Who was James the brother of Jesus?

[Minimalist]

I don't buy that. I suspect that part of the story had not been concocted yet.

If (and Paul says virtually nothing along these lines ) you were going to tell a story of someone who lived recently in a specific place, some mention of his family and his alleged home town seems like a reasonable place to start. And why is Pilate not mentioned? Surely that is the whole point of the story yet, Paul seems to know nothing of it.

[LEDO]

I don't buy that. I suspect that part of the story had not been concocted yet.

If (and Paul says virtually nothing along these lines ) you were going to tell a story of someone who lived recently in a specific place, some mention of his family and his alleged home town seems like a reasonable place to start. And why is Pilate not mentioned? Surely that is the whole point of the story yet, Paul seems to know nothing of it.

Jesus may not have been crucified by Pilate. His very name has cosmic myth significance and it may not be factual. Why mention something if everybody knows about it by word of mouth? They may have not written anything in fear for his family. Hegesippus writes about Jesus' nephews.

[Minimalist]

Why mention something if everybody knows about it by word of mouth?

Then why talk about him at all?
If "EVERYBODY" knows the whole story it becomes even less likely that someone would not have written it down and commented on it.

You see, the odd thing about all of this stuff is that when xtians became numerous enough to be noticeable to the power structure, Greco-Roman writers (Celsus, Porphyry, Lucian) did begin to comment negatively about them. But these are all second century or later. Prior to this the record is blank.

I repeat an earlier observation. Judaea was no longer a remote part of the empire. It was connected by sea lane and land route to the rest of the empire and located close to one of the primary active fronts ( the Parthian frontier) of the empire. During the Augustan Age fully 1/4 of the Roman Army was stationed in Syria. That's a lot of Romans nearby. A tale about someone coming back from the dead would have been big news. Yet, not only do the Romans seemingly know nothing of jesus....they never heard of "Lazarus", either.

Yet, Apollonius of Tyana was also credited with bringing a dead person back to life and that story was written down.

http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0740Apollonius.php

Crowds were attracted by his great miracles and his wisdom. He was followed by crowds when entering Alexandria, like Christ when entering Jerusalem. When he entered the temple of Diana, a voice from above was heard saying, “Come to heaven.” He disputed with and vanquished the wise men of Greece and Asia, as Christ did the learned doctors in the temple. “A beauty shone in his countenance,” which reminds us of Christ’s transfiguration and “the words he uttered were divine.” Apollonius, like Jesus, performed many miracles like exorcisms of demons and the raising to life of a dead girl.

Bullshit? Of course. But at least Philostratus bothered to write it down.

[LEDO]

Apollonius of Tyana was written well after the time he supposedly lived. I doubt if he was historical. There is less to support him than Jesus.

[Minimalist]

You might consider this.

http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/apollonius/...ml#contemp


Besides, Philostratus mentions two earlier biographies of Apollonius which have since been lost.

[LEDO]

Yes, what it says is that our main source of information on Apollonius comes from a century after he lived making him less credible than Jesus.

[Minimalist]

I suspect you missed the references to Lucian who predated Philostratus' work by about 40 years as well as the reference to the Moeragenes biography which Philostratus denounced. Moeragenes' work is also mentioned by Origen a contemporary of Philostratus.