Did Jesus Actually Exist?

A sense of brotherhood. An audience. Peace of mind.

Wrong question. Jesus the GOD would not exist without Paul.

Christ means "messiah". You can't really be a christian if you don't see Jesus as a messiah of some kind. But christianity would have saved itself much embarassement by opting to say that Jesus the messiah (Jesus Christ) was just a man.

My options for those are not limited to the people here, and i get along just fine with the majority of the people at this site. My options are not limited to a set of self-important yobs who like to make things about personality and alleged emotions rather than the subject matter.

It's hilarious to see this kind of remark from someone who is sneering at someone else about alleged negativity.

Just saying my mind. Sneer (a favorite word of yours?) implies an intention to hurt and demeen. I'm not trying to hurt you, believe it or not.

How many of your posts on this thread touch upon the subject matter? 3? 4?

I just noticed it's sneerly 4:30 am here in Seattle,and what the heck am I doing reading all this personal gibberish?

I think I'll just look at my eBay stuff. Bye for now.

All of them which were not direct responses to the sneers of the three self-important yobs here.

Totally correct quetion. You are just blinded by an implacable one sided worldview based on a belief that Jesus was divine. Yet all history shows that the entire "divinity" issue didnt happen till Saul's huckstering.
You may wish to pooh pooh that, but its a historical fact that even Baptist Biblical "historians" will stipulate to.

Aren't you two talking about the one and exact same man?

What is the difference between both of your perspectives?

Me think we're saying the same thing here. Paul was one of those who made of Jesus a god.

I'm fairly certain that he name Jesus was not in use in any manuscript source before the mid-second century, and not commonly used before the early 4th century. It is interesting that the Wikipedia article on the name Jesus was edited just two days ago, on June 8, 2013. The christian guerrilla editor or editors are at work again.

Wasn't Jesus the little hispanic gangleader on Hill Street, who turned over a new leaf and started co-operating with Captain Furillo?

Cool guy.

Names change through translations and transliterations. Charlemagne was actually called Karl der Gross, in real life. Thoutmosis pronounced his name something like Ḏḥwtj-mś.

The name was intentionally changed. Do me the courtesy of not addressing any of your posts to me, you side little bitch.

Reminds me an Afghan joke, about mullah Nasruddin, a shrewd liar, cheap but occasionally wise character recurrent in Central Asian jokes:

Mullah Nasruddin went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and on the way he passed through Medina. As he was walking by the main mosque there, a rather confused looking tourist approached him.

"Excuse me sir," said the tourist, "but you look like a native of these parts; can you tell me something about this mosque? It looks very old and important, but I've lost my guidebook."

Nasruddin, being too proud to admit that he, too, had no idea what it was, immediately began an enthusiastic explanation. "This is indeed a very old and special mosque." he declared, "It was built by Alexander the Great to commemorate his conquest of Arabia."

The tourist was suitably impressed, but presently a look of doubt crossed his face. "But how can that be?" he asked, "I'm sure that Alexander was a Greek or something, not a Muslim. . . Wasn't he?" "I can see that you know something of these matters." replied Nasruddin with chagrin, "In fact, Alexander was so impressed at his good fortune in war that he converted to Islam in order to show his gratitude to God."

"Oh, wow." said the tourist, then paused. "Hey, but surely there was no such thing as Islam in Alexander's time?" "An excellent point! It is truly gratifying to meet a visitor who understands our history so well," answered Nasruddin. "As a matter of fact, he was so overwhelmed by the generosity God had shown him that as soon as the fighting was over he began a new religion, and became the founder of Islam."

The tourist looked at the mosque with new respect, but before Nasruddin could quietly slip into the passing crowd, another problem occurred to him. "But wasn't the founder of Islam named Mohammed? I mean, that's what I read in a book; at least I'm sure it wasn't Alexander." "I can see that you are a scholar of some learning," said Nasruddin, "I was just getting to that. Alexander felt that he could properly dedicate himself to his new life as a prophet only by adopting a new identity. So, he gave up his old name and for the rest of his life called himself Mohammed."

"Really?" wondered the tourist, "That's amazing! But...but I thought that Alexander the Great lived a long time before Mohammed? Is that right?" "Certainly not!" answered the Mullah, "You're thinking of a different Alexander the Great. I'm talking about the one named Mohammed."

That's a rather strange idea. Who do you think did it and why???


I love you too, honey.

Hmm. I was pretty sure that Jesus is simply another form of the name Joshua, or Jehoshua, meaning Jehovah (Jah, Yah) is salvation. Perhaps the trinitarians have made more of the name by equating Jesus with God.

I do like Nasrudin, the one about clapping your hands to keep the tigers away is a favourite.

If Paul equated Jesus with God, it would have been in some passage I have yet to read. Look further in time to the era of Constantine, who officially wedded paganism and christianity.