This OP should perhaps be posted in the Apologetics forum; but I find that frequenters of that forum are less objective than those who frequent here.
One claim has come up again and again, to the effect that "Jesus was just a good, pious Jew, in the line of many good, pious Jews." Or, "Jesus was a prophet, a man of God, just as Elijah and Isaiah".
Q for D.
If this is true, then why did this "prophet" engender a body of literature such as the N.T.? Elijah did not. Isaiah did not. No one claimed Isaiah was "God's son" in a special way.
Historically, what made Jesus "special"?
The historical Jesus
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Re: The historical Jesus
Post #11JehovahsWitness wrote:Albert Einstein also said this: "the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.""As a child, I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of Jesus the Nazarene." -
Albert Einstein, German-born scientist
The quote you provided must be understood in the light of this comment. Whatever his feelings about Jesus, he viewed the story of him to be part of a collection of "primitive legends", childish ones at that.
Jesus was a real man who existed in the first century.
Post #12The Roman historian and senator Tacitus referred to Christ, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in one page of his final work, Annals (written ca.AD 116), book 15, chapter 44.[1]
P.E. Easterling, E. J. Kenney (general editors), The Cambridge History of Latin Literature, page 892 (Cambridge University Press, 1982, reprinted 1996). ISBN 0-521-21043-7
Modern scholarship has largely acknowledged the authenticity of the reference in Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 of the Antiquities to "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James"[12]and considers it as having the highest level of authenticity among the references of Josephus to Christianity.
Van Voorst (ISBN 0-8028-4368-9 page 83) states that the overwhelming majority of scholars consider both the reference to "the brother of Jesus called Christ" and the entire passage that includes it as authentic."
P.E. Easterling, E. J. Kenney (general editors), The Cambridge History of Latin Literature, page 892 (Cambridge University Press, 1982, reprinted 1996). ISBN 0-521-21043-7
Modern scholarship has largely acknowledged the authenticity of the reference in Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 of the Antiquities to "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James"[12]and considers it as having the highest level of authenticity among the references of Josephus to Christianity.
Van Voorst (ISBN 0-8028-4368-9 page 83) states that the overwhelming majority of scholars consider both the reference to "the brother of Jesus called Christ" and the entire passage that includes it as authentic."
Re: The historical Jesus
Post #13Jesus seems to have lived at the time of Rome's greatness, just after Augustus had established the Empire and himself become a god. The Jewish group in Rome would probably have stayed in a superior position, since many Jewish leaders were on friendly terms with the Emperors, had history not given the despised Christians a life-line in the form of a coincidence, not unlike the odd happenings at Lourdes or Fatima. Something was seen in the sky and it impressed the Emperor, making him move towards Christianity, encouraged by his mum.
Rome being the centre of civilisation had the muscle to carry tales about Christ, both fact and fiction, to the succeeding centuries. The Catholic Church grew in secular strength as well as in spiritual; Europe's monarchs adopted various forms of the original, probably much revised and removed from anything Christ ever said. But the whole varying package, Protestant and Catholic, calls itself Christian. Thus Jesus became special by pure luck.
Equally special in history is another messenger from God, Muhammad. Armies backed up his claim and with the assistance of Arab steel, Islam spread like Christianity, and will soon overtake it. That is how history works.
