[afraidfortherepublic]

Most of which was written almost a thousand years after his death....

If you are referring to the Gospels, the oldest dates to about 70 AD and the other three somewhat after that. It was probably written down as a record of the oral history told by the Apostles and other wittnesses to the Crucifixion. I think 1000 years is exagerating quite a bit.

[jnarcus]

Read the context of my response. It is in reagrds to Julius Ceasar not the Nazarene. One of the arguments for the historicity of Jesus is in fact that the stories of Him are so close in time to His existence. Julius on the other hand (contrary to a previous poster) is not mentioned by anyone until almost 1000 years after his rule. We do not have the actual books that Julius wrote only reference to them and quotation of them by other authors ( yes even his Gaul)...