aa5874

The Jesus of the NT was characterised or believed to be the son of a God, the Christ or Messiah, a prophet like Eliijah, a miracle worker who raised the dead, who had thousands of followers and used to claim he would come back from the grave when he died.

This Jesus was believed to have preached in the synagogues throughout Judaea, was in constant conflict with the spiritual leaders, the chief priests and the establishment in general, even disregarding the Sabbath.

Even the trial of Jesus by Pilate is grotesque ,as reported in the NT, where the final arbiter publicly declared Jesus not guilty, yet condemned him to die because of public pressure. Such a trial is incredible.

So, the NT's Jesus should have been a prominent, highly controversial and unforgetable figure if he really lived, probably analogous to and surpassing the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr of the USA.

But, no known credible historian wrote about Jesus, no rumors, no anecdotes, but there are forgeries.

Jesus of the NT appears to be a fraud, he could not have existed as described.

I vote NO.

Species8472

Jesus may have been an actual person (regular human being of course) or he may just be a character based on a real person or persons. The same can be said for most mythological characters tho.

camp freddie

I've voted 'other'.

He probably existed in the same way as Robin Hood. Which is to say, Jesus is a romanticised story based loosely on the life of one or more radical Jewish preachers that lived in the middle east around the first century.

Malachi151

I voted no, but "maybe" is always a possibility, especially depending on how you define "Jesus Christ".

According to some definitions, "Jesus Christ" was a real person even if not one single thing written about "Jesus Christ" is true or reflects any aspect of his life. So, under these conditions, of course the chances go up, but overall I think that Jesus Christ sprang from Jewish scriptures and messiah concept.

Sheshbazzar

Lots of Jesus's have existed, I have even been friends with a couple of 'em.
Heck, they even told me that my name is "Jesus"!
Oh, you mean that "Jesus"? that old religious fairy-tale one?

There must have been a thousand or more Jews with that name at that time, but it is highly doubtful that there was a single one of them who actually healed the sick, raised the dead, calmed the seas, walked on water, or went up into heaven, and is still "up there" somewhere looking down at us.
So none of them would or could at all be -that- "Jesus".

WVIncagold

I voted no. I do not believe that any actual person existed because there is a lack of ANY other documentation besides the text claiming he existed describing somebody that if they did exist would of been the talk of the town so to speak. "Hey bring that Jesus dude to the party man he supplies the eats and all the wine you can drink from thin air". Seriously though the deeds are silly and they were done by other man gods before him much better i might add ,and even the bible refers to him as Emanuel and Jesus the likely hood is many stories put together were given the same hero mangod name to keep it consistent.

Headache

Jesus of the bible? Nope! Clearly a myth!

aa5874

That is the fundamental problem with the HJ position, they basically deny that the Jesus of the NT existed as described and then produce a Jesus from their imagination as the Jesus of the NT.

RedShark92

Robin Hood is also tricky. The myths around him probably were based on a real person. However, even if this is so, if you look at the myths/common stories there is far far more that is inaccurate than is accurate.

I would say "maybe" to there ever having been a real Robin Hood. However, if you detail the question further to whether there was a real Robin Hood as he's commonly understood, then the answer becomes a definite "no".

As to Jesus, the answer to the second question in regards to him is a definite "no" as well. However, if you ask was there a real person who inspired the stories, I would say that a nuanced answer would be a very weak "maybe". In this non-nuanced poll I answered "no". It seems to me that in order for there to have been a real person who inspired Paul, he still would have had to have done some notable things, even if it was only building up a sizable following during his life and it seems like there isn't much real evidence even for that. It seems more likely that Paul made the whole thing up.

Solitary Man

Robin Hood is a red herring. Besides, I would wager that most people who looked into the historicity of Jesus haven't looked so much into the historicity of Robin Hood, but that if they did, and were to spend as much time on it, they perhaps may feel better about marking a ''yes'' or a ''no'' for him as well.