Replies

"And he must have indeed been a madman, don't you agree?
Calling himself the "Son of God" and such, on a number of occasions, and nearly kicking off food riots at places where large crowds gathered to see him.

Since he existed (agreed), he would a) either have been a madman because of the outrageous claims he himself made about himself, or b) he was in fact the Son of God Himself. Correct? Can't see anything logical outside of these two possibilities."

Interesting question. To start, you say that Jesus said he was the "Son of God." That's problematical, actually, since the only record of that is in the scriptures of the Christian religion, none of which were written by anyone who was there, by the best estimates of historians.

Did he say that? I don't know, to tell you the truth.

My personal guess is that he was a bit of a rabble-rouser who drew too much attention to himself and got himself executed by the powers-that-be.

Much like other historical cult heroes, a posthumous following developed, with stories told and retold and altered as such stories often are.

Early Christianity is rife with writings, most of which were rejected as the Canon of the New Testament developed. How much redaction was done in the period from around 300-500 AD is unknown, to be quite frank.

There are lots of theories about Jesus. The ones that disagree with the official Canon are called heretical, even when supported in some way by non-canonical documents. Although heretics are no longer executed, they certainly were in the early days of the "official" Christian church, and all documents relating to those heresies were either destroyed or stuffed away in dark archives.

So, I don't know whether your Jesus claimed to be a deity. I do know that the official Canon of the New Testament claims that. It seems a good idea as a claim, if the goal was, as it was in the days of Constantine, to make Christianity the official religion of Rome and of the world, by extension of an empire.

So, to answer your specific question: Yes, if Jesus did actually claim (and believe) himself to be a deity, then he was insane. However, I doubt that story. I suspect that others who came later gave him that attribute.

Again, whatever you believe is what you believe. I cannot believe in deities or other supernatural entities. More power to you if you can.