Forum Discussion: Was Jesus Historical or Mythological? Or Both?

Was there or was there not some sort of historical Jesus behind all of the stories in the Christian New Testament? Conservative Christians assume that all of the information in the gospels is accurate. More liberal Christians accept that some details may be incorrect, but nevertheless believe that the basic and important information is all correct. At least some atheists question whether any of it is correct and thus whether Jesus existed at all.

A forum member writes:

According to Wikipedia, the vast majority of historians agree that there was an actual historical figure represented in the Bible by Jesus. Some have even compared denying this historicity to denying the Holocaust or the moon landing.

But what I have not yet been able to figure out is how these historians can be so positive about the man's existence. Does anyone have any insights?

Another forum member points out:

I can accept the possibility that there was a guy named Jesus (or what ever the actual Hebrew version is supposed to be) who lived at the time and caused a bit of a stir in his little province and got himself executed for it. I don't necessarily believe it, but it isn't hard to accept the possibility. But the rest of it? Even if we remove the supernatural BS from the story? Not really. So any connection to any historical Jesus and the Biblical Jesus probably doesn't go much past the name and the possibility that he got himself killed (if that much even).

If Jesus existed, what did he do? That is difficult to say, because the biblical accounts cannot be assumed to be 100% reliable. However, it seems likely that he would have been some sort of teacher, prophet, and miracle worker -- just like many other people around the same time. Today, we see many high-profile attempt to "get back" at the "real and original" Jesus of history. One of the most famous is the Jesus Seminar, founded and led by Robert Funk, attempting to reveal a Jesus who was a wise sage. Another popular and iconoclastic writer is John Shelby Spong who has worked to redefine Christ for the new millennium.

Jesus is often identified with whatever religious ideologies are current at the time. In the 18th century, Jesus was often identified with deism or anticlericalsim. Later, in the 19th century, Jesus was identified with nationalism or political liberalism. Some tried to describe him as a sort of Hegelian synthesizer of Judaism and Hellenism. Finally, in the 20th century, Jesus is often identified with Marxism or feminism. Efforts to find an "original Jesus" thus tell us more about the people engaged in the quest than about any real Jesus that might have existed.

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