Thread: Christmas poll

Most likely several.

Ever heard of Josephus, a.k.a. Flavius Josephus, first century Jewish historian? According to him He sure did exist.
How about the great lawyer and law professor Simon Greenleaf? Him too.

Me too.

I was there I saw it...case closed

I say yes.

Someone loaned me this book, and it was a fascinating read. It focuses on archaeological and historical facts rather than religious dogma. After I read this book the tidbits that I had learned as a child began to make much more sense.

Yes. No doubt in my mind.

Originally Posted by Bruno

How about a
(don't know) option?


Fwiw, I think there is enough evidence to assume beyond reasonable doubt that a person with that name existed around that time frame, and that he had some notoriety / fame.

I didn't want any fence sitting!

I say yes because Jesus or Iesu was very common name at those times. There must have been more than one Jesus.

There are no known literal sources from those times about anything bible says would have happened there. The earliest versions of New Testament are from 117 - 138 AD.
Yosef Ben Matityahu aka Titus Flavius Josephus was born after those biblical events.

My answer would be "I think so, but I'm not 100% sure".

As everyone has said there would likely have been quite a few people with the name Jesus in the Middle East at that time.
If you are asking is the Biblical record accurate, that is a different question entirely. The answer to that will depend on your faith in the Bible. The Bible means different things to different people.
For me, and perhaps others, matters of faith aren't really suitable for discussion in this way, they are just too personal and complex.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

As everyone has said there would likely have been quite a few people with the name Jesus in the Middle East at that time.
If you are asking is the Biblical record accurate, that is a different question entirely. The answer to that will depend on your faith in the Bible. The Bible means different things to different people.
For me, and perhaps others, matters of faith aren't really suitable for discussion in this way, they are just too personal and complex.

Perhaps I did not spell it out correctly in my opening post. The question was not "was there a person named "Jesus" born ~2,000 years ago, but rather was the person that we all have come to know as Jesus, a rather singular figure in history, born ~2,000 years ago?