(January 17, 2012 at 3:03 am)genkaus Wrote:(January 16, 2012 at 5:31 pm)Undeceived Wrote: Yes, the disciples had no motivation or means with which to fabricate Jesus' life.
Ofcourse they did. Starting a new religion would be the motivation and writing stories about miracles would be the means.
What was the motivation to start a new religion? They get no power or money, and all but one disciple was martyred. Christianity was so contradictory to Judaism that they might as well have been asking for executions. Their law forbids deception, and the punishment for blasphemy is death. Also, there wasn't enough time for a legend to form around Jesus. The writing of Paul's Corinthians places the explosion of new Christians within five years of Jesus' death. They would not have been convinced unless they at least thought something incredible happened (like a resurrection). And the disciples had no means to steal the body. The Romans were trained, practiced executioners. Jesus definitely died. And guards were sentenced to execution themselves if they let a prisoner go, so they would not have simply let the disciples into the tomb. They had no swords to fight their way in, and plotting on the Sabbath was against their moral law.