(January 28, 2016 at 3:16 pm)robvalue Wrote: Personally, I think there is no way to be at all certain or even confident that it's exactly one person under the myth, no way at all. Especially given the length of time between the events and the recording of the events by people who didn't even experience it themselves. They could even have intended to write about a single figure, and yet have actually written about a legion, due to the nature of oral stories. They couldn't even know, I'm buggered if we can.
Yep, very true. And this isn't just a problem with Jesus. This is a problem with pretty much most historical figures in antiquity. But this is exactly why Ockham's Razor is useful as it gives us the most reasonable answer given what we have (reasonable is not the same as accurate, btw). Not being certain of something does not mean you can't think in terms of probabilities.
