I can't draw a conclusion: I'd need some good evidence, and I don't think there is any.
My suspicion is that there might have been a Nazarene Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef at around that time, but his life would have borne almost no relationship to that described in the New Testament gospels, which were almost certainly (due to their note-perfect riffing of Pagan Gnosticism of the time) teaching stories developed by a syncratic Grecojudaic Gnostic Mystery Cult in the area, later hijacked by its own outer fundementalist-literalist church and stripped of its Inner Mysteries.
I am also firmly of the opinion that focusing on a belief in a literal Historical Jesus is the best and easiest way of avoiding the positive elements that the philosophical doctrines and teachings Christianity has to offer, and creating a violent, destructive monster.
I do actually think you're right about two other contemporary writers, now I stop to think about it, but I also seem to recall the credibility of their intext references being soundly shot down in flames as later "additions" as well--but those books are in a pile here somewhere right now. When they surface, I'll consult.
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Date: 2009-12-13 11:31 am (UTC)My suspicion is that there might have been a Nazarene Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef at around that time, but his life would have borne almost no relationship to that described in the New Testament gospels, which were almost certainly (due to their note-perfect riffing of Pagan Gnosticism of the time) teaching stories developed by a syncratic Grecojudaic Gnostic Mystery Cult in the area, later hijacked by its own outer fundementalist-literalist church and stripped of its Inner Mysteries.
I am also firmly of the opinion that focusing on a belief in a literal Historical Jesus is the best and easiest way of avoiding the positive elements that the philosophical doctrines and teachings Christianity has to offer, and creating a violent, destructive monster.
I do actually think you're right about two other contemporary writers, now I stop to think about it, but I also seem to recall the credibility of their intext references being soundly shot down in flames as later "additions" as well--but those books are in a pile here somewhere right now. When they surface, I'll consult.
But as I said, do read Josephus.