An Atheist Historian Examines the Evidence for Jesus

Scholars who specialize in the origins of Christianity agree on very little, but they do generally agree that it is most likely that a historical preacher, on whom the Christian figure "Jesus Christ" is based, did exist. The numbers of professional scholars, out of the many thousands in this and related fields, who don't accept this consensus, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Many may be more cautious about using the term "historical fact" about this idea, since as with many things in ancient history it is not quite as certain as that. But it is generally regarded as the best and most parsimonious explanation of the evidence and therefore the most likely conclusion that can be drawn.
The opposite idea—that there was no historical Jesus at all and that "Jesus Christ" developed out of some purely mythic ideas about a non-historical, non-existent figure—has had a checkered history over the last 200 years, but has usually been a marginal idea at best. Its heyday was in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when it seemed to fit with some early anthropological ideas about religions evolving along parallel patterns and being based on shared archetypes, as characterized by Sir James Frazer's influential comparative religion study The Golden Bough (1890). But it fell out of favor as the twentieth century progressed and was barely held by any scholars at all by the 1960s.
More recently the "Jesus Myth" hypothesis has experienced something of a revival, largely via the internet, blogging, and "print on demand" self-publishing services. But its proponents are almost never scholars, many of them have a very poor grasp of the evidence, and almost all have clear ideological objectives. Broadly speaking, they fall into two main categories: (1) New Agers claiming Christianity is actually paganism rebadged and (2) anti-Christian atheist activists seeking to use their "exposure" of historical Jesus scholarship to undermine Christianity. Both claim that the consensus on the existence of a historical Jesus is purely due to some kind of iron-grip that Christianity still has on the subject, which has suppressed and/or ignored the idea that there was no historical Jesus at all.
In fact, there are some very good reasons there is a broad scholarly consensus on the matter and that it is held by scholars across a wide range of beliefs and backgrounds, including those who are atheists and agnostics (e.g. Bart Ehrman, Maurice Casey, Paula Fredriksen) and Jews (e.g. Geza Vermes, Hyam Maccoby).
Unconvincing Arguments for a Mythic Origin for Jesus
Many of the arguments for a Mythic Jesus that some laypeople think sound highly convincing are exactly the same ones that scholars consider laughably weak, even though they sound plausible to those without a sound background in the study of the First Century. For example:

1. "There are no contemporary accounts or mentions of Jesus. There should be, so clearly no Jesus existed."
This seems a good argument to many, since modern people tend to leave behind them a lot of evidence they existed (birth certificates, financial documents, school records, etc.) and prominent modern people have their lives documented by the media almost daily. So it sounds suspicious to people that there are no contemporary records at all detailing or even mentioning Jesus.
But our sources for anyone in the ancient world are scarce and rarely are they contemporaneous—they are usually written decades or even centuries after the fact. Worse still, the more obscure and humble in origin the person is, the less likely that there will be any documentation about them or even a fleeting reference to them at all.
For example, few people in the ancient world were as prominent, influential, significant and famous as the Carthaginian general Hannibal. He came close to crushing the Roman Republic, was one of the greatest generals of all time and was famed throughout the ancient world for centuries after his death down to today. Yet how many contemporary mentions of Hannibal do we have? Zero. We have none. So if someone as famous and significant as Hannibal has no surviving contemporary references to him in our sources, does it really make sense to base an argument about the existence or non-existence of a Galilean peasant preacher on the lack of contemporary references to him? Clearly it does not.
So while this seems like a good argument, a better knowledge of the ancient world and the nature of our evidence and sources shows that it's actually extremely weak.

2. "The ancient writer X should have mentioned this Jesus, yet he doesn't do so. This silence shows that no Jesus existed."
An "argument from silence" is a tricky thing to use effectively. To do so, it's not enough to show that a writer, account or source is silent on a given point—you also have to show that it shouldn't be before this silence can be given any significance. So if someone claims their grandfather met Winston Churchill, yet a thorough search of the grandfather's letters and diaries of the time show no mention of this meeting, an argument from silence could be presented to say that the meeting never happened. This is because we could expect such a meeting to be mentioned in those documents.
Some "Jesus Mythicists" have tried to argue that certain ancient writers should have mentioned Jesus and did not, and so tried to make an argument from silence on this basis. In 1909 the American "freethinker" John Remsberg came up with a list of 42 ancient writers that he claimed "should" have mentioned Jesus and concluded their silence showed that Jesus ever existed. But the list has been widely criticised for being contrived and fanciful. Why exactly, for example, Lucanus—a writer whose works consist of a single poem and a history of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (in the century before Jesus' time) "should" have mentioned Jesus is hard to see. And the same can be said for most of the other writers on Remsberg's list.
Some others, however, are more reasonable at first glance. Philo Judaeus was a Jew in Alexandria who wrote philosophy and theology and who was a contemporary of Jesus, and who also mentions events in Judea and makes reference to other figures we know from the gospel accounts, such as Pontius Pilate. So it makes far more sense that he should mention Jesus than some poets in far off Rome. But it is hard to see why even Philo would be interested in mentioning someone like Jesus, given that he also makes no mentions of any of the other Jewish preachers, prophets, faith healers, and Messianic claimants of the time, of which there were many. If Philo had mentioned Anthronges and Theudas, or Hillel and Honi or John the Baptist, but didn't mention Jesus, then a solid argument from silence could be made. But given that Philo seems to have had no interest at all in any of the various people like Jesus, the fact that he doesn't mention Jesus either carries little or no weight.
In fact, there is only one writer of the time who had any interest in such figures, who also had little interest for Roman and Greek writers. He was the Jewish historian Josephus, who is our sole source for virtually all of the Jewish preachers, prophets, faith healers, and Messianic claimants of this time. If there is any writer who should mention Jesus, it's Josephus. The problem for the "Jesus Mythicists" is ... he does. Twice, in fact. He does do so in Antiquities XVIII.3.4 and again in Antiquities XX.9.1. Mythicists take comfort in the fact that the first of these references has been added to by later Christian scribes, so they dismiss it as a wholesale interpolation. But the majority of modern scholars disagree, arguing there is solid evidence to believe that Josephus did make a mention of Jesus here and that it was added to by Christians to help bolster their arguments against Jewish opponents. That debate aside, the Antiquities XX.9.1 mention of Jesus is universally considered genuine and that alone sinks the Mythicist case (see below for details.)

3. "The earliest Christian traditions make no mention of a historical Jesus and clearly worshipped a purely heavenly, mythic-style being. There are no references to an earthly Jesus in any of the earliest New Testament texts, the letters of Paul."
Since many people who read Mythicist arguments have never actually read the letters of Paul, this one sounds convincing as well. Except it simply isn't true. While Paul was writing letters about matters of doctrine and disputes and so wasn't giving a basic lesson in who Jesus was in any of this letters, he does make references to Jesus' earthly life in many places. He says Jesus was born as a human, of a human mother, and born a Jew ( Galatians 4:4 ). He repeats that he had a "human nature" and that he was a human descendant of King David ( Romans 1:3 ). He refers to teachings Jesus made during his earthly ministry on divorce ( 1 Cor. 7:10 ), on preachers ( 1 Cor. 9:14 ) and on the coming apocalypse ( 1 Thess. 4:15 ). He mentions how he was executed by earthly rulers ( 1 Cor. 2:8 ) and that he died and was buried ( 1 Cor 15:3-4 ). And he says he had an earthly, physical brother called James who Paul himself had met ( Galatians 1:19 ).
The post is long
See the rest at
http://www.strangenotions.com/an-atheist-historian-examines-the-evidence-for-jesus-part-1-of-2/

If Paul Existed it means Jesus Also Existed but If Paul didn't exist it means Jesus nor the disciple never Existed... And it's all made up story

EyeHateGod:
If Paul Existed it means Jesus Also Existed but If Paul didn't exist it means Jesus nor the disciple never Existed... And it's all made up story

Paul exist

O Yes. Paul existed.

orisa37:
O Yes. Paul existed.

I wonder why atheist will try as much as possible to prove religion is wrong.

Kalatium:

I wonder why atheist will try as much as possible to prove religion is wrong.

more correctly Christianity...pls

Most atheists are a bunch of frustrated anti-christians. They keep looking at the cookie in jar, with the hope the cookie will disappear so they will finally say it was never in the jar.

Jesus never existed....Israel was a war zone during the period he was said to have lived......it is impossible for those things to have taken place...my 2 kobo contribution.

EyeHateGod:
If Paul Existed it means Jesus Also Existed but If Paul didn't exist it means Jesus nor the disciple never Existed... And it's all made up story

you deserve one word.

DUMB

sonmvayina:
Jesus never existed....Israel was a war zone during the period he was said to have lived......it is impossible for those things to have taken place...my 2 kobo contribution.

video proofs please

promise10:


video proofs please

read the history of the jews by Josephus.

sonmvayina:
Jesus never existed....Israel was a war zone during the period he was said to have lived......it is impossible for those things to have taken place...my 2 kobo contribution.

You support Jesus myth theory which is already debunked by mainstream scholars.

sonmvayina:

read the history of the jews by Josephus.

Thesame Josephus mentioned Jesus Christ

Even if Jesus existed which I believe he did, it's still not proof that he is God or the son of Gof

sonmvayina:

read the history of the jews by Josephus.

I said video proof please.

Athiests get away, we are better than you in every way because we believe in Jesus. If you don't believe, it's your call, just stay away from us

Pidgin2:
Athiests get away, we are better than you in every way because we believe in Jesus. If you don't believe, it's your call stay, just stay away from us

foladara777:
Even if Jesus existed which I believe he did, it's still not proof that he is God or the son of Gof

That is what these people don't understand
Take thy Greek Gods for example
The Greeks are known for immortalizing their kings and making them Gods
Alexander the great is a good example
It is very likely Zeus was a man turned to a God
So even if a man like zeus existed they does not mean he overthrew the titan empire of his father kronos started the reign of the Olympian Gods
That's rubbish

I've never said jesus didn't exist. Whether he was truly the son of "god" is another story

foladara777:
Even if Jesus existed which I believe he did, it's still not proof that he is God or the son of Gof

There is already proof only that you chose not to believe

[b]Jesus existed as homo erectus not homo sapiens, his real name is Yeoshua not Jesus, jesus was interpreted from Zezeus the son Zeus(God of Greek), because people mix religions together and names were copied, jesus was called Zezeus in his time instead of his original name , Yeoshua, because they thought he was the reincarnation of Zezeus the son of Zeus...... Yeoshua was crucified and some of his followers secretly save him from dying on the cross and pretend as if he had died, his body was later released to his people and he secretly ask to leave the land to another land, and he died of famished as he was on his way to Egypt, he died at Sodom/Egypt border..Jesus was the first son of god, and first person to be born and he his name is faulkin, his was the son of gaius (mother earth) and his father is murmor, one of the son of Almighty GOD, he was adopted by Nimphidis(later Jehova or Satan), who later team up with Largas (later Allah or Lucifer) another son of Almighty GOD,Nymphidis was a jealous and Aggressive son of GOD, and he always wanted homos(humans) to worship him and submitted to him, he sent his adopted son Faulkin(half god/half nephilim who were transformed and born by homo erectus through sexual intercourse between Largas and one virgin homo erectus in her dream, but Yeoshua still have abilities of god despite that he was born as homo erectus) Nymphidis lives in biggest mountain then (mountain Bethel/Zion) so, he sent faulkin(Yeoshua) to put his scaring words in homos mind in case they refused to worship him [/b]


Almighty GOD created more than 100 hundreds sons from his body and they all duel in universe which doesn't have begin nor end,, some of the sons of GOD found our earth, and later found the guidance of the earth(mother earth) who is in charge of earth but no homos as ever been created then, only some few monster animals (not up to 1000) existed then with plants,, as human beings were later created after millions of years later (after the visit of sons of GOD),one of the sons of GOD ask some more few sons of GOD to come to earth because of the unrest of earth from the hand if Nymphidis, that's why we have many gods on earth, is either the one people are still worshiping or the one we have heard of before.... Nobody can believe that we are not alone in the universe, there is uncountable planets like earth in the planets were different human nor animals are living but we can never get there unless we humans were technologically advanced so that we can travel with the speed of light, to travel to another galaxy will cost us more than 5,000 years to get there with the current fastest jet we have..... thats why some people have encountered aliens with round light jet, the thing was that, they may be technologically advanced than us and they can travel with a speed of light, they can't see us nor we can see them with naked eyes unless we have some equipment,the only thing we can see sometimes is the lights of their jets....

It really baffles me why atheists hate someone that doesn't exist. Why do they always lose their sleep over a myth?

Why would history be classified under the name of someone who doesn't exist - BC and AD?

Atheists would rather believe in the historical existence of the homo erectus that lived over one million years ago without asking for the proof of their existence but they are here refuting the historical existence of Jesus Christ who died only about two thousand years ago.

Their sense of intelligent questioning and investigation into an event to verify its substance has suddenly boarded Qatar Airways to an unknown destination.

Many so-called atheists on nairaland shouting, "Jesus did not exist" are mere voice records of ignorant words spread through the media on this same subject-matter. They don't have their own opinion but, like a mindless record, they keep shouting the opinions of others.

Atheists think questioning the existence of God makes them wise but the pitiful fact is that given the overwhelming evidence of God's existence their denying His reality is undoubtable proof that only "The fool says in his heart that there's no God."

LordCenturion:
[b]Jesus existed as homo erectus not homo sapiens, his real name is Yeoshua not Jesus, jesus was interpreted from Zezeus the son Zeus(God of Greek), because people mix religions together and names were copied, jesus was called Zezeus in his time instead of his original name , Yeoshua, because they thought he was the reincarnation of Zezeus the son of Zeus...... Yeoshua was crucified and some of his followers secretly save him from dying on the cross and pretend as if he had died, his body was later released to his people and he secretly ask to leave the land to another land, and he died of famished as he was on his way to Egypt, he died at Sodom/Egypt border..Jesus was the first son of god, and first person to be born and he his name is faulkin, his was the son of gaius (mother earth) and his father is murmor, one of the son of Almighty GOD, he was adopted by Nimphidis(later Jehova or Satan), who later team up with Largas (later Allah or Lucifer) another son of Almighty GOD,Nymphidis was a jealous and Aggressive son of GOD, and he always wanted homos(humans) to worship him and submitted to him, he sent his adopted son Faulkin(half god/half nephilim who were transformed and born by homo erectus through sexual intercourse between Largas and one virgin homo erectus in her dream, but Yeoshua still have abilities of god despite that he was born as homo erectus) Nymphidis lives in biggest mountain then (mountain Bethel/Zion) so, he sent faulkin(Yeoshua) to put his scaring words in homos mind in case they refused to worship him [/b]


Almighty GOD created more than 100 hundreds sons from his body and they all duel in universe which doesn't have begin nor end,, some of the sons of GOD found our earth, and later found the guidance of the earth(mother earth) who is in charge of earth but no homos as ever been created then, only some few monster animals (not up to 1000) existed then with plants,, as human beings were later created after millions of years later (after the visit of sons of GOD),one of the sons of GOD ask some more few sons of GOD to come to earth because of the unrest of earth from the hand if Nymphidis, that's why we have many gods on earth, is either the one people are still worshiping or the one we have heard of before.... Nobody can believe that we are not alone in the universe, there is uncountable planets like earth in the planets were different human nor animals are living but we can never get there unless we humans were technologically advanced so that we can travel with the speed of light, to travel to another galaxy will cost us more than 5,000 years to get there with the current fastest jet we have..... thats why some people have encountered aliens with round light jet, the thing was that, they may be technologically advanced than us and they can travel with a speed of light, they can't see us nor we can see them with naked eyes unless we have some equipment,the only thing we can see sometimes is the lights of their jets....

All these funny stories

Very true

LordCenturion:
[b]Jesus existed as homo erectus not homo sapiens, his real name is Yeoshua not Jesus, jesus was interpreted from Zezeus the son Zeus(God of Greek), because people mix religions together and names were copied, jesus was called Zezeus in his time instead of his original name , Yeoshua, because they thought he was the reincarnation of Zezeus the son of Zeus...... Yeoshua was crucified and some of his followers secretly save him from dying on the cross and pretend as if he had died, his body was later released to his people and he secretly ask to leave the land to another land, and he died of famished as he was on his way to Egypt, he died at Sodom/Egypt border..Jesus was the first son of god, and first person to be born and he his name is faulkin, his was the son of gaius (mother earth) and his father is murmor, one of the son of Almighty GOD, he was adopted by Nimphidis(later Jehova or Satan), who later team up with Largas (later Allah or Lucifer) another son of Almighty GOD,Nymphidis was a jealous and Aggressive son of GOD, and he always wanted homos(humans) to worship him and submitted to him, he sent his adopted son Faulkin(half god/half nephilim who were transformed and born by homo erectus through sexual intercourse between Largas and one virgin homo erectus in her dream, but Yeoshua still have abilities of god despite that he was born as homo erectus) Nymphidis lives in biggest mountain then (mountain Bethel/Zion) so, he sent faulkin(Yeoshua) to put his scaring words in homos mind in case they refused to worship him [/b]


Almighty GOD created more than 100 hundreds sons from his body and they all duel in universe which doesn't have begin nor end,, some of the sons of GOD found our earth, and later found the guidance of the earth(mother earth) who is in charge of earth but no homos as ever been created then, only some few monster animals (not up to 1000) existed then with plants,, as human beings were later created after millions of years later (after the visit of sons of GOD),one of the sons of GOD ask some more few sons of GOD to come to earth because of the unrest of earth from the hand if Nymphidis, that's why we have many gods on earth, is either the one people are still worshiping or the one we have heard of before.... Nobody can believe that we are not alone in the universe, there is uncountable planets like earth in the planets were different human nor animals are living but we can never get there unless we humans were technologically advanced so that we can travel with the speed of light, to travel to another galaxy will cost us more than 5,000 years to get there with the current fastest jet we have..... thats why some people have encountered aliens with round light jet, the thing was that, they may be technologically advanced than us and they can travel with a speed of light, they can't see us nor we can see them with naked eyes unless we have some equipment,the only thing we can see sometimes is the lights of their jets....

Where did u get this

People that cannot correctly prove the origins and activities of their very own villages with all certainty are foolishly thinking they can prove Middle-East histories of thousands of years ago to perfection to believe in it.

I find this ridiculous.

flamingREED:
People that cannot correctly prove the origins and activities of their very own villages with all certainty are foolishly thinking they can prove Middle-East histories of thousands of years ago to perfection to believe in it.

I find this ridiculous.

Have u asked them to prove their village origin and they couldn't?
Before u made the ridiculous conclusion?

orisa37:
O Yes. Paul existed.

You mean Apolinius of tyna...