Did Jesus exist?

[robvalue]

I've kind of said this before, but I think it's worth bringing together:

Let's say we agree that there are details included which embarrass the author. We conclude that this means the author really believed those details to be true.

Now, if the author was an eye witness, we could conclude that those details were probably true (being generous). However, it is not evident they are eye witnesses. So what they believe is just based on the stories they have heard. All we know is they are faithfully reproducing an aspect of the story, which they find is embarrassing. So what? This doesn't tell us whether the detail arose out of a real event, or was a detail added to the story via Chinese Whispers. If more than one story ended up getting amalgamated over time, it wouldn't be surprising that some details don't sit very well with others.

I throw it all out of court. The authors did not have access to the truth, they had access to hearsay. Their embarrassment is irrelevant.