Religion & Ethics: Content from Across the ABC




Date/Time 15 Mar 2014 7:50:03pm
Actually by specialists John means those working in the field of New Testament studies, a field which ranges from committed Christians to atheists.

You may refer to Jesus as a mythical figure but that is not the opinion of those scholars. For example E.P. Sanders, one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world and not a Christian, who would agree with John's statement that

'Jesus lived in first-century Galilee, taught about a coming "kingdom of God," fraternized with "sinners" and tax-collectors, gathered a group of twelve disciples as a symbol of a renewed (twelve tribes of) Israel, enjoyed an unusually wide reputation as a healer - however that is explained - clashed with the Jerusalem temple authorities, was crucified by order of Pontius Pilate under the mocking charge of "king of the Jews" and, shortly afterwards, was hailed as the resurrected Messiah by the first generation of his followers.'

In fact you'd be hard pressed to find any scholar in that discipline who would think that Jesus was a myth. In terms of him not being mentioned by many Romans, although there are non-Christian sources who mention him, I'll again draw you back to John's point that

'absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence. Just because an event mentioned in one source can't be corroborated by another source does not mean that the event didn't happen. When 99% of our information from the period has been lost, one must be very careful adjudicating over what did not happen.'

You may not like it but the Gospels and Acts are in fact good sources for those who wish to learn about the birth of Christianity.