Is Jesus a fictional character in the New Testament (Did Jesus exist? part 1)?

Ok some people wanted the extra sources (making the “challenge”) I am not going to go though all 15 but let me hit some highlights.

Emperor Tiberitus (14-37) or Claudius (41-54) (but most likely Tiberitus) issued an edict against grave robbing. An inscription of it was found in Nazareth. It reads:

"Ordinances of Caesar, it is my pleasure that graves and tombs remain undisturbed in perpetuity for those who have made them for the cult of their ancestors or children or members of their house. If however any man lay information that another has either demolished them, or has in any other way extracted the buried, or has maliciously transferred them to other places in order to wrong them, or has displaced the sealing of other stones, against such one I order that a trial be instituted, as in respect of the gods, so in regard to the cult of mortals. For it shall be much more obligatory to honor the buried. Let it be absolutely forbidden for anyone to disturb them, in case of contravention I desire that the offender be sentenced to capital punishment on charge of violation of sepuiture."

Before this time punishment was mild. Why was it changed to death? We know this decreed was soon after Christ's resurrection. Was it due to a reaction against the turmoil in Israel caused His resurrection?

Cornelius Tacitus (A.D. 55?-after 117), the Roman Historian, wrote of Nero's attempt to relieve himself of the guilt of burning Rome:

"Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also" (Annals XV.44).

While the last document was written well after the time of Christ the fact that it references documents that did exist during the time of Christ is an important fact. Just because we no longer have the originals (after all it has been 2000 years) is not really relevant. The fact that he makes reference to official documents (stating what was done) does mean that at one time the documents did exist.

However WHEN something is written has absolutely no bearing on the validity or truthfulness of the writing. For instance:

Finding living survivors that were adults during the WWII holocaust is getting more and more difficult, simply because of the passage of time (people age and at some point die). However in my case, I happen to be old enough to have been able to know some of those survivors as well as people that lived though atrocities in other parts of the world during WWII. If I write what those people told me happened, does that make the information untrue (especially when other unrelated people of about the same age that also went though the War tell me very similar details)? Does the information become false if I do not write what the people told me until many years after the war was over or in some cases even after the person died? ABSOLUTLY NOT. The information is just as true today nearly 70 years after the events took place as they were in the 1940’s when it actually happened.

But that really gets into a whole other section. I will probably put under the discussion of “does WHEN articles are written make them true or false?”

Before I choose best answer, as many of you may have noticed this question had been deleted. Apparently some people choose to report it as being inappropriate. After an appeal and a quick verification question, the yahoo mediators choose to allow the question to be reposted.

I would like to thank them for doing that, as I did want to check out all the links that everyone had posted (obviously the links were not available while the question was deleted).

If you have never worked in the more serious side of the I.T. field you have no idea what a challenge it is to host and maintain large networks. Having been a DBA as well as system administrator for years, I know maintaining systems and keeping a few thousand people/clients happy is not an easy task. I do not even want to think of the nightmares related to a global system that is offered without charge and used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. The customer support people as well as the administrators at Yahoo get a lot of undeserved abuse for things they have absolutely no control over. And yes I said that, and continue to say that, even when I had other questions/answers deleted and not returned.

So Yahoo Staff and volunteers, for what it is worth, thanks for doing a very under appreciated job.

As for best answer I really wish I could split the points, for the book. ~faith&grace~ suggested from what I found online looks like it might have some interesting ideas as well as the website TC listed though I have not read either. Plus the point about the peoples superstitions of the day being which Pirate AM brought up.

But unfortunately there can be only one, so as difficult of a decision as it was to decide between the three of you in this case I am going to go with Pirate AM.

Because using the argument about the superstitions of the people of the day, is a point I really had not thought of in that light. I can see where some interesting discussions countering Christ’s existence could be based purely on the superstitions of the people which lived not only in the days of Christ but also years later. Which would open up a whole other “can of worms” sort to speak. I think the “argument(s)” can be countered fairly easily but if one is not prepared for the statement(s), having a quick and solid comeback is far more difficult.

Thank you all for your answers.

I am going to make one point about a debate to people that seem not to understand it.

There is a HUGE difference between understanding, then rationally discussing opposing points of view and agreeing with those viewpoints.

In my opinion, if ones faith cannot stand up to reasonable questioning either the person’s faith needs to be stronger (the person needs to learn more) and/or the faith/belief itself is useless.