Why do atheists even bother about debating Jesus?

[Confused Ape]

Now, the cultural details of Hebrew society, such as where the animals were placed, and the custom of women coming out of their house to greet victorious parades, sure, that's important. But since none of them indicate the intentions of the individuals of the story to any degree, they're also merely objects of fascination.

The cultural details are the source of puzzlement concerning what was supposed have been happening in this story. You can't blame Jewish people for wanting to figure out what might have been going on during this period of their own history.

I found an interesting article about Polytheism and Human Sacrifice in Early Israelite Religion

There's evidence that human sacrifice was practised in the early days but it eventually died out.

There's also this article by a Rabbi - THE SACRIFICE OF JEPHTHAH’S DAUGHTER: JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES

Human sacrifice is clearly forbidden by the Torah: Lev. 18:21, 20:2-5; Deut. 12:31, 18:10. However violence is one of the central themes of the book of Judges. The book as a whole seems to suggest that the Hebrews instead of rejecting the idolatry and pagan morality of the newly conquered population adopted them. Note the last sections of the Book of Judges; the chopping up of a woman into twelve pieces (19:29-30), the raping of women of Shiloh (21:22-23) and the final verse ‘everyone did as he saw fit (21:25). One commentator suggests that Jephthah sacrificing his daughter is a quintessential symbol of this moral degeneration (Janzen:35-36).

So, had the Hebrews gone back to pagan practises in Jepthah's time even though they weren't supposed to or hadn't it died out by then?

Human sacrifice had definitely died out during the time when Jesus was supposed to have lived, though. So on to resurrection and who is supposed to get to a happy afterlife in Judaism.

Olam Ha-Ba: The Afterlife

It is possible for an Orthodox Jew to believe that the souls of the righteous dead go to a place similar to the Christian heaven, or that they are reincarnated through many lifetimes, or that they simply wait until the coming of the messiah, when they will be resurrected. Likewise, Orthodox Jews can believe that the souls of the wicked are tormented by demons of their own creation, or that wicked souls are simply destroyed at death, ceasing to exist.

Do non-Jews have a place in Olam Ha-Ba? Although there are a few statements to the contrary in the Talmud, the predominant view of Judaism is that the righteous of all nations have a share in the Olam Ha-Ba. Statements to the contrary were not based on the notion that membership in Judaism was required to get into Olam Ha-Ba, but were grounded in the observation that non-Jews were not righteous people. If you consider the behavior of the surrounding peoples at the time that the Talmud was written, you can understand the rabbis' attitudes. By the time of Rambam, the belief was firmly entrenched that the righteous of all nations have a share in the Olam Ha-Ba.

There's nothing there about anyone dying and then being resurrected in three days. There's nothing there about having to believe in God's sacrificed son to get to the Jewish idea of heaven, either.

An even better question is to ask these historians what they mean by the "historical" jesus.

Bart Ehrman clearly means a wandering teacher who ran afoul of the law and rejects the miracle-working nonsense. However, we have NO evidence at all for that jesus. We have at least the unreliable and heavily edited gospels to serve as "evidence" ( however shitty ) of the miracle-working jesus.

T'is a problem. For them.

@Minimalist The idea that Jesus wandered around Palestine preaching to people had to come from somewhere. After all, dozens of people don't just wake up one morning sharing the same new belief for no reason. Some people think that Paul might have been schizophrenic. If so, it's possible that Jesus was only a product of his schizophrenic delusions so he never really existed. The problem is that I can't find any evidence that Paul really existed either.