Jesus as a percentage

[abaris]

Yeah, I agree. I'm not expecting an exact correlation with any specific events, just a rough idea of how much of a real character is buried in there somewhere.

I tend to think, a real person or persons fueled the stories. It's often that way with legends, as can be seen with Homer and his writings about the Trojan war. There was a war or wars. But that doesn't mean Hector fought Achill or that Apoll swooped down to kill Achill. It doesn't even mean that Hector or Achill even existed.

The important thing is to keep in mind how these stories came to be. They were told and retold along the trade routes. And as it is with campfire legends, things are embellished to add more drama, things are left out, things are told in a different way.

What we always have to keep in mind is how authors went about their business back then. The work ethics were totally different, even if they reported on historical events. It wasn't frowned upon to embellish a story, since the goal was to create something inspiring for their generation.