RE: Debating the existence of Jesus
June 25, 2013 at 11:55 am
(This post was last modified: June 25, 2013 at 12:10 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(June 25, 2013 at 11:50 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: I'm surprised that people who argue for an historical Jesus tend to overlook the best evidence for his existence: analysis of the Gospels. A fictional messiah would have been easier to match to messianic expectations, many Gospel passages seem to be attempts to refute ways in which Yeshua didn't match those expectations. Why was his mom already pregnant when she got married? Why would the son of God need to be baptized by John? Why would the son of God allow himself to be crucified (a particularly shameful death by Hebrew mores of the time)?-because that wasn't the story the authors wished to tell, on every count. Alot of those things you think are inconvenient for a "fictional jesus" are precisely what establishes theology. A messiah that matched the expectations would have simply been a re-eforcement of judaism. -That-...is what would have been inconvenient, for a christian or christian movement.
I'm not sure whether to put the odds of there actually being an apocalyptic preacher named Yeshua on whose teachings and (exagerrated) deeds the Gospels were based over or under 50%; but I don't think there's a slam-dunk for either case.
"Jesus" - fulfilling messianic prophecy without deviation and in no uncertain terms would have left no room for "Christ", the object of reverence and source of theology for christians.
(consider the correlary of the muslim jesus, doing and saying -largely- the same things but instead...re-enforcing islamic theology. These characters do what the author wants them to do, as always)
I, personally, don't care about an apocalyptic preacher named Yeshua. That person would have as much in common with the jesus of the gospels as Abe Lincoln has with the character of the same name in Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. To me, this is nothing more than saying.."well, there could have been a guy named Joe somewhere, once upon a time". Yes, of course...and Steve and Bill and John, and Bobby......, and? Is the case for "Yeshua" or Joe, or Steve, or Bill, or John, or Bobby any more compelling than the case for "Jesus"?
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