RE: Do you think jesus christ existed
December 31, 2013 at 2:34 pm
(This post was last modified: December 31, 2013 at 2:35 pm by TudorGothicSerpent.)
I've never seen any convincing argument that Jesus didn't exist as a human being. Given the fact that a community sprang up around belief in his existence and his status as the Jewish messiah, and given that we have written records from a person who knew those who had traveled with him during his lifetime (Paul of Tarsus), I think that the claim that he didn't exist at all is a pretty extraordinary one that would need to have strong evidence to make it seem likely.
What we don't know is very much about Jesus' actual life or what he taught. He was probably an apocalyptic preacher (those were a dime a dozen at the time), there's strong evidence that he had an association of some sort with John the Baptist, there's a good chance that the beatitudes reflect his social teaching. He was almost certainly executed by crucifixion the Romans, since that tradition is as old as the earliest Christian writings, but it's more likely that he was killed for potentially spreading insurrectionist ideas than for "blasphemy". The province of Judea was seen as a hotbed of revolutionary activity by the Romans (mostly because it actually was), and so anyone who gathered that many followers to himself and who some people believed to be the Messiah would have gotten the wrong kind of attention from Roman authorities pretty quickly. He pretty much definitely didn't claim to be God, and there's a good chance that he never even personally claimed to be the Messiah, given that he is frequently presented as being secretive and usually indirect about it in the gospels. The likelihood that he predicted his own death several times is very low, and there's a good chance that he was not buried in a tomb at all, since crucifixion victims seldom were. His body was more likely thrown out and consumed by scavengers, a testament to Roman brutality toward potential revolutionaries in conquered societies, and his disciples probably suffered hallucinations that went on to form the core of the more elaborate resurrection appearances described by the Gospels.
I don't doubt that Jesus existed, but his real story is probably the tragic story of an itinerant preacher who was killed by an over-zealous and powerful occupying force, rather than of a Messianic figure.
What we don't know is very much about Jesus' actual life or what he taught. He was probably an apocalyptic preacher (those were a dime a dozen at the time), there's strong evidence that he had an association of some sort with John the Baptist, there's a good chance that the beatitudes reflect his social teaching. He was almost certainly executed by crucifixion the Romans, since that tradition is as old as the earliest Christian writings, but it's more likely that he was killed for potentially spreading insurrectionist ideas than for "blasphemy". The province of Judea was seen as a hotbed of revolutionary activity by the Romans (mostly because it actually was), and so anyone who gathered that many followers to himself and who some people believed to be the Messiah would have gotten the wrong kind of attention from Roman authorities pretty quickly. He pretty much definitely didn't claim to be God, and there's a good chance that he never even personally claimed to be the Messiah, given that he is frequently presented as being secretive and usually indirect about it in the gospels. The likelihood that he predicted his own death several times is very low, and there's a good chance that he was not buried in a tomb at all, since crucifixion victims seldom were. His body was more likely thrown out and consumed by scavengers, a testament to Roman brutality toward potential revolutionaries in conquered societies, and his disciples probably suffered hallucinations that went on to form the core of the more elaborate resurrection appearances described by the Gospels.
I don't doubt that Jesus existed, but his real story is probably the tragic story of an itinerant preacher who was killed by an over-zealous and powerful occupying force, rather than of a Messianic figure.
