Any Evidence For A Historical Jesus?

[DeistPaladin]

radorth, from the past few pages I've gathered that you wanted DeistPaladin to name a contradiction within scripture. I thought I would give this a go. I want to do this in a particular way though; by asking you a theological question. Here we go: is there an unforgivable sin?

I think he was wanting contradictions in the earliest manuscripts we have of the NT. As in, "the NT was perfectly and faithfully preserved through the ages so we know exactly what Jesus said and did..." etc. As I said, I know of two great examples, the second edition of the resurrection account in Mark and the "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" story.

You're also correct that the Gospels and NT seemed to "get better" with each book published. Did you notice, for example, how John the Baptist gets down on his knees before Jesus more and more with each Gospel account?

Mark: JtB debases himself, announces himself as a mere forerunner of Jesus and then baptizes Jesus.
Matthew: JtB says "hey, shouldn't you be baptizing me?" Then baptizes Jesus after being ordered to.
John: JtB never baptizes Jesus at all but just recognizes him as the lamb of God.

Funny thing, the Mandaens, followers of JtB, continued to be rivals of the early Christians, insisting that JtB was the true Messiah and Jesus was a heretic. Odd how they never seemed to get the memo of their sacred leader, huh? But then, Christianity always uses the policy of assimilate what you can't destroy. It's an effective tactic. So effective, the Muslims would later use it on Jesus.