You know that I was referring to the 4 gospels. But it would be no different in any of the gnostic gospels. People rejected Jesus. That's a fact. Even if you only go by what you know from outside secular history, people rejected Jesus. Christians were killed as heretics and followers of a cult.
C.A. Think about this. Why would anyone reject Jesus if he were performing miracles right before their eyes? These are eyewitnesses to his miracles, and they rejected him. We actually have nothing to compare it to, since we've only seen bogus miracles and healings. You could say that these people lived in a less cynicle time in a way, since it was long before our current scientific method, and they were more accepting of supernatural intervention.
There were political reasons to downplay anything good Jesus did, for sure. We can see that today. Today when the president accomplishes something great, it is downplayed and mocked. So I'm sure that happened then also. But think about an honest hearted person, like me, or Cofty, or many of the other atheists on the board. If we witnessed a severed ear being healed back to a head, we are going to take notice! I think even the most ardent opposer, on seeing a man they've known in their area all his life, being given sight for the very first time will reevaluate things quickly.
That didn't happen. It would seem the miracles were not real. Not if honest-hearted people could reject them. If anything even happened. It is much more likely that they did not happen, and in the retelling of the story they were added to give authority to the account. Raising people from the dead? Feeding the masses with a few fishes and bread? THOUSANDS?
How would this not come to the knowledge of the Romans? The Romans had no problem adding one more god to their list. They would have probably been willing to listen and investigate. I know that there are stories of the Romans persecuting Christians, but this was political. There are also stories of Roman emporers paying homage to local gods. They actually didn't oppress people religiously, as a rule. So are there some Roman writings about these remarkable miracles? Not that I know of. Are there writings outside of scripture and gnostic scripture about these miracles? Other eyewitnesses? Did they write anything down? Did ANYBODY investigate the hoopla and record their findings?
It seems we have only the writings in the scriptures, but I don't think that is likely. I think something like this would have got a lot of attention outside the Jewish/Christian community.
I could be wrong. There may be writings. Please direct me if there are and I was not aware of them. But seriously, I don't think knowledge of these very public miracles would have only caught the eye of the Jews. Roman soldiers, governors, judges---they were all over Israel. If they couldn't write, they cetainly had scribes.