text: great point bill - I think it is the end all statement.  as well as what you have outlined...if there had been any way, any way at all, to discredit the fledgling christian splinter faction by the jewish powers that be (they were all jews still), it would have been to disprove this one thing - that the man known as "jesus" did NOT come back to life as a physical being. however....nothing.  surely investigations and attempts to discredit the deed were done.  nothing held up.  and even the slightest hint that this "rebirth" did not happen would have been exploited , BLOWN up....and still used as argument to this day.  this one thing speaks volumes for me.