The First Century Void

[Succubus]

I just loves me some John E Remsburg  The Christ. It's an absolute gem, well referenced and easy to read. Open the thing anywhere and you will find jewels.

Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus of humanity, the pathetic story of whose humble life and tragic death has awakened the sympathies of millions, is a possible character and may have existed; but the Jesus of Bethlehem, the Christ of Christianity, is an impossible character and does not exist.

He makes this observation regarding Philo-Judaeus

Philo was born before the beginning of the Christian era, and lived until long after the reputed death of Christ. He wrote an account of the Jews covering the entire time that Christ is said to have existed on earth. He was living in or near Jerusalem when Christ’s miraculous birth and the Herodian massacre occurred. He was there when Christ made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He was there when the crucifixion with its attendant earthquake, supernatural darkness, and resurrection of the dead took place—when Christ himself rose from the dead, and in the presence of many witnesses ascended into heaven. These marvellous events which must have filled the world with amazement, had they really occurred, were unknown to him. It was Philo who developed the doctrine of the Logos, or Word, and although this Word incarnate dwelt in that very land and in the presence of multitudes revealed himself and demonstrated his divine powers, Philo saw it not. (my emphasis)

And as the OP points out, neither did anyone else. I've yet to hear from the nut jobs any sort of even semi plausible reason why this should be, my personal favourite? Paper and ink were expensive in the 1st century. That's right folks, you herd it here first! There is no period in ancient history as well documented as the 1st century, and yet, it didn't occur to the omni-notoverlookingthings god to provide some means of recording the boy's road trip.
I'm pretty sure there are threads here on the historical Jebus, but I have no intention of looking for the bastards. I think this: Here be dragons should be mentioned in despatches. 2,000 pages, 42,000 posts and 2,000,000 hits. Some of the interwebs finest examples of rational thinking, and as you will no doubt surmise, some of the saddest examples of what religion can do to the human intellect.
My take on the historical Jesus? That depends on how we define the HJ.
An eloquent, charismatic teacher who inspired many and gathered a large following? No chance! If under Roman occupation you find yourself being followed by a large crowd, your countdown to the beyond will be in single figures, they would have killed him on the spot.
A fire and brimstone radge who got his arse nailed up for giving the facking Romans lip? An absolute certainty!


So how did the story of those two sad bastards get morphed into the water walking necromancer? Fuck knows, but there was certainly more Jebus's than those two. Today we have a massive pool of Christian (yes I know) names, but not then, Jesus was a very common name. Jerusalem was shoulder deep in prophets, messiahs and preachers, all with their own repertoire of conjuring tricks, ripping yarns and snake oil potions. It's how they fed themselves, how they earned a living. The competition must have been fierce. All vying for the best sites and all with a polished delivery, think cockney market stall patter.

'All right my darling, how are you this lovely morning, have you considered the lily’s? Just a few drops of this secret elixir and your flowers will be a tall as a Centurion, just five shekels a bottle... What? Are you trying to insult me! Me with a poor dieing grandmother... All right then two shekels.'

'Hello there sir, you look like a man of the world, did you hear the one about the virgin, the cheese maker and the ghost... Hahahaha... Thank you sir, most generous of you sir and god bless you sir.'

No doubt some would employ shills, and wait for a decent crowd of mugs.

A young lad at the back calls out: 'Sir, can you help my father, he's blind.' Fetch him over here son: Applies elixir...
I was blind and now I can see!!! A miracle! A fucking miracle!!!
The elixir is now ten shekels a bottle.

And these sort of antics are going on all over the city, all performed by a preacher named Jesus, but not necessarily the same one. So over the years and a few generations the stories of 'these' raconteurs and healers called Jesus are conflated into 'a' Jesus. A bit fanciful? Perhaps, but to me it's more plausible than  the utterly insane church version of events.