Quote Originally Posted by thir View Post
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.
They may not have been perfect, but the Romans were pretty damned good at killing people. That was the purpose of the spear in the side, to make sure the person was dead.

There is also Jesphus, the jewish historian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus
Josephus' text was written some 60 years or more after the death of Jesus, and would have relied heavily upon Christian documents. Some of the writings of Josephus regarding Jesus have been questioned, since they don't seem to be of the same quality of writing that he used.

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?
That's the easy part! Christianity is the idea that Jesus died on the cross in payment for our sins so that our souls could be taken into heaven when we die to be with God for eternity. A very simplistic concept, really. But the devil's in the details!