Ancient Confession Found: 'We Invented Jesus Christ'

[mistermack]

Actually, if the Romans wrote it, they used highly skilled forgers, for many NT texts do show signs of having been written by people who were neither Native Latin nor Greek speakers...
i.e. the Greek of the original is awkward, but the mistakes are not typical of a Roman writing in Greek.

No, but back then, anyone would have known that. Anything that wasn't authentic would have stuck out a mile. They would have no problem getting the right people to write it.
They had plenty of Jewish people like Josephus to advise on the creation of a gospel, and make sure it was convincing. If you have the money, you can get the staff.
It's not like they were conquerors, who had just arrived. They were the established people in power, around most of the known world. There would be lots of people who were more than ready to work for them.

[Svartalf]

Still, controlling one's style is harder than you'd think... Julius Caesar, chief of the Popular party, still had difficulties hiding the Greek mannerisms in his writing style, when he was writing <Latin> ... Greek was more of an Aristocratic thing at the time.

[Audley Strange]

Hmm perhaps we have it all backwards. Perhaps Rome was faked by some Rabbis.

[Svartalf]

Unlikely, or Jerusalem would still have its Temple.

[subversive science]

There is definitely an issue with constructing a history of Jesus, as there are few non-Biblical references availAble for corroboration. In fact Josephus is one of those sources. I have a hard time accepting Atwill's hypothesis, however, as large scale conspiracies tend to be rather difficult to execute.

[NineBerry]

So, he is basically the creationist among the atheists...

[mistermack]

There is definitely an issue with constructing a history of Jesus, as there are few non-Biblical references availAble for corroboration. In fact Josephus is one of those sources. I have a hard time accepting Atwill's hypothesis, however, as large scale conspiracies tend to be rather difficult to execute.

They are today, with modern communication methods.
But two thousand years ago, very few people could read or write, and communications were almost solely by word of mouth.
And as travel was difficult, even word of mouth was fairly limited.
So blowing the truth on a conspiracy wasn't just a matter of posting on twitter, or emailing a journalist.
Which also mean't that it was hard to do so anonymously as well.

It was mainly the occupying Romans who had the near-monopoly on what the people were told, so it's feasible that it could have been done.

It is a story that has some logic to it. The Jews have this prophetic story of a warrior messiah, who will come with the power of a god, and defeat their enemies.
If you can convince them that he actually already came, and was swatted like a fly by the mighty Romans, and that all he preached was peace anyway, then that is mightily convenient for the Romans.

Maybe there was a loony called Jesus, and they just used his story, embellished it, and spread it around.
I'm still not convinced though. I would like to know who wrote St. Pauls letters, and how that would fit in.

[Svartalf]

Except of course that a guy with that kind of life history just doesn't fit the bill for the prophesied Messiah...