(February 11, 2013 at 11:47 am)Drich Wrote: In short, There are 66 book that make the bible, There are thousands more describing this same time period in one way or another, in the vaulted libaries of the vatican. there is your 'contemporary record.'
Well firstly, and considering that your affiliation says "christian", most importantly, all of the other records, books, and other works from the time of the early christian writings that didn't get into the bible are not considered canonical by the modern catholic church, and a great number of the various break-away factions, including the orthodox churches and the protestants. In other words, what is contained in those books has absolutely no bearing on what happened to Jesus, if he existed, since the early church declared that they were heretical.
Secondly, and from my perspective most importantly, they still aren't contemporary since none of them were written when Jesus was alive. The earliest copies of any known christian work is some 50-60 years after he supposedly died, as far as I know anyway, and I've looked into this extensively.
So no, there are no contemporary documents.
You have to remember as well that a lot of other people were trying to compile canonical writings before the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine, called for the first Council of Nicaea. Many tried to add to, take away from, or even make up entire documents to influence how the biblical canon would form.
Mark 16:18, for instance, is generally considered a forgery by modern day scholars.
