if jesus was real

[theophilus]

If Jesus was real then why isn't their any historical prof outside of the bible? If Jesus went around helping people and doing magic why isn't there volumes upon volumes of books written by every historian at the time ?

Our modern methods of communication didn't exist then so no matter what he did no one outside of the area he lived in would have heard of him during his lifetime. If there were records by local historians many of them would have been destroyed by the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.

He couldn't have been a Rabbi, that term wasn't being used until a century after his death, that he is called Rabbi in the NT is further evidence of his being fabricated.

The word "rabbi" is Hebrew for "my master." The modern office of rabbi might not have existed then but the word would have.

[DeistPaladin]

Our modern methods of communication didn't exist then so no matter what he did no one outside of the area he lived in would have heard of him during his lifetime. If there were records by local historians many of them would have been destroyed by the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.

Thanks Theo for bringing up one apology I forgot to mention. I call this one the Jesus-of-the-Gaps apology. Also see the "absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence" line.

Too bad it's not supported by the Bible.

Matthew
4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
4:24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
4:25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

Hardly an unusual example. Read the Gospels cover to cover and you see that Jesus built a ministry that was as famous as it was controversial.

The ministry alone, even if it wasn't accompanied by real miracles, should have been worth a mention by someone at the time.

[Minimalist]

And yet, Theo, we have Tacitus' comments about Vespasian's miraculous healings and Pliny the Elder ( who died at the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD ) wrote an entire multi-volume book about the miraculous happenings throughout the Empire and never mentioned anything about your boy. What is more likely?
That EVERY reference to your godboy was destroyed, in spite of the fact that 3-4th century xtians were avidly seeking such references to preserve....and even created a few when they couldn't find any... or that such references never existed in the first place. Occams' razor applies here. Your godboy's deeds were fictions created after the fact.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/tacitu...ory04.html

And so Vespasian, supposing that all things were possible to his good fortune, and that nothing was any longer past belief, with a joyful countenance, amid the intense expectation of the multitude of bystanders, accomplished what was required. The hand was instantly restored to its use, and the light of day again shone upon the blind. Persons actually present attest both facts, even now when nothing is to be gained by falsehood.

[the6dead]

The only way Rome could have covered it up is to kill everyone how have heard the name jesus.

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sorry I ment who not how (dam evo)

[Minimalist]

There is no indication that the Romans took notice of the name "Jesus" until the mid-to-late 2d century.

The earliest Roman reference, Pliny the Younger's letter to Trajan c 110-112 AD, refers only to "Christ."

[The Skeptic]

If Jesus was real then why isn't their any historical prof outside of the bible? If Jesus went around helping people and doing magic why isn't there volumes upon volumes of books written by every historian at the time ?

If you haven't already, I recommend reading The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man by Robert M. Price for a fair evaluation of the historical Jesus. He makes less assumptions that he was or wasn't real than some other writers, and more or less does an inventory of the different possibilities. He'll discuss different possibilities on a specific aspect of Jesus's life in a chapter, then get to what he thinks.


Also, Bart Ehrman's books like Jesus Interrupted and Misquoting Jesus give a good idea of how accurate scripture is and what we can really know about Jesus, although Ehrman thinks Jesus was a historical figure and an apocalyptic rabbi.

[Jax]

Also Jesus' had overexaggerated powers.

Recently uncovered video footage of the historical Jesus' "miracles" shows you're right:





The myths made it sound more impressive.

Oh damn, that made me laugh so hard.

Off topic but... what episode is that in? Seth Macfalane is my hero for doing that.

[Godscreated]

If Jesus was real then why isn't their any historical prof outside of the bible? If Jesus went around helping people and doing magic why isn't there volumes upon volumes of books written by every historian at the time ?

Because Jesus preached in a small Roman community called Judea and the biggest news coming from there was the Jewish revolts against Rome and because Rome controlled most of the world they controlled history. Jesus was not a threat to Rome before His crucifixtion, only after His death and ressurection was Christ a threat to Rome. Jesus stirred up the elite of the Jews and only because of their limited powers were they able to stir up the people, then Pilot had to do something about it to save his self. The sooner and quieter this thing was done the better it was for Pilot. As far as Rome was concerned Jesus was an unknown preacher that was no threat to them so history passed Him by, if it was not important to Rome it was not important enough to write down, historians that wrote things against Roman importance did not survive long.
Even though Rome could surpress almost anything they could not keep the story of Jesus from being told. The story of Jesus spread so fast through the Jews, Arabs, Greeks and Romans that Rome could not stifle it and they tried but it keep on growing until it took over the empire. By this time much had been written about Jesus, the original manuscripts had been lost or destroyed and so most today give little credit to the Bible.

[Minimalist]

First of all Art Metrano invented that routine in the 1970's and sued Seth MacFarlane over that piece.

http://www.tmz.com/2007/12/06/magician-c...e-his-act/


Nonetheless, its pretty funny.



And G-C you have just shown that you know as little about history as you do anything else. Don't you get tired of embarrassing yourself?

[DeistPaladin]

Because Jesus preached in a small Roman community called Judea

Once again, THE BIBLE SAYS OTHERWISE!

Did you read the verses I quoted earlier? They specify that Jesus preached far and wide and his fame spread like wildfire among all the neighboring provinces.

Go read your own Bible. Matthew 4:23-25.

I can provide more examples upon request.

The Jesus-of-the-gaps apology isn't Biblically supported.