JESUS CHRIST: Myth or Historical Person?

[Alter2Ego]

Not only was Christianity a new religion, its founder, Jesus Christ was poor and therefore not paid too much attention by people of privilege. In addition, Jesus Christ was executed three years after he began his ministry. Add to that the fact that his followers were routinely persecuted, flogged, and imprisoned, and you have a climate of fear surrounding Christianity. Now, which contemporary writer in his right mind would have stuck his neck out in a situation like that?

Why wouldn't any contemporary historian make mention of a man who was going around walking on water, raising the dead and healing the sick with a touch of his hand? What? These events were so ordinary as to not be worth recording? And why wouldn't anybody write about an event as incredible as a man rising from the dead and people emerging from graves and walking around town? This makes sense to you?

ALTER2EGO -to- THOR:
See my above response. What Jesus did was not widely known because he had just started his ministry when he was killed. The Jewish Pharisees routinely threatened people for talking about Jesus Christ because they viewed Jesus as a threat to their power base. Since you are an unbeliever, I don't expect you to believe anything the Bible says, but I will quote a few verses of scripture as part of my answer to your questions. Someone else on the forum might find it to be informative.

The Jews were in expectation of the Messiah around this time period. The prophecies in the Old Testament said the Messiah would arrive around that time and would prove his identity by performing miracles such as had never been done before.

But there was a problem with the heart condition of the Jewish religious leaders. They were corrupt and were interested in political power. Here is the scenario: The Jews at this time were under Roman domination. The Jewish religious leaders (the Pharisees) were not interested in a religious messiah who would lead them back to true worship. They were looking for a political Messiah that would take them out from under the yoke of Roman rule. So they ignored all of the miracles Jesus was performing—which clearly identified him as the promised Messiah. Notice what happened after someone reported to the Pharisees that Jesus had just resurrected Lazarus from the dead.

"{47} Consequently the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin together [the highest Jewish court] and began to say: 'What are we to do, because this man performs many signs? {48} If we let him alone this way, they will all put faith in him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.' {53} Therefore from that day on they took counsel to kill him [Jesus] ." (John 11:47-48, 53)


Do you suppose it was enough for them that they wanted to kill the miracle worker? Oh, no! Read just two more verses.

"{10} The chief priests now took counsel to kill Lazarus also, {11} because on account of him many of the Jews were going there and putting faith in Jesus." (John 12:10-11)