Was Jesus an Historical Figure?

Concerning an Untruth

Mr Zindler, you begin your list of arguments with an untruth. Not really the greatest first impression to give. You say, “To be sure, I knew that some of the world’s greatest scholars had denied his existence.” Sir, unless you have no idea who are and who are not leading experts in NT and ancient historical studies, that is simply a lie. Among current scholars of the NT and ancient history, these online discussion of the so-called “Christ myth” are considered to be the equivalent of discussing the Holocaust hoax among historians of WWII. Both are in fact, quite similar. Both speak primarily to a certain group (Neo Nazis/ Bible skeptics). Both are immensely popular in these two groups online communities. Both distort evidence, use outdated scholarship, ridiculous arguments, and askew the whole method used to do historical work. G.A. Wells in not an expert. Hence, quoting any of his words relating to historical Jesus issues is like asking Tom Cruise to professionally diagnose a psychological disorder. I’m not saying either are non-intelligent men, but neither have the education or training in the right fields. As such, their views amount to little more than layman commentary. Furthermore, Earl Doherty is not an expert in NT studies or ancient history. Nor is Acharya S, Timothy Freke, Peter Gandy, Arthur Drews, Dan Barker, Rook Hawkins etc etc. Thus, I really couldn’t care less what any of these people have to say about Jesus, Paul, Peter, Josephus, Tacitus, or the Gospels anymore than I would take seriously a skinhead who hands me a pamphlet on how the Jews conspired to give Hitler a bad name. Or a psycho evangelical who tells me he saw a vision of Jesus who showed him the apocalyptic future of the USA. Conversley, here is a list of modern scholars of NT and ancient history, both Christian and non, who endorse Jesus of Nazareth as a historical personage: NT Wright, Richard Bauckham, D. MacDonald, Edwin Yamauchi, Robert Van Voorst, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Gerd Ludemann, John Meier, Craig Blomberg, Bart Erhman, James Tabor and so on. I have to wonder why you reject the one thing that all of these fellows, and it is hard to find two NT scholars who agree on anything, agree on and choose to side with non-scholarly, internet community. If you want to say that these atheist internet denizens and quiz-masters have convinced you that Jesus didn’t exist, then say so. But do not try to give the impression that you have simply decided b/w two scholarly discussed options. Modern NT scholars have declared the historicity of Jesus to be so certain, that questioning it is more the result of an inability to deal with reality than anything else.