Jesus never existed. That is the conclusion of a researcher who says he has combed 126 texts written during or shortly after the time Jesus is supposed to have lived — and found no mention of Jesus whatsoever.
Emphasis mine. A "researcher" you say? What kind of researcher, pray tell? Oh, this researcher's article is linked in this article. He wrote it on "jesusneverexisted.com" I'm not up to date on all the scholarly journals. Can anyone tell me if this is one of them?
Even the Apostle Paul, the New Testament figure credited with spreading the new religion that came to be called “Christianity” shortly after the supposed death of Jesus, never says that Jesus was a a real person
If only Paul had known that he should have written "by the way, Jesus is a real person!" Basically, if you interpret Paul the way you want to, then I guess you can end up making him say pretty much anything. While it may be likely that Paul did not personally know Jesus, it is a far cry to assume that Paul was completely ignorant of Jesus or even thought Jesus was mythic.
While today Christianity has become the most popular religion in world history, with 2.2 billion human beings calling themselves Christians, Paulkovich points out that as late as the the Fourth Century, Christianity was still a small and widely persecuted cult.
The invention of a mythical figure for followers of the cult to rally around gave the early Christians the strength to survive, according to this theory. On the other hand, another recent advocate of the “Mythical Jesus” believes that Christ was invented by the Romans as propaganda to pacify the public.
Well now we've just entered into conspiracy-town here. Jesus was Roman propaganda! So in one breath they say that Christians were persecuted and in the next breath they say that Jesus was propaganda meant to pacify the public? If persecution is going on,
Finally... sigh... am I really going to have to say this? Yes. Yes, I am. Oh well, here goes:
To quote one of /r/atheism's favorite quotes "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
There. I said it. I could find 126 texts written in 1940 that make no mention of FDR. He must never have existed.
Jesus mythicism is a fringe group. The vast majority of historians accept that Jesus was a historical person. When Paulkovitch (or whoever) submit their entire process of research, textual criticism, etc. to a reputable historical publication, and when his works are peer-reviewed by reputable scholars, (and only then) I might consider his hypothesis to be something other than wishful thinking.
More stuff to comply with R5: Scholars are sometimes divided on the Josephus texts referencing Jesus. However, many believe that at least one reference is an authentic reference to Jesus. Other ancient sources refer to Jesus as well. Tacitus, Suetonius, etc. One can point out that these are problematic texts because they all come at later dates, yes. However, "problematic" does not equal "the dude never existed." It's also important to keep in mind that the early spread of Christianity happened in an atmosphere of skepticism (about these Christians) and sometimes violence. There were early writings going around talking about Christians, attacking Christians, etc. Yet none of these writings ever suggested that Jesus never existed. Is this definitive "proof?" No. But it is telling that even those arguing against Christians from the very beginning never doubted the existence of Jesus.
If we set a historical standard that every individual must be attested to (possibly multiple times) by someone who lived at the same time, then we can write a lot of historical figures out of existence. That's simply not how historical research works. Oral accounts do carry some weight. And insisting on a sharp distinction between a "religious" text and a "secular" (or whatever) text is to impose an anachronistic categorization onto 1st Century Roman and Judea understanding. That is what Paulkovitch is doing. Scholars do accept the New Testament as a historical document. (Again, that doesn't necessarily mean it is 100% historically accurate.) Within the New Testament alone, we have about half a dozen authors (depending) all speaking from an understanding that Jesus existed (whatever Paulkovitch claims from his special insight into Paul's mind).
Is it any wonder that some high-class folks in Rome in the 1st Century had never heard of Jesus, a guy who died a failure in a foreign land with about a dozen followers? A guy who's followers did then later spread, but remained numerically low for quite a while afterwards? And whose followers largely worked within the Jewish synagogue system at first before spreading to those called Gentiles? As for Jewish texts regarding Jesus, it's important to remember that the Romans destroyed the Temple in their invasion of Judea in 70CE. Many texts were lost. Josephus' texts survive because he was with Caesar at the time.
There a debate to be had over how much of what is believed about Jesus is accurate. But there is little debate to be had over his existence. The Jesus Seminar (for all their problematic stuff) and historical Jesus researchers are pretty well in one accord that there did exist a historical figure named Jesus (Joshua in Hebrew). He was likely baptized, and started a public ministry. He was then put to death by the authorities. From those, rather bare-bones, basics scholars then go on to discuss what the content of Jesus' teachings were, what else he might have done, how he might have understood his work, etc.
Bart Ehrman (an agnostic and historical Jesus scholar) completely discounts any idea of Jesus mythicism. Say what you will about Ehrman's (sometimes sensationalistic sounding) books, but the guy does know the historical-critical research backwards and forwards. John Dominic Crossan participated in the Jesus Seminar and is another name to check out, along with Marcus Borg. Again, say what you will of those folks (they are sometimes controversial in theological circles), but they know their stuff.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Monday, January 5th 2015 at 1:26PM
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