If the body of Jesus was found that would destroy Mythicism and Christianity at the same time ironically.

The more I learn about it the more that The Life Of Brian seems like a documentary.

It's also worth noting that "being famous" and "drawing crowds" in the ass-end of Galilee doesn't automatically make you an international rock star that will catch the attention of the Romans. It's notable that things go downhill (and quickly) after he arrives in a slightly more notable place, Jerusalem, which still is no Rome or Alexandria.

I don't think the idea that there was an apocalyptic preacher named Jesus going around around 25 AD or whatever was that much of a stretch, even if little of what's said about him after the fact is at all true.

I wonder how many other Apocalyptic Jews and Messianic figures existed that we don't have stories for. There must have been more than a few.

Jesus wasn't the first man to gather a following and preach about the end of the world and he certainly wasn't the last.

The accident of preservation is very important. The vast majority of records are probably lost forever.

Even as a hardcore atheist I have no problem with the human Jesus existing. It's the supernatural parts I find unbelievable.

The Chabad sect of Judaism has a not insubstantial number of members who believe that Menachem Mendel Schneerson was the Messiah.  They believe that he performed miracles, and that he's going to be resurrected or that he never died in the first place.  Some believe that he participates in their ceremonies in invisible form.  This man died in the 1990s.  If this conversion from a real person into a legendary being could happen in the Information Age, of course it could have happened 2000 years ago.

Nowadays the dominant dieties worshipped in Memphis are Elvis Presley and BB King. 13:18

I want to get the phrase “accretion of these data” into my daily parlance.

That Wolverine shirt is giving some serious Ride the Lightning album cover vibes..... I like it :D
=

Lmao that is my brother in law he's debating

“Pump Peter” is crazy work.

Watching the clock tick down, for just a moment, I was worried that we weren't going to get to "the fit."

If you look at stories of say, George Washington and his "wooden teeth" or "chopping down the cherry tree," many US children learn about then believe for life one may get closer to understanding what happened to a historical figure.  Then there are even ceiling paintings in DC that put Washington in the clouds in an almost divine-type pose.  So you can easily follow how a historical figure accrued all this other stuff.   We just have the benefit of more writing and reading than first century Judea.

This might be your most succinct and perfect recent video. Wonderfully done. Both enlightening and enjoyable

Your video is very quiet. Most I watch are comfortable around 15 and I turned yours up to 45 but it still feels a little quiet

Lawd, I thought this said "mysticism" and I was like "no Dan, don't come at my homies".

Something a lot of people don't understand. When Dan matter-of-factly talks about "the traditions that were in circulation," this is pure speculation. There is no direct evidence whatsoever for a tradition, oral and/or written, developing around a historical figure. Q and the other "sources" the Gospel writers supposedly  referred to are entirely hypothetical. They are just assumed to have existed. We don't have a scrap of this material, and more and more it's being demonstrated that the first Gospel, Mark (which the other 3 Gospels are all based on, including John) is structured on the Jewish scriptures and Greek literary conventions and techniques. It reads like a work of mythological fiction from beginning to end.