Gamaliel Never Existed

[DeistPaladin]

I like your version DeistPaladin, except for the fact that you refer to a number of things and people for which there simply isn't any good evidence. You refer to these "early Hebrew books", when there is simply no evidence that they existed until the second century BCE.

I refer to the apparent progression of Jewish theology. The "early" books, the Torah, suggested there is no afterlife. This view is echoed in some of the Psalms and Lamentations. Later Jewish theology seemed to entertain the idea of an afterlife, such as when King Saul summons the ghost of Samuel.

And I am aware of no contemporaneous accounts for "Marcion's" life.

Using the principle of ECREE and considering the sociological forces that shape folklore, I hold the possible existence of demigods and folk heroes (Hercules, Jesus, Romulus, Beowulf, etc.) to a different standard than mundane-though-perhaps-talented mortals who may have been influential in some field (Socrates, Plato, Julius Caesar, etc.). There is a process by which parables and folk tales can morph into "this really happened" tales, where figures of the dreams of a culture become real people of history. Such sociological forces aren't known to create talented but natural mortal figures in history, like Plato. ECREE also works here. I see no inconsistency that I take Plato at face value as a figure of history but demand a higher standard of evidence for putting supernatural beings into history.

A strong point in your version is the bit about the Christians rewriting history. I think this line of enquiry has a lot of potential. If there was a complete rewriting of 1st century history to make room for their "Jesus" character (or characters), an interesting question arises for consideration:

What rewrite was even needed? Other than to gloss over the variance of Christianities (dismissing them as schismatics and heretics) and insist that mythology is a historical account of a real person, what else needed to be rewritten?

after Bart came out as saying that Jesus existed I've been very put off from reading his work

Sometimes people can have strange beliefs in one field but have a lot to offer in another. Sir Issac Newton had truly wacky beliefs about alchemy, numerology and his own brand of Christianity. None of that takes away from his authority in physics. Be careful about "poisoning the well".