RE: Any Evidence For A Historical Jesus?
December 8, 2011 at 12:48 pm
(This post was last modified: December 8, 2011 at 12:48 pm by Mister Agenda.)
It wouldn't be unusual for an historical person to only be mentioned in one book. The vast majority of people who really existed never got recorded in any records at all. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Biblical Jesus is a heavily-mytholgized version of a real apocalyptic preacher. I also wouldn't be surprised if he's an amalgam of multiple teachers or a parable that got out of hand.
I put the historicity of Jesus at about 51% (large margin of error, of course), but my reasons for favoring a real Yeshua that the stories are based on are textual and internal to the Bible. Some passages seem to strain at explaining events in a way consistent with Jesus being divine: his baptism by John for instance, his mother being unmarried when she became pregnant, his mingling with sinners, and the many ways in which his life was inconsistent with messianic prophecies.
I don't know of any extra-Biblical records most historians regard as completely authentic that do more than support the existence of Christianity, although many amateur apologists seem to mix up someone noting the existence of Christians with noting the existence of Christ.
I put the historicity of Jesus at about 51% (large margin of error, of course), but my reasons for favoring a real Yeshua that the stories are based on are textual and internal to the Bible. Some passages seem to strain at explaining events in a way consistent with Jesus being divine: his baptism by John for instance, his mother being unmarried when she became pregnant, his mingling with sinners, and the many ways in which his life was inconsistent with messianic prophecies.
I don't know of any extra-Biblical records most historians regard as completely authentic that do more than support the existence of Christianity, although many amateur apologists seem to mix up someone noting the existence of Christians with noting the existence of Christ.
