Regardless of your personal religious beliefs, do you think Jesus of Nazareth existed?

Question

I'm not looking for your personal feelings about who Jesus was, just IF he was. What historical evidence supports your claim? Thank you.

kickyouintheface: Don't tell me to "come off it." I happen to personally believe that Jesus existed. I'm just wondering the opinions of others because I know my views are based a lot in my personal beliefs, not objective historial facts.

I'm a regular in the Religion and Spirituality section and asked this question there also, curious as to how the different sections would answer it.

Answer 1

Despite being an atheist, I have no problem with the fact that it is likely that Jesus existed, even though there are no contemporary sources that explicitly say so (Josephus was born 5 years after Jesus was cruxified, and none of the Roman records mention anything).

However, he was almost certainly not the only messiah during this time frame. In fact, I would say that the only thing that made him stand out from his contemporaries was his revolutionary sermon on the mound, which proved to be a pivotal work in the field of ethics. This, more than anything, is probably why Jesus did not become just another eccentric Jew who fancied himself the messiah.

Josephus mentiones Jesus, but what the Christians won't tell you is that early church leaders did not speak very highly of him, physically. Jesus was said to be a mere 3 cubits tall (That's three underarms tall... making Jesus nearly a midget!) was crooked, dark-skinned, almost completely bald (he almost certainly didn't have long hair, the bible, and jewish custom, are explicit about long hair on a man as being disgraceful), with a long hook nose and eyebrows that touched eached other. Josephus described him as looking much older than he really was. This might have to do with the fact that, as a carpenders son, he would have been a manual laborer for the first 30 years of his life, which would mean long, hard hours of intense physical labor, which would have taken its toll on his body.

Tertullian, another early church figure, called Jesus a puerulus, which was a latin term that ment "wretched little thing".

From an anthropological standpoint, this makes sense. Typically in ancient cultures, holy people by default were exceptionally ugly. It was considered a mark by the Gods (or God)

The contemporary image of Jesus: tall and skinny, long flowing rich brown hair, with rosy cheeks and angelic good looks, didn't start appearing until well into the middle ages.

EDIT: well, being the history section, I try to keep it objective ;-)

Answer 2

I think somebody existed he was based upon. As for historical evidence- not a lot really. I suppose foremost would be that his followers were well documented within a generation of his death in Rome, Alexandria, and Israel, and the fact that he's more pinpointed in time than most purely mythical characters (i.e. we know that he lived during the reign of Herod Antipas and when Pilate was procurator, and Herod's very well documented marriage to his niece/sister-in-law Herodias is mentioned, and the paranoia of Herod the Great regarding any potential rivals is well documented- so, historical fiction wasn't really a genre and that's all pretty precise to come up with within 50 years or so, and if they wanted mythos they could have cooked something far more elaborate up.
So I believe he existed but that much about him was manufactured later. The first version of Mark is probably the closest to the "real" person. I also think he was probably a Nazirite rather than from Nazareth.

Answer 3

There are no comtemporary sources to support a claim that he existed. Now granted, there are historical people we believe existed with no contemporary sources. But their existence is largely academic, and would not influence a large group of people, such as Christianity. Whether or not they existed, the work attributed to them is historically documented.

Josephus was born after Jesus of Nazereth died. And he made scanty reference to him, some of which it is contended was added to his works by someone else at a later time. Other reccords only bring up mention of a possible Roman soldier's son by the name of Jesus, which may belong to Jesus of Nazareth. And more conclusively, there is no reccord of his death, trial or life by the Romans, who were notorious reccord keepers.

If he was at all like he is portrayed in the Bible, there can be little doubt that there would be considerably more evidence to support his existence. Even the Shroud of Turin has been proved to be a 13th century fake at best.

Answer 4

Hi, Rachel.

I wonder why no one asks whether Socrates, or Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar really existed? We have far more corroborating evidence for Jesus, not only from a host of Christian witnesses (including four contemporary biographies), but even from nonchristian sources, including Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Josephus, and the Babylonian Talmud (see link below).

Accepting many teachings of Jesus takes faith. But accepting his existence takes no faith since it is completely consistent with the historical evidence.

Answer 5

I would suggest you look at the same question from a different angle. Is there many thing that humans do that is not done by almost everyone else or repeated over time during different centuries or decades or life times. The answer is clearly no!
Humans do what humans do. So, the Jesus story like the many stories of the beginning of man and woman like the Adam and Eve story or the Tree of life story are both creation stories.
Every group of people have their own creation story.
The Jesus Story is a remarkable story mainly because it actually strongly suggests that God learns also just like humans learn, or the other way around.
Ask yourself, how could God know what being human means if he/she has never been human. The answer is that God sent Jesus his son to be human and to confront human life just like any human would do and show God how much life really hurts and the opposite.
I think Jesus of Nazareth existed and still exists in our life in the form of a spirit, and we also have a spirit. It is our task or lot in life to get to know the spirit and then to know God, who I suggest is lonely for our attention.
Great Question, Thanks!

Answer 6

The Romans kept very strict records concern census in the areas they controlled and there are ample confirmations of the existance of John the baptist. It is also know that radical movements of that era where always instigated by religious zealots which made the Jewish enclave a hotbed of activity. Thus given the Jewish messiah complex it is only logical that sooner or later someone would take the show on the road. Religion trumps government bureaus any day and social advocacy is borne in religo-philosophic debate!

Answer 7

Jewish historian Josephus

Roman historian Tacitus

Dead Sea Scrolls (records kept by the Essenes, contemporaries of Jesus)

Common Sense: Even if Christianity is a myth it's far easier to adapt something from real life than it is to create something out of the blue!

Answer 8

I do believe that Yoshua ben yosef ("Jesus") did exist, but I think he never preformed any "miracles" or was anything other than a really nice dude...

I know I don't have a 3 paragraph answer. but know that he did exist (and I'm not basing this off the bible, but historians who agree that he was in some way, a nonfictional person) They would also tell you he was black (or at least dark) and later on European artist created the white Yoshua ben yosef in paintings in order to put white people closer to God.

Answer 9

Yes, there was a real historical accounting of a man called Jesus. "Josephus" was a historian and his is a great historical reference book; very interesting, in-depth accounting of the times, the people, their way of life, their religion and society etc., and Jesus is even physically described in his accounting. Aside from my personal feeliings, yes I do believe Jesus was a man who actually existed.

Answer 10

I believe there was a profoundly popular religous leader named Jesus. How much mythology may have been built up around him is another question.