the real deal with jesus? fraud?

Question

i have heard so many different stories/biographies about jesus's life. we all know how he was born and what he did, at least according to the bible, but recently my auntie, how is like a knowledge freak, told me that she watched a documentary which suggested that jesus has some descendant of king david who was born into a rich family and worked as a politian like figure preaching good morals and so on. but it states that his followers exageratted his life story so his legacy would live on untill the end of the human race.

my knowledge of religion, in general, is quite limited so could someone please try and clear this matter up? as it is really bothering me, i dont know why but it is

BTW SORRY IF I SEEMED IGNORANT AND NARROW MINDED FROM MY LAST RELIGIOUS QUESTION. which i am in fact actually quite the opposite. i guess my tone suggested otherwise sorry.

the fraud part in the title question was for shock value and to real you guys in sorry.

PLEASE CHECK OUT MY LAST QUESTION

Answer 1

Your Question is basically "are the New Testament documents Historical? They'll always be debate about it because the critics of the bible know they have to discredit the eye-witnesses. But the idea that the books of the new testament were written 150 years later is mostly the 19th century scholarship of the german rational higher critics such as Wellhausen and Graf and that crowd. I think most of the scholarship nowadays is conservative due to archeological discoveries and many other things. The liberal crowd is still around(the Jesus Seminar and others) and they always will be but they don't rule the roost anymore. The Book of Acts is the history of the early church(the first 30 years). But it is dominated by 2 people, Peter and Paul. The book has 28 chapters. The 1st 12 chapters emphasize Peter(although he is mentioned in chapter 15). The next 16 chapters look at Paul (although he is also mentioned in chapter 9). The
book ends in chapter 28 with Paul under house arrest by the romans but the romans are still allowing him to preach. It also shares his plans to go to spain and preach there. He doesn't seem to be in any real danger of death, anymore than he was everyday of his life. Paul and Peter died around 66AD. Yet nowhere in that book does it mention the death of Paul and Peter. It does mention other martyrs such as James and Stephan. Also, the early church was mostly jewish. Only later did it become dominated by the gentiles. From 66-73AD Titus and roman legions destroyed jerusalem, destroyed the temple, killed 2 million jews and sent another million into slavery in egypt. For a jew, it was the most important event in their life. Yet, that's not mentioned either. In 66AD, the Nero persecution of christians started and christians were pretty much persecuted from that time until Constantine in about 311AD. Millions of christians were murdered. Nero used to light his garden up at night by tying christians to a post and pouring tar over them and then setting them on fire. That's also when they started to throw christians to the lions in the coloseum. That's not mentioned either. The only logical conclusion is that the book of acts was written before all those things happened. I think that's the position most of the scholars take nowadays. They date the book of acts around 63-64AD. But the book of Acts was the 2nd in a sequel written by Luke. The 1st one he wrote was the gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke was the story of Christ. The Book of Acts was the story of the church right after the death of Christ. That means the Book of Luke was probably written about 59-60AD. But most scholars believe Luke got
some of his info from from Mark and another gospel that we don't have called 'Q'. Which means that Mark was probably written around 54-55AD. This means that Mark was in the process of being written much earlier. Almost all scholars(liberal or conservative) believe 1Corinthians was written about 50AD. But 1Corinthians chapter 15 is considered by scholars to be a creed. A creed is something that's around long before it's written down. It could be a song or something like the pledge of allegiance. It's oral teaching. Most scholars date 1Corinthians chapter 15 long before the book of 1st corinthians was finished. That brings it back almost to the time of the crucifiction. There's just not enough time for legend to have developed. Read 'The book of Acts in the setting of hellenistic history' by Colin J. Hemer. He's not a christian. He gives 84 cultural events in Acts and Luke that would have only been known by someone who was there on the scene and not one that came 150 years later. The only books that are dated later are the books of John(all dated in the mid 90's). But John was an eye witness. Sixty five or so years would not cause him to forget, especially when he spent his whole life preaching about these things. There is such a rule called ‘Aristotles Dictum’. It’s a rule for handling ancient documents used by historians. It says one must listen to the claims of the document under analysis and not assumme fraud or error unless the author disqualifies himself by contradiction or known fraud or factual inaccuracies. In other words, when you find an ancient document that claims to be written by a person, you give the benefit of doubt to the document and if you want to discard it as a fraud or whatever, the burden of proof is on you to show why it should be discarded. The writers all said they were either primary sources(eyewitnesses) or secondary sources(they got it from an eyewitness). There is no reason to not believe them. Does this prove that these things happened? NO! It shows that what you read in the New Testament is what they actually said. They could have been lying.
I don't know if you've ever seen the movie 'the passion of Christ'. That movie was given an 'R' rating, mostly because of the violence and the blood. It was very graffic. The scourging scene was especially bloody although I still don't think it accurately depicts what happened to Christ. You just couldn't
show that on screen. But Christ was only scourged once. The apostle Paul was scourged 5 times. He was also beaten with rods 3 times, stoned, the jews always had a contract out on his head(he lived with that threat) and they almost killed him a few times and finally he was beheaded by the romans. All the apostles and disciples and all christians, in general, lived that way. After 66AD, to be a christian was to have a target on your chest. The writers of the New Testament all lived persecuted lives and then died martyrs. The only exception was John. He was sort of like the Steven Segall movie 'Hard to Kill'. They boiled him in oil but he survived. They stuck him into a brass bull which they would heat up until it was red hot and somehow he survived that too. The romans banished him to the Island of Patmos which was a volcanic rock island with no food and most prisoners starved to death. There he got the vision and wrote the 'Book of Revelation'. But he survived that too. The rest died martyrs after being persecuted all their lives. Andrew died in greece, crucified on an X-shaped cross. Phillip was crucified in Asia. Bartholomew was flawed to death in Albanapolis in Armenia. Thomas was martyred in Madras India. Simon was martyred in Persia. Jude was also martyred in Persia. James was beheaded. Mark was drawn and quartered(literally pulled into 4 pieces by 4 horses). Peter was crucified upside down by the Romans. He requested to be crucified that way because he didn't feel worthy to be crucified like his Lord. But before he was crucified the romans made him watch as they crucified his wife of 50 years. Surely, if they were making all this up, Peter would have said when they started to crucify his wife "that's enough......this lie has gone far enough....we made it up". But he didn't, neither did all the other apostles. They went to their death preaching the gospel. I don't think they lied and I'm not willing to reject what they said just because the miraculous is involved. If there is a God you can't rule out the miraculous.
Christs character was impeccable and even non-believers seem to agree with that. Ghandi once said that Christ was the most morally pure person that ever lived on earth. His problem, he said, was not with Christ but with christians. I would think that the disciples were of very high moral quality also, otherwise they wouldn't want to be associated with somebody who had such a high moral standard that they had to live up to. That’s another reason why I don’t think they would lie.
As far as other gospels being written. The 27 books of the New Testament were accepted by the church. It was the Gnostic gospels which were not accepted by the church. The church knew what was real and what wasn't. The Gnostic gospels came later. They were written probably between 150-300AD. They were not even written in the isreal area. They were all written in egypt, mostly around the alexandria area.
As far as extra-biblical writings about the life of Jesus, writings confirming His birth, ministry, death and resurrection include Josephus, The Babylonian Talmud, Pliny the younger's letter to the emperor Trajan, The annals of Tacitus, Mara Bar Serapion, Suetonius's 'Life of Claudius' and 'Life of Nero' and also Thallus. Read Dr. Gary Habermas. He's written a number of books mostly on the resurrection. He goes through all these.

Answer 2

if you are gullible then the hearsay of those with vested interest is for you but if you are intelligent you will look beyond to the applications of true ideology that is pertinent to your life in the material world in which you live . The times of Christ are filled with authors who found no cause to even mention his name and the few references to him by historical figures is accountable as political gossip of the urban legend that was politically relevant . However there is no historical record left by Jesus the Christ or Roman accounts of a highly unlikely Crucifixion either . Common sense dictates it is myth used as religious political ploy .Note that of the sixteen or so saviors of various faiths they all were born of virgins on the 25th of Dec. performed miracles and died and were resurrected after three days .It started with Horus and the Egyptians astrological relevance to astronomy . It's been recanted through the ages and blown way out of proportion and reason. check youtube.com for more on this .

Answer 3

Jesus was a descendant of king David but maybe 40 generation certainly he was not rich. the bible tells it all he was brought up by a carpenter and became an preacher at age 30 he took nothing with him. he was born of God's spirit and raised in a Godly home but he was born that he may die for our sins. I would not rely on any TV program it may have proclaimed to be a documentary but even they are biased. read the bible and pray to know Jesus for yourself..

Answer 4

Jesus wants to know you, He has asked the Father for you that's why you are here, No one can come to Christ unless God calls them first. He has created a thirst in you; for "the water of eternal life" which is "The Word" the bible and another name for Jesus Christ the Son of God. The Bible is telling of Gods will and directions for us to live our life. The old testament was a picture of sorts. to describe all that was to come, did come and will come again, meaning foretelling of the coming of a Mesiah, Savior and exactly how He would come to us. The New Testament convinces us of the truths foretold by the prophets for God, because Christ fullfilled all the prophesies in the Old Testament! where and how he would be born and raised and come to be known and be persecuted and how he would be betrayed and die---all of it foretold and all of it fullfilled by Christ, pretty hard to pull off I'd say!!! It also tells of Christs teachings and gives us His instruction for a God serving loving life and the reason for our hope--Him! Because we will have eternal life with Him and God the Father in Heaven , Nothing more fascinating than the truth! Read The Word, ask Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior, believe on all he is and was and will be again, He will comfort your heart and never leave you.Read it yourself, don't just take someones word for it, know the Word and no man can deceive you, seek wisdom and keep it in your heart. God Bless you

Answer 5

Read the writings of Tacitus, a noted Roman historian.
Read the writings of Josephus a renowned orthodox Jew.
Read the letter of Bar Mar Serpion.
Read the chronicles of Pliny the younger.
Look at articles from the Biblical Archaeology Review, which is not a Christian organization, simply plain archaeology.

Answer 6

the Truth (the Bible) says that Jesus is the so of a true king and the King is noone else than God. He dint come to this world as a rich man but he came as a poor man to know the agony of the poor and heavy laden. BUT HE IS COMING SOON AS A GREAT AND AWESOME KING and watchit....PLEASE DO NOT MISS THE MAJESTY – MARANATHA

Answer 7

Please read Isaiah 53 which prophecies the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus 600 years before His birth. Jesus has no descendants.

Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And WHO CAN SPEAK OF HIS DESCENDANTS?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Answer 8

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God transferred the life of his only begotten Son in heaven into the womb of Mary to be born as a perfect human male able to pay the ransom sacrifice with his own blood, buying back the lost perfect human life of Adam, making possible the salvation of all humans who would exercise faith in Christ Jesus as our ransomer and saviour. It was Jesus Christ in his perhuman existence in heaven that was with his Father when his Father said; let us make man in our image. Jesus in heaven is God's Masterworker. God brought Jesus into existence in heaven and then through Jesus brought everything else into existence.

Answer 9

jesus. in the blood line of david? yes he was. but he wasnt in a wealthy family. for him to be who he was thats not possible. infact for him to be that the jesus we read about in the bible would not exsist. there is alot of doubts about the bible so gotta make sure what they are sayin sometimes isnt from any history book just there opinion

Answer 10

Everything in the bible is grossly exaggerated, this is clear. I think Jesus was a cool dude and that he really did challenge the authorities and ignorant scripture thumpers who were slaughtering truckloads of lambs daily, but he wasn't very original, anyway he certainly impressed people so much that his disciples made him a god.

Answer 11

that's a atheist opinion the christian faith has been around for thousands of years my faith gives me a peace that no exaggerated kings decedent can give me its a real part of my life and my life is the better for it so tell granny to stop believing ever thing she see on TV