The problem there, Thom, as every more rational person from Thomas Jefferson to Bart Ehrman has run into is this.
We have no evidence at all for any "jesus" who was not the supposed son of fucking god or whatever and who we are supposed to believe walked out of a tomb because it was found empty. THAT is the only story we have and, of course, it is flat out fucking absurd. But there is no evidence at all for a lesser jesus.
Suppose I were to assert that in The Iliad, Menelaus was not the King of Sparta but was instead just the janitor who mopped up the palace? I have no more evidence for that than any of these "jesus shrinkers" have for their stuff.
We can see how stories grew up around George Washington and Apollonius of Tyana after their deaths but the men existed first. As you say, there is no indication of jesus anywhere in the ANE in the first century AD.
There is no evidence to sustain Jefferson's non-miraculous bible or Ehrman's "Historical" jesus.
We have only one story.
And its a load of shit.
We have no evidence at all for any "jesus" who was not the supposed son of fucking god or whatever and who we are supposed to believe walked out of a tomb because it was found empty. THAT is the only story we have and, of course, it is flat out fucking absurd. But there is no evidence at all for a lesser jesus.
Suppose I were to assert that in The Iliad, Menelaus was not the King of Sparta but was instead just the janitor who mopped up the palace? I have no more evidence for that than any of these "jesus shrinkers" have for their stuff.
We can see how stories grew up around George Washington and Apollonius of Tyana after their deaths but the men existed first. As you say, there is no indication of jesus anywhere in the ANE in the first century AD.
There is no evidence to sustain Jefferson's non-miraculous bible or Ehrman's "Historical" jesus.
We have only one story.
And its a load of shit.