"The God Who Wasn't There"

[silver 2039]

if Jesus was a competitor with Mithras, it's not unreasonable for a Mithran worshipper to destroy records if possible.

Or the other way around.

 

[Leifmk]

It's not really surprise that there are no documents; if Jesus was a competitor with Mithras, it's not unreasonable for a Mithran worshipper to destroy records if possible.

Actually one wouldn't expect there to be much in the way of contemporary records in the first place, either way, and even less would be expected to survive in the medium term. We know that 1st-century Palestine was a turbulent backwater at the butt end of the Roman empire, with no shortage of would-be prophets and so on. Monty Python's The Life of Brain may be exaggerating for comic effect with wild-eyed doomsayers screaming prophesies on every street corner and Brian picking up a bunch of politically radical followers by pure accident, but the exaggeration is based on historical conditions. The probable historical Jesus would, to contemporary authority figures and scholars, look like yet another quite unexceptional and unimportant preacher-type; the significance of his successor cult as a mass religious movement didn't become clear for a good long time, during which there were unrelated catastrophic local events to occupy public attention.

 

[El_Machinae]

But the Romans kept good records, I'd imagine; so Jesus's execution order should have actually been documented. I'm just not surprised the documentation is destroyed, since people are quite prone to destroying controversial evidences.

 

[MrCynical]

But the Romans kept good records, I'd imagine; so Jesus's execution order should have actually been documented. I'm just not surprised the documentation is destroyed, since people are quite prone to destroying controversial evidences.

Jesus' execution as described in the Bible was not exactly officially sanctioned, ands is nearer a lynching than the execution of a criminal. I wouldn't have thought he'd have ever received an official and documented sentence of death if events were as presented in the Bible.

 

[El_Machinae]

I thought the Romans authorized it and Romans did the nailing? Seems to be organised to me...

 

[Elrohir]

But the Romans kept good records, I'd imagine; so Jesus's execution order should have actually been documented. I'm just not surprised the documentation is destroyed, since people are quite prone to destroying controversial evidences.

Roman documentation, when compared to other ancient civilizations was good. But keep in mind, this was 2000 years ago, and documentation like that would be unlikely to survive such a long time.

Is there really any doubt that He was executed, though? I find it difficult to believe that so many thousands of people came to believe that He died and rose again, if all the Jewish authorities had to do was say "Oh, Yeshua? From Galilee? He's staying with Lazarus, over in Bethany, two hours walk away! Go see for yourself!" If it were that easy to disprove the claims of Jesus' death and resurrection, it never would have taken root in Jerusalem, and all of Israel, the way it did.

 

[El_Machinae]

That's kinda my point - if there was proof that he died, then there were people motivated to destroy that proof.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

I thought the Romans authorized it and Romans did the nailing? Seems to be organised to me...

Yes, and of course the Gospel writers would have had an incentive to paint their religious rivals, not their government, as much as possible. Supposedly, the description of the Jewish parts of the trial don't even fit the legal procedure in place at the time.