Theos-Talk Archives (March 2009 Message tt00205)

Who Was the Real Jesus?
by David Pratt

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 the complete article at:

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

Daniel
http://hpb.cc