Messiah’s Resurrection

14. The psalmist even recorded the very words that Jesus would utter from the cross.

Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Both Matthew and Mark confirm that these were the painful cries from Jesus on the cross.

Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

15. The death of Jesus would have been just a very sad moment in history without the resurrection. The fact that the Messiah’s soul would not be left in Hades, the place of departed spirits, was foretold by the psalmist.

Psalm 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Again, Josephus also referenced the resurrection of Jesus in his historical record.

“Now there was about this time Jesus….He was (the) Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.”

Josephus was not the only historian that made reference to the life of Jesus. Luther of Samosata was a second century author. In his book, The Passing Peregrinus, he stated the following (as found at www.neverthirsty.org/pp/historicalquotesaboutjesus/main.html).

“The Christians. . . worship a man to this day - the distinguished personage who introduced this new cult, and was crucified on that account. . . . You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains their contempt for death and self devotion . . . their lawgiver [taught] they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take on faith.”

At the same website is a quote from Cornelius Tacitus, a great historian on ancient Rome who lived 55-120AD. Following is a quote from one of his major works, Annals.

“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.”