Does anyone here believe that Jesus never existed?

by Newborn 70 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  SixofNine

  I lean towards believing there was no one historical Jesus (though as someone pointed out upthread, "Jesus" was a common name at the time).

  Real people, real things; they leave real evidence. This ghost couldn't pick up a frickin' pen and say hello? Someone so mythologized in spirit would have been someone who left a mark in real history. Jesus is absent.

  So even if I'm wrong, and there was one "Jesus" who got the whole mythology ball rolling, this Jesus was not someone who had supernatural powers or left much of a real mark on history. Obviously, the religion he inspired if he existed leaves a huge welt on real history... but you can say the same thing for Yaweh ;)

  There is no question whether Muhammed existed, or Alexander the Great, or the various Caesers, or Justus of Tiberia, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc (I could do literally a thousand "etceteras", and each one would further make the point).
• 

  aSphereisnotaCircle

  There is to much historic evidence that Jesus lived to denie it.

  I would like to see some of this evidence.

  Could you at least provide one example?
• 

  villabolo

  AK-Jeff: "Jesus may have been a fairly common name - at least I read that somewhere"

  In the Hebrew Scriptures you have Joshua which is the same as Jesus.

  villabolo
• 

  highdose

  What about the legend of king aurthar? theres even profecys to that one, hes meant to be coming back to save British or Welsh from ... somthing not sure what though
• 

  moshe

  It is very hard for even doubters to say, "Jesus is dead, he's not coming back, so get over it". The Josephus comment about Jesus has been debunked and nothing has surfaced to take it's place. Nazareth as a city in AD1 didn't exist, either. 1st century stories about Jesus are all suspect in my opinion. Nobody can prove that the messiah Jesus didn't exist, however-

  Sadam Hussein couldn't prove he didn't have any WMD's, could he? Trying to disprove a negative is a fool's errand, so that is why the Jesus story remains largely unchallenged. -
• 

  Satanus

  I'm w moshe. Jesus was a popular jewish name, though, at the time. It's still used for naming kids in mexico.

  S
• 

  Tuesday

  I don't believe Jesus existed, there's NO evidence to show he did.
• 

  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Of course he existed and still exists. Every December 25, he grabs a giant bag of toys, hops in his sleigh pulled by 8 magic reindeer, and flies around the world delivering presents to all the good little girls and boys.

  And, I've seen him at the mall.
• 

  startingover

  I think there might, and I emphasize might...have been a man named Jesus who the stories were based on. Just another one of the many messiah figures that existed then. Surely if a man, an actual son of god existed that did what he is claimed to have done, you would expect lots of evidence from many sources. From my research, it just doesn't exist.
• 

  villabolo

  Yes, there most probably was a Jesus, at least I'm 99.9% certain. The reason being that religions, like Christianity, are always founded by charismatic persons. I simply don't think it's possible for the early Christians to have invented Jesus. Exagerated and deified, yes. But they simply did not have the imagination to make him up from scratch.

  villabolo