Your thoughts on Jesus

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The 4 Gospels are named for their authors.

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No, the four gospels were given names based on guesses of the the second century church. Before around 180 AD every document claiming to quote some teaching of Jesus never claims to quote from the gospel of ____. Around 180 AD a man names Irenaeus writes "Against Heresies" and includes references to named gospels. After this date it suddenly becomes common to quote from the gospel of _____.

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Paul wrote most of the other NT books, his "letters"

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Actually, the only letters that were traditionally attributed to Paul that are still generally accepted by scholars to be his work are:

Rom, Cor I and II, Gal, Philippians, Thes I, and Philemon.

Note: these letters are the ONLY books in the NT whose traditional authors stand up to modern scrutiny.

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...John is generally regarded to have written Revelation

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Someone named John wrote Revelation (the text is one of the few books that actually names it's author) but nothing in it suggests that it is the same John as is traditionally granted authorship of the Gospel of John (John the son of Zebedee) and modern research has generally concluded that he didn't write that either.

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SA secular historian of that time named Josephus wrote about the life of Jesus and even mentioned his resurrection. Can't remember the title of the collection of his works, something like "The Writings of Josephus." This text is easy to come by...I know a couple people who have one. It's also important to note that the passages about Jesus are contained within a much, MUCH larger secular text...he wasn't the focus by a long shot.

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Here's the famous quote:

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At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one should call him a man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of the people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. He was the Messiah. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. For he appeared to them on the third day, living again, just as the divine prophets had spoken of these and countless other wondrous things about him. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out.

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Remember, Josephus was not a Christian but a Jew. However, the style is that of a devoted Christian. For this reason this is a very controvertial quote. The copies we have today are not originals but opies made over the centuries - mostly by Christian monks. Some believe it was all inserted wholesale by a transcribing monk in the 3rd century (or so), others claim it was embellished. Very few serious scholars take this quote at face value (basically, only committed fundamentalists do). It is also important to note that this quote only became common in Christian writings after 300 AD. Before then early church fathers wrote of their anguish that no independent accounts of Jesus existed, even though Josephus' work was readily available to them.

It is also the only non-biblical contemporary reference to Jesus. There aren't even any references to lost references. This is it.