A Question For Christians

[wiggs73]

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Are there any texts written during Jesus' lifespan that refer to him that you can point me too?

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Sure there are. One example are the texts of Flavius Josephus , who was a Jewish historian. He was alive around the same time as Jesus and had this to say about Jesus:

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Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

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Tacitus, a Roman historian, also mentions a "christus", which can be translated into "Christ"...

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Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.

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Thallus Circa, Pliny the Younger, and Lucian also mention Jesus and / or people and events from the New Testament in their works. Each of these authors were alive during the first 100 years AD.

Hope that answers your question.

[cab4656]

After some thought, my answer is D.

Here's why. The Jewish religion is fairly similar to the Christian religion. In fact, the only real difference is that Jesus guy. I would certainly be disappointed that I had been misled all this time, but I'd still be following the same God. The only difference is that I'd be waiting for the savior to come.

[valenzuela]

Much more intresting David is how would YOU feel if the jewish religion is correct?!! hehehe....( being agnostic makes way too much sense to me)

[FrankieFish]

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Much more intresting David is how would YOU feel if the jewish religion is correct?!! hehehe....( being agnostic makes way too much sense to me)

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Doesn't being agnostic mean that nothing means sense to you?

[FrankieFish]

Thank you for this post wiggs.

[Kaz The Original]

I think "undecided" is the general accepted version.

[FrankieFish]

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I think "undecided" is the general accepted version.

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a: don't
gno-sis: know-[censored]

but "undecided" sounds a lot nicer. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Quaalude]

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but Jesus was just a man who fooled or had followers who fooled the masses into believing he was something else.

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Sorry but I have to quibble. Regarding Jesus and who he actually was, there are only 3 possibilities:

1. He was a liar.

2. He was a lunatic.

3. He is LORD.

Read the gospels yourself and see if you can put him on #s 1 or 2. (If He was something other than what later followers made Him to be then that possibility is included in either #1 or #2.)

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There is also a #4.

4. He is a myth: http://jesusneverexisted.com/surfeit.htm

Exerpts from the site:

"The Jesus of the Gospels is an artificial creation, a collective work of art who evolved through the combined consciousness of two generations of Christian worship."

"Whether Jesus ever actually existed has long been debated. The argument (very well documented) is that there is absolutely no corroborating evidence of his existence in documents other than highly suspect Christian sources."

-Travas :-)

[Quaalude]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Are there any texts written during Jesus' lifespan that refer to him that you can point me too?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure there are. One example are the texts of Flavius Josephus , who was a Jewish historian. He was alive around the same time as Jesus and had this to say about Jesus:

[ QUOTE ]
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tacitus, a Roman historian, also mentions a "christus", which can be translated into "Christ"...

[ QUOTE ]
Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thallus Circa, Pliny the Younger, and Lucian also mention Jesus and / or people and events from the New Testament in their works. Each of these authors were alive during the first 100 years AD.

Hope that answers your question.

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It does not answer his question, actually. See below:

http://www.infidelguy.com/modules.ph...22&start=0
http://jesusneverexisted.com/josephus-etal.html
http://jesusneverexisted.com/josephus-etal.html#tacitus

-Travas :-)

[felson]

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I enjoy the questions of David Sklansky.

His objective questions generate hundreds of absolutely wrong answers.

His subjective questions generate hundreds of relatively correct answers.

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Of course subjective questions generate correct answers. How could they be incorrect?