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That a man named Jesus, an obscure religious teacher, the basis of the fabulous Christ, lived in<br />
Palestine about nineteen hundred years ago, may be true. But of this man we know nothing. His<br />
biography has not been written. 334<br />
In other words, when the mythological layers are peeled, there is no core to the onion. And, a composite<br />
of 20 people, real or mythical, is no one.<br />
55. However, to be fair, that doesn’t mean defenders of the historical Jesus haven’t<br />
claimed the contrary. Four historians are typically referenced to justify Jesus’s<br />
existence: Pliny the younger, Suetonius, Tacitus are the first three. Each one of their<br />
entries consists of only a few sentences at best and only refer to “Christus” or the<br />
Christ, which in fact is not name but a title. It means the “Anointed one.” The fourth<br />
source is Josephus, and this source has been proven to be a forgery for hundreds of<br />
years. Sadly, it is still cited as truth.<br />
Before this subject is addressed, it is often argued that possibly the reason the biblically defined Jesus is<br />
not discussed outside of the gospels is because he was largely ―unknown.‖ However, this argument is<br />
contradicted by a wealth of evidence in the Bible itself. As Murdock comments in Who Was Jesus?<br />
regarding the silence of contemporary historians:<br />
…This silence is singularly astounding, in consideration of the repeated assertions in the gospels<br />
that Christ was famed far and wide, drawing great crowds because of his miraculous healings,<br />
causing a fracas with the local and imperial authorities, and, upon his death, creating astonishing<br />
and awesome miracles and wonders the world had never seen before, including not only an<br />
earthquake and the darkening of the sun and moon, but also dead people rising from their graves<br />
and visiting people in town….<br />
These ―great crowds‖ and ―multitudes,‖ along with Jesus‘s fame, are repeatedly referred to in the<br />
gospels, including at the following: Mt 4:23-25, 5:1, 8:1, 8:18, 9:8, 9:31, 9:33, 9:36, 11:7, 12:15,<br />
13:2, 14:1, 14:13, 14:22, 15:30, 19:2, 21:9, 26:55; Mk 1:28, 10:1; Lk 4:14, 4:37, 5:15, 14:25,<br />
etc. 335<br />
In this regard, Jim Walker says:<br />
If, indeed, the Gospels portray a historical look at the life of Jesus, then the one feature that<br />
stands out prominently within the stories shows that people claimed to know Jesus far and wide,<br />
not only by a great multitude of followers but by the great priests, the Roman governor Pilate, and<br />
Herod who claims that he had heard ―of the fame of Jesus.‖ (Matt 14:1) One need only read Matt:<br />
4:25 where it claims that ―there followed him [Jesus] great multitudes of people from Galilee, and<br />
from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.‖ The gospels<br />
mention, countless times, the great multitude that followed Jesus and crowds of people who<br />
congregated to hear him. So crowded had some of these gatherings grown, that Luke 12:1<br />
alleges that an ―innumerable multitude of people... trode one upon another.‖ Luke 5:15 says that<br />
there grew ―a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear...‖ The persecution<br />
of Jesus in Jerusalem drew so much attention that all the chief priests and scribes, including the<br />
high priest Caiaphas, not only knew about him but helped in his alleged crucifixion. (see Matt<br />
21:15-23, 26:3, Luke 19:47, 23:13). The multitude of people thought of Jesus, not only as a<br />
teacher and a miracle healer, but a prophet (see Matt:14:5). So, to say Jesus wasn‘t well known<br />
is obviously contradictory to the Gospel claims. 336<br />
As concerns the purported evidence of this widely famed, miraculous advent, the most disputed and<br />
defended of the four historians listed above are Josephus and Tacitus, so it is to them that we will turn in<br />
our analysis here. (For more information about the others, as well as Thallus, Phlegon and Mara Bar-<br />
Serapion, see Murdock‘s Who Was Jesus?)<br />
334 Remsburg, 24,<br />
335 Murdock, WWJ, 84-85. See p. 85 for the list of historians and other writers as found in ―<strong>ZEITGEIST</strong>.‖<br />
336 Walker, J., ―Did a historical Jesus exist?‖