The Bible makes complete sense

That's a rather generic statement, which makes it erroneous.

Much of the bible makes sense, and there's a number of contradictions, and other parts that don't make sense, and other parts that do or don't make sense depending on if you take them literally or not.

JPB wrote:

stashlazarus wrote:

This was written by someone who lived in the Roman Empire and was read by many thousands of Christians who also lived in the Roman Empire.

What I find ludicrous is the idea that "thousands of Christians" were reading Luke's gospel. "Thousands" of Christians didn't read the bible at all until the mid-1400s and numerous copies of the bible were printed. As soon as folks actually started reading the gospels, they started questioning their accuracy and authority, which ultimately led to the Reformation.

If the thesis is based on the premise that 'no one complained' then the thesis is bogus.

If the gospels had not been widely read, they would not have been repeatedly copied and could not have survived.

Jesus had come from a village in Judea, and was the son of a poor Jewess who gained her living by the work of her own hands. His mother had been turned out of doors by her husband, who was a carpenter by trade, on being convicted of adultery [with a soldier named Panthéra (i.32)]. Being thus driven away by her husband, and wandering about in disgrace, she gave birth to Jesus, a bastard. Jesus, on account of his poverty, was hired out to go to Egypt. While there he acquired certain (magical) powers which Egyptians pride themselves on possessing. He returned home highly elated at possessing these powers, and on the strength of them gave himself out to be a god.

In fact, this revelation of the truth will cause Armageddon.

If this theory is correct, and it leads to Armageddon, I must say that I apologize and it will never happen again.

For information on Celcus, or more commonely Celsus, see;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsus_the_Platonist

Quote:

Jesus had come from a village in Judea, and was the son of a poor Jewess who gained her living by the work of her own hands. His mother had been turned out of doors by her husband, who was a carpenter by trade, on being convicted of adultery [with a soldier named Panthéra (i.32)]. Being thus driven away by her husband, and wandering about in disgrace, she gave birth to Jesus, a bastard. Jesus, on account of his poverty, was hired out to go to Egypt. While there he acquired certain (magical) powers which Egyptians pride themselves on possessing. He returned home highly elated at possessing these powers, and on the strength of them gave himself out to be a god.

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/JewishJesus/celsus.html