XPost: alt.news.macedonia, alt.paranormal.reincarnation, soc.culture.greek   
   XPost: alt.culture.macedonia   
   From: westdorian@yahoo.com.au   
      
   Jesus of Nazareth and Did He Exist:  A Historical Interview   
      
      
      
   Chris Foster   
      
      
      
   10/01/03   
      
      
      
   Advanced Composition   
      
      
      
   What would interviewing somebody with authority and credibility regarding   
   Jesus of Nazareth do?  Why am I doing this interview?  I hear claims by   
   people, not historians, but people in general that Jesus didn't exist.   
   These people talk about a so-called Christ-myth.  You can argue as it seems   
   to me forever about whether or not Jesus was God, but to doubt his existence   
   seems unimaginable.  I'm performing this interview from a credible source to   
   get the truth out in the open from a historical perspective.  From this I   
   hope to gain more knowledge about Jesus and further proof that he is a man   
   of history.   
      
      
      
   When selecting a source, I chose someone who has researched the person of   
   Jesus previously and knows how to differentiate historical knowledge from   
   non-historical knowledge.  Dave Herbst, a Fort Lewis College senior history   
   major, has taken numerous classes on how to evaluate history, on what's   
   historical knowledge and what's not.  He has taken many classes including a   
   historical Jesus class that gives him knowledge on this subject.    Herbst,   
   a tall, slender man in his early 20's humbly and patiently answered each   
   question very carefully as I asked about the historicity and existence of   
   Jesus.   
      
      
      
   CF:  Some people doubt that Jesus ever existed?  Do you agree with that?   
   What do you say to something like that?   
      
      
      
   DH:  I would say that most of those claims can only be rooted in ignorance.   
   I think that there's a new trend of idea to question everything.  I really   
   don't know why anyone would question this.  If someone would really look   
   into whether Jesus existed, there's more than enough evidence to prove he   
   did exist.   
      
      
      
   CF:  Can you give me examples?   
      
      
      
   DH:  Some of the best sources are obviously the gospels that were written by   
   Jesus' followers but if one were to question that, there's also at least 6   
   extra-biblical sources all the way from Roman historians, some not even   
   historians, some were working for the government of Rome and would write   
   back and ask questions on how to deal with these Christians, who are   
   followers of "Chrestus" leaves no room for ambiguity.  Other sources like   
   Pliny the Younger who was writing for the Roman government, Josephus, a Jew,   
   and Tacitus who says that Jesus was put to death by Pontius Pilate all   
   mention Jesus specifically and there's many other extra-biblical sources   
   that talk about his followers as well that claim that that man, Jesus of   
   Nazareth, founder, that started the movement did exist.   
      
      
      
   CF:  You mention the Bible as a reference?  Is it historically reliable?   
      
      
      
   DH:  Many of the (bibles) extra-textual, reliability, and collaborating   
   evidences all line up and give the authors more and more credibility as that   
   they did live during Jesus' time and that they were writing about a specific   
   person of history.  So many different rulers, provinces and states, the   
   geography and knowledge are impeccable.  Some of the gospel writers, some of   
   them have been great historians like Luke.  He mentions different rulers,   
   over 50 odd provinces and states that have been discovered.  The village of   
   Capernaum, which some skeptics didn't even believe existed, was found   
   recently and they believe it is in or very close to the city where his   
   (Jesus) followers were in.   
      
      
      
   CF:  You talk about Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, and Josephus.  Did they   
   actually live during Jesus' time?   
      
      
      
   DH:  I don't think they were actually eyewitnesses.  I know some of them   
   lived right after Jesus' time.  Its kind of like this:  if you were to come   
   into a community and tell a story even a little bit later about something,   
   for example the airplanes that flew into the twin towers in New York and say   
   that those things didn't really happen, people there would've known the   
   facts and would've been able to say whether it happened or not.  So it's   
   kind of the same way with these historians.  It was common knowledge for   
   most of them and they were just recording what happened, writing to the   
   people that would've known whether or not it was true.  There would've been   
   hostile witnesses, a lot of Jews were trying to disprove and quiet down this   
   movement.  They would've jumped over at any evidence to the contrary that   
   Jesus Christ did not exist.  As we can see, none of that ever happened.  In   
   fact some of the Jewish sources like The Talmud, writings by rabbis who were   
   dedicated to proving that Jesus wasn't God, tried to quiet the movement of   
   the Christians.  They started trying to disprove that Jesus was God, but   
   they never once interestingly enough tried to say that Jesus never existed.   
   The Talmud didn't even say he didn't do miracles, it said that he performed   
   magic.  That (Jesus existence) was common knowledge and they knew they could   
   not disprove that.  If Jesus existed, it would've been very easy to   
   disprove.   
      
      
      
   CF:  Some people question some of Josephus writings about Jesus.  What do   
   you have to say about that?   
      
      
      
   DH:  I can definitely see that some of the things written in Josephus could'   
   ve been added in by Christians, but when you take away the things that are   
   pretty obvious and blatant, you realize you still have a description of who   
   Jesus is, that he did exist.  It talks about later the martyrdom and death   
   of Jesus' brother, James.  No scholar believes that was interpolated at all.   
   And that still gives reference to Jesus of Nazareth.  There are many other   
   non-canonical gospels that talk about the life of Jesus.  I think we have   
   more than enough evidence on the life of Jesus including the gospels, the   
   extra-biblical sources, and the movement that was started by him.  So many   
   writings, so much common knowledge that no one has been able to refute about   
   Jesus Christ.  I think it would be absurd for one to say Jesus did not exist   
   and to deny all the historical evidences.   They would then have to deny   
   most characters of history even as far back as George Washington.  The fact   
   is that Encyclopedia Britannica gives more room to Jesus of Nazareth and   
   that's based on evidence we have for him.   One would have to deny that   
   Pontius Pilate, Tiberius, any of those other people even existed if they   
   were to deny Christ's existence.   Most of ancient history as we know it if   
   we put it up to the same standards of saying that Jesus did not exist, there   
   's not enough evidence, we could apply that to all those other ancient   
   figures and say that none of them can exist on the same basis, but according   
   to what's accepted as historical knowledge you can say very easily that   
   Jesus Christ existed.  If it (Jesus) was something the disciples made up,   
   they wouldn't die for a lie.  How would Christianity come into being?  It   
   wouldn't make sense without Jesus.  As far as the evidence of Jesus Christ   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)