There is no proof that Jesus existed

[Dill]

(07-12-2018, 01:43 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Well hell we take a lot of our Middle Age history from people a century or two later.  We even use the Sagas.

"Taking history" from sagas is rather different from considering Scops "historians."  Beowulf tells us a lot about the state of Old English language in 1000 CE, as well as customs and modes of address common in 8th-9th Saxon culture, but few think it describes actual battles between humans and monsters/dragons.

I am not disputing the existence of a 1st century Rabbi who became the founder of a dissident Jewish sect, later syncretized with existing Greek  and Roman philosophy/religion over the next three centuries to become a major world religion.

My question regarding the dates is to highlight how much of this narrative is, for us, a matter of scientific, scholarly and even literary reconstruction.