[Cowperson]

"We know a lot about Jesus, vastly more than about John the Baptist, Theudas, Judas the Galilean, or any of the other figures whose names we have from approximately the same date and place." On the Crucifixion, Harvey writes: "It would be no exaggeration to say that this event is better attested, and supported by a more impressive array of evidence, than any other event of comparable importance of which we have knowledge from the ancient world." [Harv.JesC, 11]

Uh, like what?

The only thing I've gathered from your posts above is the mind-blowing contradiction of insisting Palestine was a vast backwater where nothing of importance was coming out of or recorded and then the simultaneous claim in the reference above to "the vast amount of evidence."

And mixed in there is your open admission that the evidence "emerged" after the passing of Jesus . . . . . which simply plays into my hand that there is nothing from the contemporary life of Jesus.

By the way, I provided the Seneca link above merely because you brought it up when you said the guy had never heard of Jesus - which I would agree with. the link demonstrates there are lots of dubious attempts to put Jesus in the minds of contemporaries.

One thing we know for sure out of all of this . . . . . that Italian priest at the start of this thread hasn't a hope in hell (sic) of proving in a court of law that Jesus existed.


Gospels tell that Jesus was somewhat famous in Palestine for three years.

Actually, the Gospels claim he was rip-roaring famous.

By the way, attempting to marginalize Doherty, who does a pretty thorough job, isn't the way to go. There are plenty like him who make the same clinical argument of the evidence or lack therof. By your own admission, you point to evidence emerging after the passing of the alleged Christ and that is his primary point.

Also, its pretty hilarious to attempt to debunk Doherty as "biased" by using a link from an author writing for "Tekton, Building Blocks For Christian Faith."

Those who want Jesus to exist - and their are armies of them - push the envelope hard the other way, attempting to link him up with contemporaries . . . . . but they've really got nothing. OR, the other tactic seems to be to admit that nothing contemporary exists but then blame it on the times.

Cowperson