Challenge to atheists: I find your lack of faith disturbing!

[xpastor]

They are one and the same, different ways of expressing what happened. Besides the Romans were very efficient in their method of killing. Prove the apostles did not write the NT.

Actually, the burden of proof is on you to show that the apostles, or eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry, did write the New Testament.

Even the most conservative commentators acknowledge that we do not know for sure who wrote the four gospels. Nobody signed them and the authors never explained their connection to the subject matter. The headings "According to Matthew, According to Mark, etc.) were added decades later on the basis of traditions handed down by the Church Fathers.

We are reasonably sure that Paul wrote half of the epistles attributed to him. As for the others, like it or not, Ehrman is quite right that forgeries were common enough in the ancient world. Galen, the pre-eminent physician in 2nd century Rome, was outraged to find a book for sale under his name, which he had never written. Tertullian, a very early Church Father, records that a forger tried to pass off a third letter to the Corinthians. You have no way of knowing that a forger did not slip by Ephesians or 2 Thessalonians, which appear to differ in style and content from the other epistles. Anyway, what authority does Paul have as a witness? He saw Jesus in a vision? Do you accept all the "visions" which modern Pentecostals throw out?

However, on the dispute about crucifixion vs. hanging on a tree, I will side with the Christians. Although the NT is riddled with self-contradictions, this is not one of them. It is one of those silly, out-of-context references to the Old Testament which pop up in the NT. Matthew and Paul are especially fond of doing that.

In Galatians 2:20 Paul says "I have been crucified with Christ" but then in the next chapter he says "But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the scripture says, 'Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse.'" (Gal. 3:13) which is a reference to Deuteronomy 21:23. In Paul's mind crucifixion and hanging on a tree are equivalent so that he can see the crucifixion as foreshadowed in the OT.