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| English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
There are many people who want others to believe that Jesus Christ did not exist and that Christianity is build upon a fake.
It might be strange that those people who wants us to believe jesus from Nazareth (Jeshua from the tribe of David) did not exist are running high with other historical figrures where less writings and information can be found than the one they scorn.
Many also consider early Christianity as a rebellious underground movement until Roman Emperor Constantine made it his religious practice in A.D. 312. We do agree that Constantine's conversion, based on what he viewed as a victorious sign from God prior to going into battle, and his demand to the preachers of Christ that they would agree with the empire its system of worshipping, made that the movement became more attractive because lots of attitudes could be continued and worship became no different than they knew already from the Roman and Greek worshipping, having now a three-une god to their liberty.
Having Christendom made in an official religion of Rome in A.D. 380 did more for the spread of Christianity than any proselytizing efforts conducted by the Apostle Paul. Though the religion that was subservient to the Roman Empire, beard little resemblance to the radical teachings of Jesus.
The first-century Gospels did not want to give a correct historical day to day overview, but presented those teachings of the man the writers considered to be the Messiah.
The gospels indicate that Jesus was a historical figure.
Myths and even legends normally involved characters placed centuries in the distant past. People wrote novels, but not novels claiming that a fictitious character actually lived a generation or two before they wrote. Ancient readers would most likely approach the Gospels as biographies, as a majority of scholars today suggest. Biographies of recent figures were not only about real figures, but they typically preserved much information. One can demonstrate this preservation by simply comparing the works of biographers and historians about then-recent figures, say Tacitus and Suetonius writing about Otho.writes Professor Craig S. Keener in the Huffington Post.
Contrary to some circles on the Internet, very few scholars doubt that Jesus existed, preached and led a movement. Scholars' confidence has nothing to do with theology but much to do with historiographic common sense. What movement would make up a recent leader, executed by a Roman governor for treason, and then declare, "We're his followers"? If they wanted to commit suicide, there were simpler ways to do it.
One popular objection is that only Christians wrote anything about Jesus. This objection is neither entirely true nor does it reckon with the nature of ancient sources. It usually comes from people who have not worked much with ancient history. Only a small proportion of information from antiquity survives, yet it is often sufficient.Those who want to find more about the existence of this cult figure may look further at the new series Why think that (1) … Jesus existed?
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