This will be the final post in my multi-part summary of Richard Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt. After going over our background information, evidence outside the Bible, Acts, the Gospels, and most of the Epistles (which are all more likely if Jesus didn’t exist than if he did), we finally get to the best evidence there is for historicity (the theory that Jesus existed as a historical person instead of a celestial deity). Continue reading →

Chapter 11: The Epistles

In his authentic epistles, Paul only answers questions about doctrine and rules of conduct. If Jesus existed, it’s very bizarre that no one would ask him about the life and death of Jesus. Also, it would have made sense to mention things Jesus said in life to help answer some of the doctrine questions, but Paul never does this. Continue reading →

John

Some think John is independent of the synoptics, but he does show awareness of Matthew, Mark and Luke. He just felt more free to retell the story using his own words. Luke is his main source. He hardly uses Matthew at all. Continue reading →

Matthew

Matthew quotes Mark’s fictional narrative word for word, but also adds additional material including a fictional nativity story and a post-resurrection appearance. Matthew’s nativity story is based on the nativity story of Moses as found in the first century book Biblical Antiquities. Continue reading →

Mark

Pilate freeing Barabbas (a name which literally means “Son of the Father”) has no basis in history (the Romans never freed prisoners like this). Rather, it is patterned on the scapegoat ritual of Yom Kippur (Mark also has this take place during Passover so it’s a combination of two different Jewish holidays). Some manuscripts of Mark actually give his name as Jesus Barabbas, so the crowd is deciding between two Sons of the Father, making it even more clear that this is an allegorical, not a historical, story. Continue reading →

Chapter 9

Luke was the author of Acts. The only historical source we know Luke used is Josephus, and Josephus didn’t mention Jesus at all. Luke also used Mark, Mathew, the epistles, and the Kings narrative from the Old Testament, basing Jesus and Paul on Elijah and Elisha. Continue reading →

Chapter 8

The original Christians were called the Nazorians. They kept the Torah and, per Epiphanius, they believed Jesus died in the time of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BC). The Babylonian Talmud knows of no other form of Christianity. Other Christians believed Jesus died in the 40s AD rather than the 30s AD. If Jesus existed, how could different Christians believe he lived in different centuries? This bit of evidence is more likely for mythicism than historicism. Continue reading →

Chapter 6

Betty Crocker and other corporate mascots don’t exist despite having biographies, named family members, etc. Since most corporate mascots don’t exist, we should assume any corporate mascot we hear about doesn’t exist unless proven otherwise. Colonel Sanders is a corporate mascot who did actually exist, but we know this based on evidence. We’d be wrong to simply assume he existed when so few corporate mascots are historical people. Continue reading →

Chapter 5

In order to understand Jesus, a lot of historical background knowledge is required in order to know what’s expected or normal for the time. Any theory about who Jesus was must account for all the background information. Chapter 5 continues the list of background elements begun in Chapter 4. Continue reading →

Chapter 4

In order to understand Jesus, a lot of historical background knowledge is required in order to know what’s expected or normal for the time. Any theory about who Jesus was must account for all the background information.

Terms like messiah, crucifixion, and resurrection were used very broadly in antiquity. Modern definitions are more specific, but we mustn’t mistake our definitions for theirs. Also note that ancients believed air extended all the way to the moon with ether beyond that. Continue reading →