Jesus as a percentage

[robvalue]

This is a topic I keep randomly ranting about and I thought it was time to collect some hard data. This question is generally for atheists, but non-literalist Christians are welcome to contribute too.

Here is my question: how closely would you estimate that Jesus as written about in the New Testament correlates with:

(a) One single, distinct historical figure

(b) Any number of historical figures rolled up together

Obviously your answer to (b) is going to be equal to our greater than your answer to (a).

My answers are 3%, and 5%. So the character as written contains about 3% accuracy about a single historical figure, and another 2% on top of that from other people who got partly included in the story over time.

One of the reasons I ask is to try and gauge how much mythicists and "historical jesus-ists" actually differ. So feel free to include how you would label yourself. I'd not label myself as either, as I feel there is some validity to both as shown by my percentages. I feel the truth lies somewhere between the two positions, or that in fact, they are pretty much the same position. I'm not looking for justifications, just figures

[pocaracas]

I'd need to read the whole by and take notes to be able to ascertain a degree of probability, like you want... And I don't want to do that, too much useless work.
I think it's possible that such a man existed, but many of the stories attributed to Jesus have parallel stories pertaining to other figures... If these figures were themselves historical or made up is also up for grabs.

Also, many of the stories depict him using magic, which signals fiction...

[Longhorn]

Eh, I just don't bother c:

[robvalue]

I'm only looking for very rough estimates I'm not going to draw any detailed conclusions here, it's just out of interest.

[strawdawg]

My thoughts are B.

[ignoramus]

Rob,
I was going to give you my instinctive percentages of Mythical Jesus vs Historical Jesus and then I remembered that the "Jesus saviour" story has been doing the rounds for eons all over the world! Can someone explain to us why this particular version is the true one in this instance? cough *Bullshit* cough ...

[robvalue]

Jesus saviour? I don't think I've heard of that. What it's about?

I've heard of Jesus savoury, the Catholics do that with crackers I think.

[abaris]

Here is my question: how closely would you estimate that Jesus as written about in the New Testament correlates with:

(a) One single, distinct historical figure

(b) Any number of historical figures rolled up together

None of the above.

The problem lies in "as written in the New Testament". A person or a number of persons might have been the source for the campfire legends making it into these books. But that doesn't mean a possible Jesus did or said anything that is attributed to him. Let alone the supernatural stuff.

[robvalue]

Yeah, I agree. I'm not expecting an exact correlation with any specific events, just a rough idea of how much of a real character is buried in there somewhere.

It's probably an impossible question. I was just wondered what people thought. I don't actually think anything happened exactly as written in the NT, just that it might vaguely resemble some actual events in parts. Obviously it has bullshit and myth piled so high on it that it's impossible to separate it all.

[pocaracas]

Hey rob... have you read Jefferson's bible?
Here's a PDF (fun starts at page 27):
http://uuhouston.org/files/The_Jefferson_Bible.pdf

That there represents the maximum I'd be willing to to accept of that guy's life... and some of that seems like an echo of other people's lives also written about around that time.