Posted: Apr 04, 2020 2:06 am
Doherty argues that the simplest and most complete explanation of such evidence we have is that the Jesus we know of devolves from Jesus being an avatar of God as represented in the Pauline tradition who is accessible by study of scripture and visions to the more 'human' teacher and healer as presented in the Gospel narratives. Doherty's 2009 book Jesus: Neither God Nor Man goes into excruciating detail on all the relevant texts.
It would be difficult to do justice to Ehrman's 2012 book Did Jesus Exist? without reproducing the text in full, but skimming through it again the sources Ehrman cites Tacitus as evidence that high ranking Romans of the 2nd century knew that Jesus lived and was executed by the governor of Judea, and clues in the various narratives in 'The New Testament' as indicating they are referring to an historical person. Ehrman argues that the 'Gospels' are independent sources and that they are firmly based on 'oral traditions' going back to the time this Jesus is supposed to have lived.
It would be difficult to do justice to Ehrman's 2012 book Did Jesus Exist? without reproducing the text in full, but skimming through it again the sources Ehrman cites Tacitus as evidence that high ranking Romans of the 2nd century knew that Jesus lived and was executed by the governor of Judea, and clues in the various narratives in 'The New Testament' as indicating they are referring to an historical person. Ehrman argues that the 'Gospels' are independent sources and that they are firmly based on 'oral traditions' going back to the time this Jesus is supposed to have lived.