J-D

If you're suggesting that Christianity was started by people deciding to fight Rome with words, that leads directly to these questions: who were these people that decided to fight Rome with words and what led them to do so? what words did they fight Rome with and what led them to choose those words?

outhouse

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Pilate not born a true Roman, and for him being placed in control of the Jews, amounted to being placed as a sergeant in a position at the north pole. Or a Russian soldier deep in siberia. It was a headache due to the stubborn nature of the Jews.

The fall of the temple did not start Christianity.

It failed for hundreds of years in many different conflicts. There was no real Jewish military, you had rebels and insurrectionist


There was no spiritual resistance, you had people living in the Diaspora who never wanted to be fully Jewish or even half Jewish. Yet they did find importance of the monotheistic god though the foundations of Judaism.


The movement factually evolved from small to large, you have yet even tried to show how the small beginning of this movement started.

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aa5874

There is no evidence from antiquity that the Jesus cult was originally a secret cosmic myth.

Where is the source of antiquity that shows a secret cosmic myth?

We have Aristides Apology and it explains the START of the Jesus cult of Christians.

Aristides' Apology There was NO Cosmic Jesus known to the Jesus cult Christians up to the 2nd century.

[b]God came down from heaven--this is taught in the Gospel[b]

Aristides ApologyJesus came DOWN from heaven was pierced by the Jews, buried, resurrected after three days and ASCENDED to heaven according to Aristides.

There was NO Cosmic Jesus Christ. Jesus came down from heaven and lived in the daughter of man.

J-D

If Christianity was started by people saying that God came down from heaven, that leads directly to the question, what led to people saying that God had come down from heaven?

aa5874

Based on Aristides that is what started Christianity.

The question of the OP has been answered by Aristides.

TedM

You KNOW what it is and that there is plenty of it, and like I said - you dismiss it.

aa5874

What are you talking about? You have not ever presented any corroborative evidence for a Jew who worshiped a man called Jesus Christ of Nazareth as a God.

We have the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, Aristides, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius and others who show no evidence at all that the Jews started the Jesus cult and story.

TedM

Suetonius, Tacitus, Josephus, Hegessipus, Jerome, Papias, for starters, ALL provide evidence of Christianity beginning with the Jews. Yet, you dismiss them all.

Your friend Justin Martyr wrote about the disciples of Jesus, and their memoirs, and the spread of the gospel. Were those disciples Gentiles according to him, aa? Of course not.

J-D

Even if the answer given by Aristides is correct (which has not been established), it is incomplete in that it does not explain what led to people saying that God had come down from heaven.

aa5874

Again, Non-Apologetic writers Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius did not mention Jesus of Nazareth.

1. Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.3 is a forgery unknown by the Jesus cult up to at least the 4th century and it was not certain the Jesus character was a man and he was raised from the dead.

2. Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1 is not about Jesus of Nazareth---Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of a Ghost, God the Creator, and was claimed to be the King of the Jews who was raised from the dead.

3. Tacitus' Annals with Christus/Chrestus is a forgery and was unknown by the Jesus cult up to at least the 5th century.

4. Suetonius did NOT mention Jesus of Nazareth and the Jesus cult did not claim Suetonius mentioned Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God born of a Ghost.

5. Hegesippus, Papias and Jerome are questionable Apologetic sources of which there is ZERO corroboration by non-apologetic sources.

Hegesippus, Papias and Jerome are not even eyewitnesses of the acounts of Jesus.

6. Justin Martyr claimed Jesus was born WITHOUT sexual union. It is clear that Justin Martyr was duped or believed in Mythological Gods and Sons of Gods and was not an eyewitness of Jesus, the Son of God, and the disciples

Your argument is extremely weak and virtually 100% unsubstantiated.

I have already shown you that Justin Martyr admitted the Jews did NOT accept the Lawless, Godless and Unholy doctrine of the Jesus cult.

In the earliest story of Jesus, the Jews REJECTED Jesus as Christ and the Son of God and asked that he be crucified and his supposed own disciples either Betrayed, Abandoned or Denied him.

Please, read gMark--on the day Jesus was cruicified there was NO Jesus cult of Christians.