter personally written by Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Journal of Roman Studies 1973.63) that mentions him consulting the extant register of those granted citizenship by Caligula (in a list of such registers from other emperors as well). - Again, this is a type of proof you cannot get for someone not engaged in administration.
  
  
• Oh…and we have Caligula him-fracking-self! An inscription recording his own letter, in his own words, to the Achaean League, dated 19 August 37 A.D. (Inscriptiones Graecae 7.2711, ll. 21-43). - There was also a Letter, not just a miraculous image, to King Abgar.
  
  Oh, Carrier thinks that could be a fake? Well, why not that inscription, if we are tin foilish?
  
  
• We also have declarations of alliance and celebration from many localities at the accession to power of Caligila. For example, the Oath declared by the Aritensians, inscribed on stone shortly after 11 May 37 A.D., elaborately asserting they shall ally with Caligula and declare his enemies their enemies; similarly the Cyzicans as well; and the Oath and Decree of Celebration of the Assians of the same year, which says they are sending an embassy “to seek an audience with and congratulate him, and beg him to remember” their city “as he personally promised when together with his father Germanicus he first set foot in our city’s province” (see Lewis & Reinhold, Vol. 2, § 3 and 9). So here we have the eyewitness, original autograph testimony, of an entire city of people. Caligula was with his father at the age of six when he visited their region (so they are trucking rather hard on the utterance of a toddler). But you don’t say this of, or send embassies to, a guy who doesn’t exist. - Our Lord was probably younger than six when He received an Embassy of a sort which went by Herod to Him, but avoided Herod when returning.

Note, one key point not adressed here is Gospels being genuine, or not adressed in detail.

The point is, Carrier perfectly knew he was not counting them when repeating his refrain, and he was not doing so because he counted them as fakes.

That is another argument, to be answered on more specific grounds pretending that they are such.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris, Porte Dorée
IV Sunday after Pentecost
17.VI.2018

* on (spellcheck or vicinity of touches)