Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
Again, you are assuming that the reports in the gospels are true. And they don't even agree with each other!
Ok, for the sake of argument then. I am just trying to avoid a very short discussion ending with 'but it never happened, so there.'
It is an experiment in thought, a way to try to understand Chrisitianity, the things I have never understood.

If I recall (and I'm too lazy to look it up right now) the gospel of Judas claims that he was selected by Jesus to betray him, to fulfill prophecy. And the kiss is a major problem. If Jesus was so famous, why did one of his own have to identify him? Hell, if some of the Christians around here are to be believed, he would have been the only white guy in the whole damned country!
Hm. Come to think of it, the story says (bear with me) that only Jesus and the disciples were there - that was the point, to arrest him at a time when he was not in the midst of thousands of followers. Threfore someone would have to point him out, but it could have been anyone of a number of people, I guess.

WAS he crucified? The descriptions of his crucifixion in the gospels are very different from standard Roman practice. Crucifixion was intended to be a humiliating, slow, painful death by suffocation, followed by an ignominious disposal of the body. He should have been on the cross for days, struggling for each breath, not allowed to die in mere hours. His followers and/or family would NOT have been permitted to take his body for burial.
Even the romand cannot decide when a person dies. But it is curious that is was so short, giving ideas that maybe he was not, in fact, dead.

Again, the only evidence for his resurrection comes from his followers. Not exactly uninvolved witnesses. There are no extant accounts from the Romans or the Jewish temple of his existence, much less his execution.

The ONLY evidence we have for his existence are texts written at least 30 to 50 years after his death (Matthew), or even longer (Luke, John, Mark). And remember these are the four texts which the RCC decided, hundreds of years later, were good enough to include in their dogma. Other texts were tossed aside and ordered destroyed! How many of those would contradict the gospels as we know them?
There is also Jesphus, the jewish historian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus
But you are of course right, in that it is hard to know anything for ceratain. The whole discussion is on the basis of if it happened - then what happended? As well as what is Chrisitanity about, really?

The Middle East has always been a major crossroads between the riches of India and the Mediterranean. And the Romans taxed EVERYTHING! I just saw a program the other day about an outpost on the Red Sea that handled shipments of spices and goods from India. People traveling TO the fort had to pay a tax! The equivalent of $25 for the wife of a soldier, hundreds for merchants, taxes on donkeys hauling goods, and if memory serves, the equivalent of $2500 for a prostitute! The Romans got plenty of money out of Palestine, believe me!
Sigh. And everybody finds them sooo cilvilized..