To: Donald Meaker
So why is the middle initial H?
That's right. And Christ is not a Jewish name.
But seriously...
Paul (ne Shaul of Tarsus) lived before the Gospels were written (3 a.d.-64 a.d. approximately). He was persecuting Jewish believers in Jesus's divinity who existed before the written gospel, and his message spread in ancient Palestine while there were still many alive from Jesus's time. There would not have been any believers to persecute or any historical figure for Paul to see on his way to Damascus if Jesus had not in fact lived.
As far as I know, early Jewish accounts don't say that there was no Jesus. Rather, that he did not conform to prophecy about the Messiah (e.g. he was a Galilean, a group with no historical claims to prophecy), or that he never claimed divinity, or that accounts of his resurrection were made up.
James, probably Jacob, the brother of Jesus, is I understand a solidly documented historic figure during the time when the "Nazarenes" existed as part of the Jewish people.
If Jesus were a fairy tale concocted to conform to Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah, the writers could have done a much "better" job. Instead, there are unhelpful nuggets (such as Jesus's own family trying to drag him away) and inconsistencies that the recounters felt obliged to leave in out of adherence to the traditions.
122 posted on
01/02/2006 8:39:14 PM PST by
kenavi
("Remember, your fathers sacrificed themselves without need of a messianic complex." Ariel Sharon)
To: kenavi
What about the Toledot Jeshu
169 posted on
01/08/2006 12:35:40 PM PST by
red irish
(Gods Children in the womb are to be loved too!)
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