Richard Carrier - The Hero Savior Analogy

[Pat Mustard]

Thing is though, we've plenty of evidence of the first three, we've no untainted evidence of Yeshua (the two "best" sources Josephus and Tacitus show enough tampering that any honest historian won't accept them). We should be treating him as we do other characters who could've existed but are probably largely or completely fictional, like Conchobar MacNessa.

The major problem, with biblical history though is that it's not left to historians, but to theologians for the most part. The section which is left to proper experts arcaeology has stopped looking for Yeshua because of the impossibility of success.

This is interesting, I was just reading a response from Erhman to Carrier, last night in which the subject of Tacitus.  He seems that there isn't much dispute, and that most consider it genuine. Josephus is a little different.  There is some dispute, but many consider most of the passage in question, to be true... aside from the part that many consider an addition. However, in either case, it doesn't matter who or how many people ascribe to a view but why?

The earliest manuscritp of Tacitus' has "reference" to christians where the "e" of chrestianos, meaning follower(s) of Chrestus (a common name or title often used by preachers in Roman times) has been changed to an"i" of christianos, meaning follower of christ.

I also have a problem with scholarly consensus when it comes to Yeshua, because a) most of the scholars aren't historians, but theologians or biblical readers and b) time and time again, we see items pass muster for Yeshua using criteria that if used to proved the historicity of any other person would be dismissed and rightly so (eg the Josephus forgeries, the acceptance of bible stories despite their multiple significant edits, and errors both small and large which show even the original writers were very hazy about Iudea and the historical period). It all leads to an area of study which doesn't conform to proper standards of historical evidence, having to pass a much lower bar than all other historical figures.