What were Jesus and early Christians like?

[Mudhammam]

I agree with everything you said here, Tim. Excellent post. I think part of the initial attraction to mythicism for many people, at least it feels like one of its strengths to me (which I don't presume to be many), is that it dissolves one of the issues I can only make modest sense of: granted Jesus was crucified in front of his followers, at least a handful, and presumably all of them knew he died, and considering that these are Jews who have pretty clear ideas about who and what the Messiah is supposed to be---death on a cross definitely not part of the equation until OT passages are reinterpreted to fit the fact afterward---what motivates them to start claiming that he is bodily risen? I don't think this question poses such a problem that one must deny the historical core of certain events in the Gospels in order to construct a (highly speculative) natural explanation for this strange development, but it is something that probably drives a lot of people towards the one extreme of a resurrected Christ, on the one hand, and a completely mythical story on the other.