¿Did Jesus Exist, Bart Ehrman

Did Jesus Exist?
Bart Ehrman
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bart-d-ehrman/did-jesus-exist_b_1349544.html
March 20, 2012
In a society in which people still claim the Holocaust did not happen, and
in which there are resounding claims that the American president is, in
fact, a Muslim born on foreign soil, is it any surprise to learn that the
greatest figure in the history of Western civilization, the man on whom the
most powerful and influential social, political, economic, cultural and
religious institution in the world -- the Christian church -- was built, the
man worshipped, literally, by billions of people today -- is it any surprise to
hear that Jesus never even existed?
That is the claim made by a small but growing cadre of (published )

writers, bloggers and Internet junkies who call themselves mythicists. This
unusually vociferous group of nay-sayers maintains that Jesus is a myth
invented for nefarious (or altruistic) purposes by the early Christians who
modeled their savior along the lines of pagan divine men who, it is alleged,
were also born of a virgin on Dec. 25, who also did miracles, who also died
as an atonement for sin and were then raised from the dead.
Few of these mythicists are actually scholars trained in ancient history,

religion, biblical studies or any cognate field, let alone in the ancient
languages generally thought to matter for those who want to say
something with any degree of authority about a Jewish teacher who
(allegedly) lived in first-century Palestine. There are a couple of
exceptions: of the hundreds -- thousands? -- of mythicists, two (to my
knowledge) actually have Ph.D. credentials in relevant fields of study. But
even taking these into account, there is not a single mythicist who teaches
New Testament or Early Christianity or even Classics at any accredited
institution of higher learning in the Western world. And it is no wonder
why. These views are so extreme and so unconvincing to 99.99 percent of
the real experts that anyone holding them is as likely to get a teaching job
in an established department of religion as a six-day creationist is likely to
land on in a bona fide department of biology.
Why then is the mythicist movement growing, with advocates so confident

of their views and vocal -- even articulate -- in their denunciation of the
radical idea that Jesus actually existed? It is, in no small part, because
these deniers of Jesus are at the same time denouncers of religion -- a
breed of human now very much in vogue. And what better way to malign
the religious views of the vast majority of religious persons in the western
world, which remains, despite everything, overwhelmingly Christian, than
to claim that the historical founder of their religion was in fact the figment
of his followers' imagination?
The view, however, founders on its own premises. The reality -- sad or
salutary -- is that Jesus was real. And that is the subject of my new book,
"Did Jesus Exist?"
It is true that Jesus is not mentioned in any Roman sources of his day. That
should hardly count against his existence, however, since these same
sources mention scarcely anyone from his time and place. Not even the
famous Jewish historian, Josephus, or even more notably, the most
powerful and important figure of his day, Pontius Pilate.
It is also true that our best sources about Jesus, the early Gospels, are
riddled with problems. These were written decades after Jesus' life by
biased authors who are at odds with one another on details up and down
the line. But historians can never dismiss sources simply because they are
biased. You may not trust Rush Limbaugh's views of Sandra Fluke, but he
certainly provides evidence that she exists.
The question is not whether sources are biased but whether biased sources
can be used to yield historically reliable information, once their biased
chaff is separated from the historical kernel. And historians have devised
ways of doing just that.
With respect to Jesus, we have numerous, independent accounts of his life

in the sources lying behind the Gospels (and the writings of Paul) --
sources that originated in Jesus' native tongue Aramaic and that can be
dated to within just a year or two of his life (before the religion moved to
convert pagans in droves). Historical sources like that are is pretty
astounding for an ancient figure of any kind. Moreover, we have relatively
extensive writings from one first-century author, Paul, who acquired his
information within a couple of years of Jesus' life and who actually knew,
first hand, Jesus' closest disciple Peter and his own brother James. If Jesus
did not exist, you would think his brother would know it.
Moreover, the claim that Jesus was simply made up falters on every
ground. The alleged parallels between Jesus and the "pagan" savior-gods
in most instances reside in the modern imagination: We do not have
accounts of others who were born to virgin mothers and who died as an
atonement for sin and then were raised from the dead (despite what the
sensationalists claim ad nauseum in their propagandized versions).
Moreover, aspects of the Jesus story simply would not have been invented
by anyone wanting to make up a new Savior. The earliest followers of Jesus
declared that he was a crucified messiah. But prior to Christianity, there
were no Jews at all, of any kind whatsoever, who thought that there would
be a future crucified messiah. The messiah was to be a figure of grandeur
and power who overthrew the enemy. Anyone who wanted to make up a
messiah would make him like that. Why did the Christians not do so?
Because they believed specifically that Jesus was the Messiah. And they
knew full well that he was crucified. The Christians did not invent Jesus.
They invented the idea that the messiah had to be crucified.
One may well choose to resonate with the concerns of our modern and
post-modern cultural despisers of established religion (or not). But surely
the best way to promote any such agenda is not to deny what virtually
every sane historian on the planet -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim, pagan,
agnostic, atheist, what have you -- has come to conclude based on a range
of compelling historical evidence.
Whether we like it or not, Jesus certainly existed.

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Did Jesus Exist?

That is the claim made by a small but growing cadre of (published )

Few of these mythicists are actually scholars trained in ancient history,

Why then is the mythicist movement growing, with advocates so confident

With respect to Jesus, we have numerous, independent accounts of his life

Whether we like it or not, Jesus certainly existed.

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