XPost: alt.news.macedonia, alt.paranormal.reincarnation, soc.culture.greek   
   XPost: alt.culture.macedonia   
   From: you@somewhere.not.aus   
      
   In article <406ec92a$0$20347$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>,   
   westdorian@yahoo.com.au says...   
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   >Jesus of Nazareth and Did He Exist:  A Historical Interview   
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   >   
   >Chris Foster   
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   >10/01/03   
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   >Advanced Composition   
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   >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.   
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   >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.   
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   >CF:  Some people doubt that Jesus ever existed?  Do you agree with that?   
   >What do you say to something like that?   
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   >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.   
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   >CF:  Can you give me examples?   
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   >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.   
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   >CF:  You mention the Bible as a reference?  Is it historically reliable?   
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   >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.   
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   >CF:  You talk about Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, and Josephus.  Did they   
   >actually live during Jesus' time?   
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   >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.   
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   >CF:  Some people question some of Josephus writings about Jesus.  What do   
   >you have to say about that?   
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   >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   
      
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