Jesus Christ Didn't Exist, Unless You Have Common Sense

[Shawnster]

http://www.inquisitr.com/1550418/jesus-christ-didnt-exist-unless-you-have-common-sense/

 

Jesus Christ didn’t exist. Earlier this month, that was the claim of Michael Paulkovich, a man who did an analysis of 126 writers active during the periods from the First through the Third Centuries of the Common Era (C.E.).

 

“When I consider those 126 writers, all of whom should have heard of Jesus but did not — and Paul and Marcion and Athenagoras and Matthew with a tetralogy of opposing Christs, the silence from Qumran and Nazareth and Bethlehem, conflicting Bible stories, and so many other mysteries and omissions,” Paulkovich writes, “I must conclude that Christ is a mythical character.”

And you know what? He’s right, provided you haven’t the slightest bit of common sense.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1550418/jesus-christ-didnt-exist-unless-you-have-common-sense/#2SykTRSfTOhsVlhO.99

[rbrown1205]

The problem with people like this is that they tend to accept the evidence that is according to their world view and reject the evidence that is not.  That is not very sensible as the article implies, but if they have a degree or a following of some kind, people will look to them as an authority.

 

Jesus Christ is the greatest example of the power of God and the value of his love for us.

[Ahuvah]

Our very year - 2015 is based on the birth of Jesus - It's not a very well thought out statement that one is it?

[Dustparticle]

He forgot to mention Mathew, Mark,Luke,and John!!!

[carlos]

Very few people argue today that Jesus did not exist, and most of them are conspiracy theorists.

 

No Roman historian mentions Pontius Pilate, and he was the Roman governor of Judea! If the province of Judea was not relevant enough for historians to mention its governor, how can we expect them to mention a humble preacher? It clear that the average Roman citizen had no idea of what happened in that corner of the Empire.

 

A better approach to the question of the existence of Jesus from a historical standpoint would be: How many writers could have mentioned Jesus? How many people wrote about the history of Palestine between the years 29-33? There is Philo of Alexandria, Flavius Josephus and, several decades later, Tacitus. Three authors. Josephus and Tacitus talk about him. Philo does not, but he did not write about history but philosophy. And he did not live in Palestine at the time Jesus preached. So two of three possible authors mention Jesus.

 

It's funny that no one questions the existence of Buddha or Muhammad, and yet there is absolutely no witness about them, no historian ever mentions them neither contemporary nor afterwards. Yet their writings or their teachings are considered evidence enough that they existed. Why is it different in Jesus' case?

Edited December 15, 2015 by carlos

[Shawnster]

He forgot to mention Mathew, Mark,Luke,and John!!!

 

Did you read the article?

 

Three: The entire religion is founded on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Needless to say this implies existence. Furthermore, the limited inconsistencies in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, do not negate the fact that each were First Century documents that mentioned Jesus Christ as a live person.

 

[Dustparticle]

Did you read the article?

 

Three: The entire religion is founded on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Needless to say this implies existence. Furthermore, the limited inconsistencies in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, do not negate the fact that each were First Century documents that mentioned Jesus Christ as a live person.

I think there are more references in the first century that Jesus existed.

[ChocoBro]

There is more contemporary proof about the existence of Jesus Christ than the man we know of as Mohammed.

 

Written documentation of Jesus Christ and Christians appeared mere decades after his death, while the first written records of Muhammad's life and works appeared roughly over a hundred years after his death. There are no documents referring to Muhammad during his lifetime or in the decades after that from any empire in Europe or the Orient. His followers became known much later, when Jihad became an existential threat to the existing political entities.

 

And yet, hardly anybody would authentically doubt the existence of the man "Muhammad", or claim that he is a mythical archetype like Robin Hood or King Arthur who is based on a real person, but with a great deal of made-up lore added on top. Nope, we consider Muhammad to be a real person.

 

The type of people who profess this kind of thing are just ratters looking to make a buck off of some book, you can bank on that.

[Sheep]

Unfortunately, Mankind's Search for God is not in the Watchtower Online Library or jw.org. Here's what it says on page 237:

 

Was Jesus a Myth?

 

“Is the life story of the founder of Christianity the product of human sorrow, imagination, and hope—a myth comparable to the legends of Krishna, Osiris, Attis, Adonis, Dionysus, and Mithras?” asks historian Will Durant. He answers that in the first century, to deny that Christ had ever existed “seems never to have occurred even to the bitterest gentile or Jewish opponents of nascent Christianity.”—The Story of Civilization,: Part III, “Caesar and Christ.”

  The Roman historian Suetonius (c. 69-140 C.E.), in his history The Twelve Caesars, stated regarding the emperor Claudius: “Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christ], he expelled them from the city.” This occurred about the year 52 C.E. (Compare Acts 18:1, 2.) Note that Suetonius expresses no doubt about the existence of Christ. On this factual basis and in spite of life-endangering persecution, early Christians were very active proclaiming their faith. It is hardly likely that they would have risked their lives on the basis of a myth. Jesus’ death and resurrection had taken place in their lifetime, and some of them had been eyewitnesses to those events.

  Historian Durant draws the conclusion: “That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels.”

Edited December 16, 2015 by Sheep