Did Jesus exist? Probably not

by The 12 Apostates 51 Replies latest jw friends

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  The 12 Apostates

  He's coming back with his dad to beat up all the people who were mean to him in high school, you can't blame him for that.

  The bible is full of mythical characters with convoluted histories that make no sense. Moses's life looks so contrived that paradoxically it almost feels bizarre to think he was an invented character, but he almost certainly was, as were Noah, Job, Daniel, etc. Jesus may be based on someone, even Noah was probably based on some noble farmer who saved his family during a flood. But none of them are real in the way that are presented in the stories. It doesn't really matter if the men existed ultimately, because it's not the men that people believe in, it's the myth.

  Were David and Solomon real? Probably. But were they kings of a great nation? I highly doubt it.
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  Finkelstein

  Unfortunately religion blurs the perspective of what is fiction drawn out from ancient mythological expressions and what is the truthful facts.
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  Beth Sarim

  ''Jesus is real because you were taught by the JWs that he existed and you just know he is.''

  Really. That just the Dub mind set you will receive in any questions you have about the DaTroof. Nuff said.

  Anyway, The12 Apostates. Welcome to the forum. I just love your handle, it kills me. Welcome again!!!!
  
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  APieceOfShitNamedTate

  I've been thinking about this a lot lately. If people assume that Bible characters are real, then why stop there? Why can't Hercules and Jupiter be real also? What about Thor and Odin? And don't forget Cu Chulainn and Lugh. For some reason fantastical stories from other cultures are just myths and legends, but fantastical stories from the Bible are fact and religion.
  
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  The 12 Apostates

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  I imagine it's because these other religions no longer exist, so no one has a vested interest in proving they are historically factual in any way.
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  TTWSYF

  Its hard to imagine that all of those people who died horrible deaths rather than just say it was a lie makes me think that Jesus Christ existed AND rose from the dead.

  Also worth mentioning that the majority of the whole world decided to change our historical recorded measure of time to before or after the year of our Lord.

  posted Saturday, February 16 in the year of our Lord 2019
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  The 12 Apostates

  I would say that this thread (which has more-or-less run its course now) was more about historicity than the religious motivations of believers. I appreciate your opinion, but I can't at all relate to someone who genuinely believes in people returning from the dead.

  All I can say is, people have suffered and given their lives for much less, so I don't find it at all hard to believe that people would die for something that never happened. I should also point out that these people who suffered and died almost certainly believed the resurrection story to be true, they were just mistaken, just as those who fought and died for their belief that Muhammad went to heaven on a winged horse were (and still are) mistaken.
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  Crazyguy2

  There’s a ton of evidence that Jesus was just a myth a new god created from former gods. For one his travels around Galilee are not in directions that make sense. 2. Galilee only had a couple minor out posts and one little town. Jesus would not have been tried during the Passover week and the whole story about his trile and death at Passover was a telling of a previous festivals or religious act (can’t think of the name) where by the Jews would cast off one sheep with the sins of the people for the year in to the wilderness for the demons (Berabis) and then sacrifice a clean sheep (Jesus) to The Jewish god.

  Everything is just a story.
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  The 12 Apostates

  I'm always a bit cagey when people start talking about the entire story of Jesus being part of some recurring allegory, it all sounds a bit Zeitgeist-esque. I'll have to look into what you just wrote, because I've never come across this particular interpretation before.
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  Phizzy

  I am convinced a Rabbi/Preacher known as Jesus of Nazareth existed in the early 1st century.

  If he did not, then why did the Gospel writer feel it necessary to invent a Census, that certainly did not occur, that got him born in Bethlehem ? Just make Bethlehem his birthplace in your story, but no, some people alive when the Gospel was written knew well that he was Jesus of Nazareth, hence the invention.

  But the fact that he existed means nothing as to the truth of the Gospels, they were invented purely to give impetus to the new Jewish Sect known as Christians.

  The Jesus stories are pure myth and legend.