USA: National Security Strategy, Juan's Wet Dream

[James A. Donald]

On 12/26/2017 11:24 PM, John Newman wrote:
> There is contemporary evidence
> of the existence of Pontius Pilate... There is *no contemporary*
> evidence for Jesus. Even if you consider Josephus a
> contemporary, which he isn't, it is widely accepted that the
> few lines  "he scribbled" on Jesus are a much later
> interpolation, a forgery done by some devout
> who was embarrassed at the paucity of evidence for the
> messiah.

It is plausibly *suspected* that *one* of Josephus's references to Jesus 
is a forgery, or more likely was improved by a Christian editor.

There is no reason to doubt his other references to Jesus.

Further, we have multiple references to the disciples of Jesus. That his 
movement existed is undeniable.

We know that Jesus the man existed the same way we know that Pontius 
Pilate existed:

Someone like Jesus the man had to exist, in that the rabbis were engaged 
in a holiness spiral, a holiness spiral will get called out by prophets, 
and then those prophets get suppressed, and someone like Pontius Pilate 
had to exist, in that the Roman Empire ruled the area, and history 
records Jesus as one of those prophets, and Pontius Pilate as one of the 
Roman Empire's administrators.

And if our records of Jesus the man are a bit thin, our records of 
Pontius Pilate are not a whole lot thicker.