Did Jesus Christ exist as a historical human or was he a theological construct?

[Minimalist]

Anyone who can supposedly walk on water is nothing more than a theological construct,

ORION was a handsome giant gifted with the ability to walk on water by his father Poseidon.

http://www.theoi.com/Gigante/GiganteOrion.html



More shit stolen from the Greeks.[/quote]

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I pretty much agree with Michael Shermer. When asked about whether or not he believed Jesus truly existed, Shermer replied, "Well, there probably was a guy named Jesus."

We can be absolutely certain that there were plenty of people named Yeshua bar Yosef in first century Palestine. Both names were very common. "Jesus of Nazareth" is a bit dicier. First of all, in Judaea the residents used the patronymic rather than a place name which was, not surprisingly, more of a Greco-Roman thing.

Second, there was great enmity between Jews in Judaea and "Jews" in Galilee or any of the other areas which were conquered by the Hasmoneans in the first/second century BC and forcibly converted to Judaism. Much as with our resident xtians there was a continuous 'No True Scotsman' argument going on. Given the feelings of Judaeans towards Samaritans and other groups the odds that a Galilean would amass any sort of following is doubtful.

As far as Nazareth goes, the fairly reputable Xtian scholar, Stephen Pfann has excavated there and found one single-family farm. Xtians create much of their own problem by claiming some grandiose status for Nazareth in the first century. No one else had heard of the place. As the observation goes, the most likely question for a Judaean to ask would be "Jesus of where?"