Historicity of Jesus

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The existence of Jesus is accepted by two major world religions, Christianity and Islam, based on their respective scriptures, the Bible and the Qur'an. However, the true historicity of Jesus is difficult to determine, as few reliable records of his life exist. While Christianity considers Jesus to be the Christ (Messiah) and Son of God and Islam views him as a prophet, secular historians and most other world religions (including Judaism) tend to regard him as an ordinary human, and a few dispute whether he ever existed.

Related Topics:
Jesus - Christianity - Islam - Bible - Qur'an - Christ - Messiah - Prophet - Judaism

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The few detailed accounts of Jesus' life from the time period describe various remarkable events and miracles, including virgin birth and resurrection. These events are believed to have literally happened by many Christians, but most non-Christians and even some liberal Christians do not believe that these events actually occurred, based partly on the general principle that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" and partly on a perceived lack of evidence from more neutral sources. However, many Christians nonetheless maintain that there is good historical evidence for Biblical miracles. Some also claim that a philosophical opposition to the supernatural causes most historians and scientists to be unfairly biased against any account of miraculous happenings, disregarding the specific historical evidence available. http://home.earthlink.net/~gbl111/extraord.htm http://home.earthlink.net/~gbl111/resurrection.htm

Related Topics:
Miracles - Virgin birth - Resurrection - Liberal Christians - Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Supernatural

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Many scholars see the Biblical narrative of Jesus' life as a mythologized account of a historical figure's life, aimed at winning new converts rather than at being a neutral historical record. The difficulty of distinguishing which parts of Jesus' life are historical and which are mythological is one of the main obstacles for Biblical historians. Even accurate accounts of events in Jesus' life likely changed in subtle ways during retellings. Others may have been exaggerated on purpose, and some may even have been entirely new events, possibly reinterpreted from older stories; virgin births and sacrifice were common features of Pagan godmen myths, such as Osiris-Dionysus.

Related Topics:
Pagan - Osiris-Dionysus

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Although the existence of a historical figure named Jesus is almost universally accepted by Christians and Muslims, and not questioned by most others, there is a school of thought, called mythological school, which sees Jesus as a later interpolation into one of the mystery religions which resemble Christianity. This theory is commonly known as the Jesus Myth. Others see the apparent relationship between Gnosticism and Christianity as being based on a historical figure acting as the focal point for the linking of Jewish religious traditions and political history with a mystery religion, a syncretism—ultimately more popular among Gentiles than Jews—which would become Christianity.

Related Topics:
Historical figure named Jesus - Mythological school - Interpolation - Mystery religion - Jesus Myth - Gnosticism - Syncretism - Gentile - Jew

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