"Unlike our modern, “Ladies and Gentlemen” opening, when a Jew spoke to a crowd of predominantly Jewish men, he might say “Brethren”. (See Acts 3:17, 22; 7:2; 22:1; 23:1, 5, 6; 28:17 in the NASB when the term "brethren" is used for a Jewish, non-Christian gathering.)May 22, 2020"...
In the most pure sense, you are right. The lack of evidence for Jesus doesn't mean 100% that Jesus is a myth anymore than the scanty "evidence" consisting of opinion, assumption, guessing, and frankly wishful thinking proves Jesus was real.
If I show you a deed to my house and try to sell it...
I feel like I'm in some kind of religious Twilight Zone here. Do either you or Augustus know ANYTHING about how Biblical scholarship works? Or even the law?
There's a very good reason why hearsay is not allowed into court: it's unreliable witness. And that's just 2nd hand testimony. In the case...
If you don't know what hearsay is, then there's no point discussing it with you. But just for your education:
hear·say
"information received from other people that one cannot adequately substantiate; rumor."
"according to hearsay, Bob had managed to break his arm"
Jesus appeared to 500 people before he ascended according to Paul. Jesus clearly didn't have a problem with appearing to people outside his apostles circle. In that case, Jesus could have appeared to to the Roman Senate and converted the entire Roman empire in a single day as word got around...
Yes:
I can't make it any clearer than that, nPeace:
1. It's hearsay.
2. No foundation for text, no citations
3. Tacitus doesn't say the name, "Jesus".
4. Comes a century after the crucifixion
5. Academia.edu abstract: "Advances the argument of Rougé to find that in all probability Tacitus...
The Bible is filled with ugliness but here are two of the ugliest verses I know of, speaking of Jesus tearing families apart:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. Luke...
Much like fools who get too close to a wild animal on a safari or in a zoo. Don't blame the animal, it's only acting out its instincts. Blame the fool stupid enough to think the animal will be benign around certain humans.
None of these are legitimate evidence for Jesus. Tacitus alone has so many problems that no reputable historian outside the Christian camp takes the Tacitus passage seriously. Among the problems (listen carefully, you're going to learn something now):
1. the Tacitus passage, outside of...
Good historians are not concerned with personal bias against one religion or another. They stake their honor on giving the unvarnished truth as the historical record would show. Take a look at the list of nearly 200 historians who were active in the era. You're going to try to say that all of...
You're right. That had totally escaped my reasoning. So historians being concerned with history and not theology and always referring to a non-supernatural ordinary man.
Yet the other part of my observation still holds true: historians say Jesus was real and Christians seize on that and say...