Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00361)

The story of Jesus as presented in the four gospels of the New 
Testament is essentially a piece of fiction. There are no authentic 
references to such a figure in the works of any historians of the 
early 1st century CE (common era). The pre-gospel writings of the 
early Christians also make no reference to the life and teachings of 
a recent historical Jesus. Paul, for instance, was supposedly Jesus' 
contemporary, yet he never claimed to have met him in the flesh or 
to have met anyone else who had done so; he encountered him only in 
visions, as a spiritual being. The Christian groups of the 1st 
century CE held extremely diverse theological views, and this would 
be hard to explain if they were the followers of a single, recent 
teacher. Remarkably, they showed no interest in the holy sites and 
relics associated with Jesus' alleged earthly career; it was not 
until the 4th century that pieces of the 'true cross' began to 
surface, and that the first shrine was set up on the supposed mount 
of Jesus' death. 

Read more of this article at:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/jesus.htm

Daniel
http://hpb.cc