Jesus' Historicity
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Anonymous
| With his alleged birthday coming up, let's discuss the person that is being celebrated. Present your information and argument for Jesus, fact or fiction. |
Anonymous
Jesus was made up -- not of whole cloth, because a messiah was predicted. But those were the olden days, before modern science and running water and a bunch of stuff that we now take for granted. Kids can't imagine life without the internet. Neither can I! Remember those old movies where people would wait impatiently for the mailman to come? |
Anonymous
| There are a number of non-religious documents that confirm Jesus existed in addition to his followers writings. It is unlikely they colluded to create a fictional character. |
Anonymous
They document the stories about him and/or his followers, but aren’t written by contemporaries with first-hand knowledge. |
Anonymous
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I believe a person existed who was the central figure in the religion, but the Gospels from a historical perspective are not reliable primary sources for history, and have been through multiple translations and revisions. Things in the gospels are pretty flatly contradicted by more reliable primary sources, and with all historical accounts, you have to consider the motivations of the people writing them.
So specifically from a historical perspective, I believe there's likely some historical basis, but the degree of accuracy is likely on the lower side. The Gospels simply were not written as historical texts. The lines between religion and historical scholarship are quite tricky. You have to be quite clinical when assessing historical sources, and people over the millennia have put a lot of agendas and religious influences into Christian history specifically. It is fascinating to also track how writers throughout the ages interpreted Christian history and worth its own examination. |
Anonymous
No he was not made up. His existence and the words he spoke have been proven. What is likely made up is that he was the son of God. Probably not. Then again, how did such an extraordinary person come to have such extraordinary advice on how to be a good person? In any event he was an amazing man and if we all followed his teachings the world would be a better place. |
Anonymous
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I like quite a bit of what is attributed to him. Love, kindness, compassion, helping the sick and poor, welcoming the stranger, forgiveness, living a simpler life serving others ……
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Anonymous
| He nice, the Jesus. |
Anonymous
Sounds a lot like the Buddha to me. But they were both so long ago, who knows? |
Anonymous
Link? |
Anonymous
Jesus was not born in December, let alone Winter. Whether you're talking about Jesus as a human, or a deity. |
Anonymous
Don't hold your breath waiting. |
Anonymous
Well those lambs being watched for by the shepherds would have been pretty cold. But didn't various pagan celebrations get coopted into "Christmas" dates in December hundreds of years after the historical era of Jesus? So that's neither here nor there. Kind of like claiming the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving when it was really the French then Spanish in Florida in the 1500s. |
Anonymous
His story, sayings, and deeds are so fantastic because it was all made up. Its like Iron Man. He can do all sorts of amazing things because its all fiction. Jesus' whole narrative makes for good TV. And like modern movie or comic book stories, the writer(s) have plenty of time to think of the story they want to tell and how to portray their character. There never was a real person. |
Anonymous
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So where did the religion come from. A bunch of people started writing stories about stuff supposedly happening in the past and they all collaborated on common themes?
How did they decide on what those were, making it all up from scratch? And being willing to die for it to lend credence? Props to them. |