[ExI] The existence of Jesus (Was: Political Origins of Life)

[BillK]

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 1:39 PM, Ben Zaiboc wrote:
> Presumably this was said in jest, and it did make me laugh, but I'm now wondering how many people,
> on this list and elsewhere, that are not religious, actually believe there was a Jesus.
>
> I don't mean believe in Jesus as in 'this guy who totally existed, was the son of some god or other',
> but in the sense of believing there was a single person that these stories are based on.  I'd have thought it
> patently obvious that Jesus is a kind of King Arthur or Robin Hood figure, a composite myth from many stories
> over a long period of time.  There is absolutely no historical evidence for such a figure
> (afaik, please correct me if I'm wrong on that.  With references, obviously!).
>
>

 Not everything I say is meant to be in jest.  :)
In this case it was just keeping my options open.

The search for the historical Jesus has occupied vast numbers of
scholars over the centuries.
Yeshua was a very popular name for Jewish sons as every family wanted
their son to be the Messiah who fulfilled the Old Testament
prophecies. So there were many 'Yeshua' rabbis, preachers and rebel
leaders during those tumultuous years.

The Jesus Seminar has estimated that only about 20% of the sayings
attributed to Jesus could possibly have been said by him. Of course,
their methodology has been widely criticised.

But,  considering his background as a Jewish rabbi, even a radical
rabbi, it seems obvious to me that Jesus would have no time for all
the Greek theology that Paul preached to his Greek audience. Jesus
preached in Aramaic to a Jewish audience and was much more
'down-to-earth' than Pauline theology. The gospels were written in
Greek, for a Greco / Roman audience after Jerusalem was destroyed by
the Romans in 70 AD and the Jewish followers of Yeshua scattered.

So, for what it's worth, my opinion is that there was a popular Jewish
rabbi / rebel leader called Yeshua, but little of what he taught his
Jewish followers can be found in the New Testament writings.


BillK