Josephus and other contemporaries on Jesus

[Pat Mustard]

I believe he is arguing from the issue of embarrassment. That Jesus was crucified falls under this category, which could give its historical probability a bump.

That's a bullshit argument. By your reckoning we'd have to take the Cúchulainn mythos as true because "it would be too embarrassing a detail to include for a made up hero".

The crucifiction story fails for four reasons, 1) jewish law never proscribed crucifiction for their death penalty, they went for stoning or haning as it was humiliating under jewish culture to die those ways, 2) the jewish legal system shut down during passover therefore the trial and execution wouldn't have happend over the period described in the bible, 3) while Rome did crucify, they only used against those they deemed a threat to Rome. An obscure preacher telling people to pay taxes to Caesar wasn't a threat to Rome, especially in an area hostile to Roman rule, and 4) Rome very rarely stepped in to overrule local laws and judicial proceedings, except if they thought the empire's existence was endangered. Again letting the jews kill an obscure preacher in their own way and time was less troublesome than stepping in and overriding jewish law (first by trying to free Jesus, then by crucifying him).

When you look at the logic of the situation you realise the crucifiction story is a near impossibility.