Posted: Jan 10, 2023 1:07 pm
dogsgod wrote:It was Doherty's book, The Jesus Puzzle, that convinced Carrier that the earliest Christians, the pre-gospel epistle writers, believed in a mythical Christ.
I know.
Doherty's thesis was very weak, imo. I read that book, and if memory serves me right, I actually joined a discussion with him about it on some forum or other a number of years back. To say that he did not impress me would be an understatement. I haven't been able to take his case particularly seriously since around that time.
Problem number 1 is that the epistles clearly refer to an actual man. I could go on, but I've been there done all that before.
I do accept that it's an open question, obviously. He may not have existed.