There is no proof that Jesus existed

[Dill]

(07-11-2018, 06:28 PM)Devils Advocate Wrote: too many political threads, not enough religious threads.

There is zero archeological evidence that Jesus existed.

Zero contemporary historians mention him. The ‘contemporary’ historians that do mention him came some years later. Josephus, Pliny, Tacitus & other’s that mention him (which is barely a mention) are considered fraudulent; that is to say, that it is accepted by today’s historians that where Jesus is mentioned in these writings, it was added some time later, sometimes centuries later, by someone else (not the original writer).

Jesus wasn’t even his name as Jesus is Roman(Latin?) for Joseph.

So yeah, countless Joseph’s probably lived throughout the ages, including the time of ‘Jesus’, but none as magical as the storied savior.

A quick historical note: In there Mediterranean world of the 1st century, there is nothing like modern media technology (news papers, television, magazines) and nothing like our current institutions for monitoring, recording and writing history.  So absence of contemporary eyewitness evidence is less damning than it would be today if, say, someone claimed that Obama was a religious leader in Kenya during the 1970s, but no one can find any records thereof.

The Jesus we have is "imaginary" in the sense that his image and life have been constructed and reconstructed years after his supposed life. It is possible that he is a compilation of several figures, in terms of his teachings. I don't think there is much reason to doubt there was a significant and creative teacher at the root of Christian doctrine, someone who actually lived.