The Historical Jesus

[The Grand Nudger]

Early christian apologists give us insight into this, in the roundabout way they often do. By mentioning their detractors in order to mount an argument against whatever was important to them at the time - things which are certainly not important to christians anymore. The idea of diabolical mimicry, for example. It was noticed immediately in the then various christianities' own formational time by christians and pagans alike that people had heard all these stories before. That the themes content and tropes were common to other mythologies of the time. No one denied this. Instead, they insisted that the devil had engaged in plagiarism by anticipation. By the 4th century, this had become -the- intellectual response, as christians encountered even more pagan christs in their march across the map after capturing the roman state.

Today, people will tell you that the similarities are coincidental, or nonexistent. Today, they'll tell you that no one objected in the time, that no one called their christ a myth. They did, immediately, and waiving those coincidences away wasn't compelling to early christians....and we know this..thanks to christian apologists. So, you know, don't say they never produced anything of value, lol.