To be amused at a discussion I can overhear?

[brasty]

At work and currently listening in on a discussion where one woman is trying to explain to a colleague that Jesus was Jewish. Colleague isn't having it

Obviously Jesus was jewish.

Newtlover - try this link;

d1luj6bq3j7ijk.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/85acb7827abdbd83b2580f173ee2e784.jpg

"Majority of New Testament scholars say the person Jesus existed."

The clue's in the name...

"The historian Josephus wrote about Jesus."

Yes, as hearsay a generation after he was supposed to have died. Not exactly a convincing eyewitness. Strong evidence that Christians existed, but no more than that unless you are biased and trying desperately to prove something

"Bearing in mind that the earliest gospel we know of wasn't written until about 64AD ie about 30 years after Jesus's death, (with the vaguest possibility by an eye witness) and all that we do know comes from the New Testament"

That is the earliest possible date, and Christians have been trying to insist that it was that early for centuries, when it is quite possibly decades later. And there's not a shred of evidence that it is by an eyewitness, particularly as that particular gospel treats the Jesus character as more of a celestial being than the later ones.

Mary got knocked up by a Roman soldier. Was married off to a man much older than her by her family. Girls were classed as virgins until they had a period. It is possible to become pregnant without having started periods. She was only 12. Jesus became the osama bin laden of his day and was a royal pain in the Romans’ arse. Possibly due to the circumstances of his conception

Evidence?

There are a number of religious artefacts that claim to be the foreskin of Christ.
Two of the churches both claim theirs is the real one. One from when he was a baby and one from when he was older.

I am a card carrying atheist but I have a solid knowledge of Christianity. The idea that Jesus took communion strikes me as a misunderstanding of what communion actually is.

This thread reminds me of years ago when I was telling the story of the nativity to my class. I asked if anyone knew the name of Jesus’ mother. One Polish girl put her hand up and said ‘Maria’. I said that was right and in English we call her Mary.

I then spent a long time explaining to another adult in the room that Mary was called different names in different countries and that the bible wasn’t originally in English.

DamnItall.. What do you mean unicorns are not real? they are on my country's coat of arms!

....Jesus was an architect previous to his career as a profit....

ChristinaParsons That's the most convincing explanation I've heard! And as the Romans were a pretty mixed bunch racially it means we have no idea what Jesus' genetic makeup was & hence what he looked like.

"Majority of New Testament scholars say the person Jesus existed." The clue's in the name...

@Cardinalsin, as posted in subsequent thread, from Wikipedia

"Almost all scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed,but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus,and the only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate. Elements whose historical authenticity is disputed include the two accounts of the Nativity of Jesus, the miraculous events including the resurrection, and certain details about the crucifixion.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_reliability_of_the_Gospels

Pre 1880's there remained a small Jewish community in what is now known as Israel since Old Testament biblical times.

Sorry I gave incorrect info above. To clarify therewas always a Jewish community, varying in size I believe, in Israel even after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70AD and drove many Jewish people out.

Nightshirt for centuries, scholars have had to say that they believed Jesus existed to avoid nasty things happening to them. It's only in recent decades that people have been allowed to posit otherwise without having their genitals crushed or whatever.

And that's ignoring the fact that most biblical scholars will have a natural bias, should you pause to think about it. Your own natural bias is in evidence here.

The fact is that finally people whoaren't coming at it from a religious point of view are starting to look at the evidence, and they are finding it incredibly non-existent. It doesn't mean that there wasn't a Jesus, but the evidence doesn't suggest that there was.

Majority of New Testament scholars say the person Jesus existed

According to a friend (who got a First in theology at Oxford), that is largely based on an account in Tacitus' histories of a Jew named Jesus being executed in Jerusalem during the reign of Claudius. It had quite some credence, despite Tacitus not even being born until c60AD, because he was widely believed to have used the minutes of the Senate as source material. Said friend went on to say that as a fair bit of the histories has since been discredited, modern scholars are less inclined to support the notion.

He also says that Jesus was a common name in the region, so it's a bit like saying John existed today.

Yes Paul O Grady has been married. I have got his book.only for a short time and he has a daughter
I

Just caught up on this thread and read that Jason Donovan owns a kebab van in Bristol!

@kithulu

Suddenly I found myself in love with the world ...

Thought of Lawrie Marlow straight away!

I'd forgotten about Kirsty McColl dying. Feeling sad all over again, particularly as it was such a gruesome death.

(After spending an hour reading this thread, this is what I got from it!).

Of course unicorns are real - they're Scotland's national animal!

KickAss, I know. Incredible to think it was 17 years ago next month that Kirsty MacColl was killed.

On a positive note, at least she and Shane'll be the usual welcome blast of raw emotion over the next 6 wks, with "Fairytale Of New York" cutting through the naffest Christmas hits...
[MN needs a beer emoji]

Fittingly for this thread, I seem to remember a track of hers called "Closer To God?"

Nah...everyone knows, surely, that Scotland's national animal is the lesser-spotted Haggis?

Of course he was Jewish, north African in appearance and, given the lack of hot and cold running water, barbershops and deodorant in Palestine 2000 years ago, probably had dirty hair, an unkempt beard and stank to high heaven.

2 people who were identical except for the 2nd X/ Y would look different due to that

One would be seriously disabled.

Love the idea of Chris the Savage who clearly must be closely related to Lily Savage QED POG did create Christianity.

@brasty yes, that's right

Paul O'Grady announced he married his partner very recently.