(February 24, 2019 at 2:53 am)Anomalocaris Wrote:(February 23, 2019 at 7:52 pm)Jehanne Wrote: Jesus of Nazareth existed as an historical person; he was a Jewish apocalyptic prophet, one of many of his day. That is why no pagan author took notice of him or even considered him worth mentioning; they recognized him as being just another crank.
I think it is impossible to say whether Jesus of Nazareth is really traceable to any single historic person, or if he is mainly a fictional amalgamation of traits already in individual circulation to overawe the gullible.
I think that he existed for the following reasons:
1) His existence is documented by Paul within a decade to two after his death; Paul records a few things that he said.
2) Ditto for Mark, Q, M ("Matthew's material"), L ("Luke") and the Gospel of Thomas.
3) Josephus and Tacitus clearly document his existence, especially, Josephus' reference to Jesus' brother James.
