Last edited Sun Mar 8, 2026, 01:27 PM - Edit history (1)
...anything at all involving accounts of the putative life of Jesus.
It could only go bad.
To me the Bible has very little historical meaning with respect to its accounts of real people. It's obviously a fantasy. It seems possible that a person described as Jesus existed, but I doubt he was particularly different than any other cult leader. The accounts are obviously highly inflated and we can in no way distinguish any reality in connection with the historical person, if, in fact he existed. The only non-religious nearly contemperaneous reference to him is some off handed commentary by the Jewish historian Josephus, who hung out in Rome around that time, and that did not portray him as godlike.
In the Roman culture of that time, people were ofen declared to be gods, and the declaration of Jesus as being one may be in effect a cultural borrowing.
Was there a historical Jew named Jesus? Maybe, but the consequences of his life are not connected with his reality but rather with the mythology built around him.
I think his main historical impact has been with respect to people who regard the Bible as history, which it isn't, often with pernicious effects.
I am very familiar with the Bible's contents having been raised by very religious parents, and think it to be by and large a very unfortunate document with many highly problematic cultural impacts.
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