Did the historical Jesus exist?

Irrelevant.

Whew - sorry, Scotthebrave, I know you weren't here the last time this went around.

I happen to think there was a man (or maybe men) who claimed to be the rightful king of Israel and may have been executed by Rome for it. There is no hard evidence I know of, but I don't think legends and myths get started without an underlying kernel of truth.

I figured this probally has been asked a few times, but since I missed it...


a simple yes or no would be appreciated.

Thanks everybody.

[This message has been edited by Scotthebrave (edited January 30, 2001).]

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/metagetics/HistoricalJesus1.html" TARGET=_blank>Yes, part I[URL]


[URL=http://www.geocities.com/metagetics/HistoricalJesus2.html]Yes, part II</A>


Yes, part III

However, I believe that he may never have existed. For more, check my thread: "Jesus Christ: Mythic Hero?"

He fits the mythic-hero profile quite well, though there are a few discrepancies here and there.

For instance, unlike the profile, he does not take a bride/queen. However, he does have some female groupies, and there have been some speculations that Mary Magdalene had been his girlfriend. If that is the case, then she is the missing bride/queen.

Hey StB. It's unrealistic to expect a simple yes or no answer to a question upon which there is so little direct evidence. In my observation, the prevailing skeptical view is that there was such a person, but he wasn't divine and may have borne little or no resemblance to the figure described in the Gospels. There is also a minority view that there simply was no such person. And another that he was a leading Essene figure from the first or second century BCE.

If you wanna know more, you're gonna have to do some reading. There's some stuff on the web but the best information is in books. Robert Price's Deconstructing Jesus is the single best one I've seen. Let me know if you'd like other suggestions.

Serious answer:
Maybe.

Was his life accuratly chronicaled in the Bible?
Probably not.

There was a guy named Jesus on my soccer team in high school.

He fits the mythic-hero profile because the mythic-hero profile is "hard-wired" into our brains like a lattuce that attracts and organizes the deeds of extraordinary men. I am using myth in the sense that anthropologists sometimes use the word: the closest humans can come to describing absolute truth.