There are mentions of of Jesus in Tacitus, Seutonius, and Pliny the Younger -- all Roman, and non-Christian... in fact, not particularly sympathetic to Christians for that matter ... and writing within 70 yrs of the crucifixion. Not to mention Josephus, who was Jewish. Origen noted in his writings that Josephus did not accept that Jesus was the Christ (the Latinized Christus as translation of the Hebrew "Messiah").
I would quibble with "remarkably strong historical evidence" (there's not a lot of "remarkably strong" anything from 2000 yrs ago, but there is some historical evidence.
Personally, I think that Jesus was an historical figure who had a lot of interesting, applicable things to say. Unfortunately, I think a lot of what he had to say has been "remodelled" to the point that we don't really know what it was anymore. Very much like King Arthur -- probably based on the life of a real person and then co-opted in the service of something else by others.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-04-05 19:16 (UTC)I would quibble with "remarkably strong historical evidence" (there's not a lot of "remarkably strong" anything from 2000 yrs ago, but there is some historical evidence.
Personally, I think that Jesus was an historical figure who had a lot of interesting, applicable things to say. Unfortunately, I think a lot of what he had to say has been "remodelled" to the point that we don't really know what it was anymore. Very much like King Arthur -- probably based on the life of a real person and then co-opted in the service of something else by others.
- Jeho