(December 12, 2017 at 12:11 am)Dnte Wrote: Most scholars say Jesus existed. Ok but... I was thinking about the Bible. I've read the whole new testament and some parts of the old testament (probably 1/3 of it.)
I was thinking that maybe Jesus (the human prophet) staged all his miracles and made people believe he did all those things. His followers were religious zealots, so they helped him out. He probably paid someone to act as if they were blind/cripple/etc. and when he touched them, the person would have pretented he was cured.
When he was executed for being a public annoyance, his followers removed his body from the tomb and made everyone believe he resurrected and went to heaven. Over time, the early christians wrote the new testament books and molded Jesus' story so he could fit the old testament's requierements for being the messiah. And that included the mistranslation of young woman = virgin. So Mary was in fact no virgin at all and had several children besides Jesus. And Joseph was Jesus' true father (or some other man.)
Jesus story was highly distorted and taken out of proportion by the time the new testament was written. I believe that Jesus was a normal person who used to preach to jews and was born of human parents.
It makes sense. Jesus never revealed anything that we didn't already know. What's the meaning of life? Where do we come from? Where are we going? He didn't answer those questions. He just preached whatever he believed in when he was alive and that doesn't prove he was anything special, but people are so supertitious and gullible they bought his story. Jews know this, that's why they don't care about christianity. I feel so cheated I want my money back! lol.
NO, most APOLOGISTS claim he did exist.
Objective historians would only tell you an early movement existed, which is true, otherwise Christianity would not exist. What was never true are magic babies with super powers. Nor do humans survive rigor mortis.
I'd say the name, "Jesus" which was common back then, was slapped onto a person after the fact, just like any other mythology, it is looking backwards and creating an underdog story. Someone did start a movement, but it was marketing after the fact that made it successful, not the magic bullshit claimed. Constantine should actually be considered the most responsible for the rise in popularity of Christianity.
But the hero underdog saving the day was a motif quite common in all of antiquity. The "sacrifice" motif simply got transferred from animals and deities to a human like figure. But it was hardly original outside of details.
Jesus did not exist, a human existed or group of humans who wanted to start a splinter sect of Jews because they didn't like some of the old ways.
