Quote:
Originally Posted by uh-oh
sure, but to me that doesn't prove jesus' existence as an actual person of history. which is what this discussion was about.
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Certainly the non-Christians who wrote about him in the years following his putative death did not doubt he had once lived. The Roman historian Tacitus, writing in his Annals around 110 AD, mentions one “Christ, whom the procurator Pontius Pilate had executed in the reign of Tiberius.” The Jewish historian Josephus remarks on the stoning of “James, the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.” The Talmud, a collection of Jewish writings, also refers to Christ, although it says he was the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier called Panther. Doubts about the historicity of Christ did not surface until the 18th century. In short, whether or not JC was truly the Son of God, he was probably the son of somebody.
The scenario where Jesus is 100% myth is less plausible than the scenario where mythic and legendary ideas are attached to a historical figure. Ergo, there is little reason to assume there is no historical Jesus, and rather a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest that there was one.