Posted: Feb 27, 2010 7:02 am
TimONeill wrote:jerome wrote: If you mean contemporary sources: sure, there are none. Take any 5 analogous figures from Josephus and try to find contemporary sources...
Exactly. We know of Theudas, the Egyptian, the Samaritan Prophet and several others solely from Josephus. Yet no-one questions their historicity. We know of Jesus from Josephus and several other sources and yet we're told he is "invisible to history"? WTF?
What we see at work here, ladies and gentlemen, is irrational, ideologically-driven bias. And that's deadly to the proper analysis of history.
I say, that's a bit rough. I thought he was quite clear - and made a good point. Here, let me amend the first sentence:
But the silence about Jesus from recorded events within his lifetime is total.
The point is that, not only is there no contemporary record of Jesus, there is no contemporary record of any act that, if not carried out by Jesus, would have to have been carried out by some other, similar (and missing) figure.
As for this:
Exactly. We know of Theudas, the Egyptian, the Samaritan Prophet and several others solely from Josephus. Yet no-one questions their historicity.
I think it's closer to the truth that no-one gives a shit about their historicity. Jesus is the one that people argue about because Jesus is the main character in the story.