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Jesus was a historical person. This doesn’t mean Christianity is correct, but there is sufficient historical evidence and most mainstream scholars of the era agree on this. (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world
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I think Lemmy has a problem with history in general, since most people on here have degrees/training in STEM. I see a lot of inaccurate “pop history” shared on here, and a lack of understanding of historiography/how historians analyze primary sources.

The rejection of Jesus’s historicity seems to be accepting C S Lewis’s argument - that if he existed, he was a “lunatic, liar, or lord,” instead of realizing that there was nothing unusual about a messianic Jewish troublemaker in Judea during the early Roman Empire.

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[–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Sometimes coincidences happen and sometimes human stories independently converge on specific tropes.

Like how evolution keeps making more and more things into crabs, or how flight developed indepently in multiple different branches of the tree of life, same with eyes, I think.

Also, Jesus virgin birth isn't even fully agreed upon by early Christians.

The word that is translated as 'virgin' in most modern Bibles ... actually just means 'young woman.'

Sure, its doctrine now, but it wasn't originally.

EDIT:

A number of Christian detractors in the early days actually spread a story that Mary had been impregnated by a specific Roman soldier, and that Joseph, a much older man, possibly a widow... basically pity married her, because ... well, being an unmarried 15 yo pregnant with the son of a hated, occupying, heathen military force?

She'd be lucky to not be stoned to death.

Frankly, its a historically plausible story, but there's no real way to evaluate whether or not it is actually true.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Haha carcination is one of my favorite weird things that earth does. As for eyes I always appreciate the old internet bit that calls out eyes and how generally bad they are at what they do as a refutation of intelligent design. I wasn't aware of the translation bit from virgin to young woman but that makes a lot of obvious sense. Also clearly the virgin thing was added later since one of the first mentions of Jesus is in reference to his brother's execution if I'm not mistaken. In another comment it was mentioned about speculation that Jesus went to the east during his missing years, there's a hilarious fiction book called Lamb by Christopher Moore that basically runs with this idea. Anyway thank you very much for throwing all this knowledge at me, I know my comments haven't been nearly as high quality but I genuinely appreciate the conversation.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    No problem!

    Also, I threw in a stealth edit that you may have missed, I may have finished adding it after you read it.

    But uh yeah, the whole point, imo, should be to discuss and share knowledge, in a reasoned manner, not just gloat over knowing something someone else may not.

    Also!

    I am not an actual expert, I just read a few of em and watch their YT channels and what not, as a hobby.

    I am just as fallible as anyone else, and may have gotten some details wrong... normally, I try to actually provide citations lol, but this has been more off the cuff so far.

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