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Nine Pieces Of Evidence That Confirm The Historical Accuracy Of The Bible

joelr

Well-Known Member
How dare I? You've just been handed a serious shellacking on your mythical Q Source.

Nine Pieces Of Evidence That Confirm The Historical Accuracy Of The Bible

And you STILL haven't provided evidence Josephus was mistaken about what he saw.


Whoops, you spoke too soon. You probably should have waited for the reply.

You just linked to a thread (this thread) where you completely ran and hid from an argument. Did you think that mysteriously disappeared? It didn't. Your silly apologetics article doesn't even know the gospels say "as told to me by..." Did he think they were written in English? That's what you get from apologetics.
So you don't get to pretend you shellacked anything.

I never said Josephus was right or wrong. So we don't know. But we do have modern biblical archeologists, who are conservative and not biblically-challenged? Who have differences of opinion on the location.
So you probably need some new ad-hom to fake a reason to ignore them.
 

joelr

Well-Known Member
But then you haven't read either of these:

"The Historical Jesus," by scholar Dr. Gary Habermas;

"The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus," by Dr. Gary Habermas.


No no I know there are apologetics around today? You mentioned historians from the actual 1st century, so I'm saying there are no outside attestations of Christianity being true from people around at the time Jesus would have been around?!
It's just gospels which are copies from Mark and sourced from OT and pagan religions.
How did you not get that?

I have listened to Habermas, same old apologetics, already debunked.
Habermas was easily out debated by Carrier and Finley here:

and he had literally zero knowledge of the pagan cults that Christianity was derived from.
But feel free to use any of his arguments, they all fail.

In that debate Habermas actually tried to use out of body experiences as evidence to support his religious claims? A scholarly debate. Out of body experiences.



And I just love your self-serving equivocation: "outside the gospels", LOL. You can't stand those historical sources, can you? They bust your chops and anti-Jesus follies day in and day out.

Assumptions, judgments? Why is it Christians are the worst at following the sermon on the mount? I know it's just metaphorical language but I manage to follow it better?

If scholarship provided evidence that the gospels were historical cool, why would I want to deny that?
But they don't, they are written in religious metaphorical style, obvious copies and taken from OT and pagan myths. That's it.
Also your canon is not even the original canon but 2nd to the Marcionite canon which is forever lost to us.


"The Gospels appear decades later, their authors anonymous, and manifestly fictionalize and invent details and whole episodes; and no one to our knowledge verified or fact-checked anything in them, so we cannot know that any of their content dates to the time of Paul."


There is no such thing as people "not admitting" to the supernatural. There is simply no evidence.
Can you provide evidence? There are ways to test supernatural claims.
 
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Spartan

Well-Known Member
No no I know there are apologetics around today? You mentioned historians from the actual 1st century, so I'm saying there are no outside attestations of Christianity being true from people around at the time Jesus would have been around?!
It's just gospels which are copies from Mark and sourced from OT and pagan religions.
How did you not get that?

I have listened to Habermas, same old apologetics, already debunked.
Habermas was easily out debated by Carrier and Finley here:

and he had literally zero knowledge of the pagan cults that Christianity was derived from.
But feel free to use any of his arguments, they all fail.

In that debate Habermas actually tried to use out of body experiences as evidence to support his religious claims? A scholarly debate. Out of body experiences.

Assumptions, judgments? Why is it Christians are the worst at following the sermon on the mount? I know it's just metaphorical language but I manage to follow it better?

If scholarship provided evidence that the gospels were historical cool, why would I want to deny that?
But they don't, they are written in religious metaphorical style, obvious copies and taken from OT and pagan myths. That's it.
Also your canon is not even the original canon but 2nd to the Marcionite canon which is forever lost to us.


"The Gospels appear decades later, their authors anonymous, and manifestly fictionalize and invent details and whole episodes; and no one to our knowledge verified or fact-checked anything in them, so we cannot know that any of their content dates to the time of Paul."


There is no such thing as people "not admitting" to the supernatural. There is simply no evidence.
Can you provide evidence? There are ways to test supernatural claims.

Believe whatever you want. I'm not going to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to debate someone who is in denial of the historical Jesus - and someone who has been shown the early references that confirm the traditional Gospel authors, etc. And still you harp that the Gospel authors are "anonymous". That's hogwash. You're in denial and I'm not going to entertain another forty or so posts of that nonsense.
 

RESOLUTION

Active Member
The Exodus Begins … 36 And the LORD gave the people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that they granted their request. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.

38 And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.…


35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:

36 And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.

IT does not answer what was asked in my post as I said do not answer my posts until your willing to discuss the subject at hand not make diversions to hide you get things so wrong.


 

RESOLUTION

Active Member
Faith is not a pathway to true, because anything can be believed on faith. That may be the problem.
You cannot compare the faith based on truth which is personal to faith in general. Why do you think you can keep avoiding the issues by not addressing the facts.
Faith as in the God YHWH tells you that you will know the truth and it sets you free. TRUTH is you never looked any deeper into the real issues needing debating.
 

joelr

Well-Known Member
Believe whatever you want. I'm not going to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to debate someone who is in denial of the historical Jesus - and someone who has been shown the early references that confirm the traditional Gospel authors, etc. And still you harp that the Gospel authors are "anonymous". That's hogwash. You're in denial and I'm not going to entertain another forty or so posts of that nonsense.

I am not in denial of a historical Jesus. People deny the holocaust or the moon landings where we have reasonable evidence for these being historical.
You are not a "Hercules denier" or a "Horus denier" and no one is a Jesus denier. 4 gospels demonstrated to be copied from the 1st means one gospel. Paul only mentions some scripture and "revelation" and that's it. The one gospel is full of OT re-writes and stolen pagan concepts of a savior god. The name of the main character in the story about a savior demi-god is "Savior"......? Are you serious?
If people want to believe that stuff, fine, but non-believers are not "deniers" any more than you are a grey aliens denier or iIluminati denier or 9/11 was an inside job denier.

To the historical Jesus (not the god version) all of the reasons scholarship believed there was a man named Jesus have more recently been shown to be faulty assumptions. Carrier puts it at 3 to 1 odds after his historicity study. Such a study has not been done since 1926. Carrier made his case and is debating scholars frequently. So far his points have held up. He does answer criticisms on his blog.
But that doesn't matter, even if Jesus was a man the field is generally unanimous that the rest is mythology.

You were nitpicking me because you thought I said Josephus was definitely wrong about seeing the city of Sodom. Obviously that cannot be known. But now you are doing the exact same thing?
The article you linked to never says it "confirms the traditional Gospel authors", not even close? It says "evidence suggests"?
I already pointed this out yet you continue to make false statements that this apologetics essay "confirms" traditional authorship? It's doesn't, it doesn't even try to. Did you even read it?
It says "evidence supports the theory" and ends with that.
But he never even mentions the Greek title which is clear evidence. So it's just suppositions based on only partial evidence which are all moot once you realize the title doesn't even claim authorship?

I'm not "harping" on anything but stating what all historicity scholarship says?

The Gospel According to Matthew (Greek: Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Μαθθαῖον, romanized: Euangélion katà Maththaîon;[
Authorship and sources

The gospel itself does not specify an author, but he was probably a male Jew, standing on the margin between traditional and non-traditional Jewish values, and familiar with technical legal aspects of scripture being debated in his time.[7] The majority of modern scholars believe that Mark was the first gospel to be composed and that Matthew (who includes some 600 of Mark's 661 verses) and Luke both drew upon it as a major source for their works.[17][18] The author of Matthew did not, however, simply copy Mark, but used it as a base, emphasising Jesus' place in the Jewish tradition and including other details not covered in Mark.[



Further proof that a Q gospel is not needed from thebiblejourney.org which explains that Matthew copies 90% !!!!!! of Mark while Luke uses over 50%. So obvious?

Mark’s Gospel, the shortest of the four gospels, is widely thought to be the first one to have been written. Over a third of his account concentrates on the events surrounding Jesus’s death and resurrection. It was probably written as early as 62AD (a little over thirty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus) while Mark was staying with Paul in Rome. It is considered to be the earliest gospel because Luke and Matthew appear to borrow a considerable amount of their information from Mark’s narrative. About ninety per cent of Mark’s narrative is repeated in Matthew’s gospel, while Luke includes over half of Mark’s content.
 
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tosca1

Member
The one gospel is full of OT re-writes and stolen pagan concepts of a savior god. The name of the main character in the story about a savior demi-god is "Savior"......? Are you serious?

Which story are you actually refrring to, that it was "stolen" from?
Name it please.

Don't just make a claim that we have no way of looking into. For all we know, you could've misunderstood what you read! No offense intended.
That happens sometime in other forums - an atheist thinks the article he's given supports his views when in fact, upon closer inspection it's really supporting my views!

It's a good idea for Christians or religious people to really read the sources that your atheist opponent gives you. It may surprise you! :)

Give your source.


If people want to believe that stuff, fine, but non-believers are not "deniers" any more than you are a grey aliens denier or iIluminati denier or 9/11 was an inside job denier.

Well, they are deniers if they keep ignoring sound arguments/rebuttals.....and just simply digging in their heels and insist without even addressing the actual rebuttals that were given!
I notice that for some debaters - their method of a discussion is to skirt around the real issue and engage in deflecting: they bring up another issue!



To the historical Jesus (not the god version) all of the reasons scholarship believed there was a man named Jesus have more recently been shown to be faulty assumptions. Carrier puts it at 3 to 1 odds after his historicity study. Such a study has not been done since 1926. Carrier made his case and is debating scholars frequently. So far his points have held up. He does answer criticisms on his blog.

Why is it faulty assumption? Based on what?



Furthermore, Carrier had also said this about Anthony Flew:

When reports spread in 2004 that Antony Flew changed his mind on his rejection of the existence of gods, Carrier engaged in correspondence with Flew to find out what happened and published an extensive analysis of the situation on The Secular Web, finding among other things that Flew changed his position to there being some sort of "minimal God," as in Deism.

According to the author of the book in Flew's name, Roy Abraham Varghese, Flew had released a statement through his publisher (without addressing Carrier's correspondence), stating, "My name is on the book and it represents exactly my opinions. I would not have a book issued in my name that I do not 100 percent agree with. I needed someone to do the actual writing because I'm 84 and that was Roy Varghese's role. This is my book and it represents my thinking."[19] Carrier concluded that Flew's changed ideas were not accurately represented in the book written for Flew, There is a God.[
/quote]
Richard Carrier - Wikipedia
EH? Refer to the highlighted statements - how he arrived to his conclusion!

Look what he found out himself from Anthony Flew!
......that Flew changed his position to there being some sort of "minimal God," as in Deism."

Who is Carrier kidding?
You think the description "minimal" changes the bottom line of Anthony Flew's position?

From atheist - Flew had become a believer (whether it be to a minimal god) - he still believed in the existence of a god!

So....how can Carrier (an atheist activist) be seen as an objective - and credible - blogger?



But that doesn't matter, even if Jesus was a man the field is generally unanimous that the rest is mythology.

Lol. You don't establish a fact......... by popularity count!


I have to read the rest of your posts (it's a long one).
 
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tosca1

Member
No no I know there are apologetics around today? You mentioned historians from the actual 1st century, so I'm saying there are no outside attestations of Christianity being true from people around at the time Jesus would have been around?!

Why, what's wrong with historians from the actual 1st century?

Maybe, it was only the repercussions after His Resurrection that had made some impact for Christianity to be mentioned. Don't forget, it was after His Resurrection that Christianity EXPLODED in the region!

There were several outside references. Here is one:


Within a few decades of his lifetime, Jesus was mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians in passages that corroborate portions of the New Testament that describe the life and death of Jesus.

As a Roman historian, Tacitus did not have any Christian biases in his discussion of the persecution of Christians by Nero, says Ehrman. “Just about everything he says coincides—from a completely different point of view, by a Roman author disdainful of Christians and their superstition—with what the New Testament itself says: Jesus was executed by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, for crimes against the state, and a religious movement of his followers sprang up in his wake.”

“When Tacitus wrote history, if he considered the information not entirely reliable, he normally wrote some indication of that for his readers,” Mykytiuk says in vouching for the historical value of the passage. “There is no such indication of potential error in the passage that mentions Christus.”
https://www.history.com/news/was-jesus-real-historical-evidence


Furthermore...

Extant Historical Records
The late Dr. E.M. Blaiklock, a New Zealand scholar, taught Latin, Greek, and the ancient classics for more than forty years. He was recognized internationally for his scholarship. In a brilliant essay titled, “Surviving Literature from the First Century,” Professor Blaiklock has demonstrated that there are almost no primary documents that survey the period that embraces the life of Christ.

For instance, “parts of one unimportant historical work” have survived from the era that parallels the Lord’s earthly life. Velleius Paterculus (ca. 19 B.C. – A.D. 30), a retired army officer and “amateur historian,” produced a “badly written history of Rome” covering that age from the end of the Trojan War to the death of Livia (A.D. 29).

From the forties A.D., through the sixties, very little survives. Blaiklock described the dearth of material in this fashion:

Bookends set a foot apart on this desk where I write would enclose the works from those significant years. Curiously, much of it comes from Spanish emigrants in Rome (1974, 12-13).


It was during this time frame that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke—together with much of the balance of the New Testament—were being produced. These works provide far more information about the condition of Palestine in the first century than anything that issued from Rome. And there is a way to illustrate this in a most dramatic fashion.

Jesus Christ: Myth or Genuine History?




 

tosca1

Member
No no I know there are apologetics around today? You mentioned historians from the actual 1st century, so I'm saying there are no outside attestations of Christianity being true from people around at the time Jesus would have been around?


Consider this. Pontius Pilate!

We know he existed - as described from biblical narrative - which is confirmed by archeology!

In 1961, a team of archaeologists from Milan, Italy were excavating at Caesarea, just north of modern Tel Aviv. They had been focused upon the huge amphitheater that initially was built by Herod the Great (ca. 73 – 4 B.C.). Among these ruins, archaeologists discovered a limestone slab. It was thirty-two inches high, twenty-seven inches wide, and eight inches thick. A partial inscription was clearly visible. It was not difficult to decipher the complete message. A free translation reads:


The Tiberieum [a temple dedicated to Tiberias] of the Caesareans Pontius Pilate Praefect of Judea has given.


Alan Millard, Professor of Hebrew and Ancient Semitic Languages at the University of Liverpool, has observed that this represents “the only known inscription from his lifetime naming Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus” (1997, 327) (emphasis added).



Let the significance of this sink in—in light of the criticism mentioned at the beginning of this piece.

Here was a man who served the Roman government for ten years in one of the political hotspots of the empire. He himself was embroiled repeatedly in controversy. And yet, there is not a solitary Roman archival document that so much as mentions his name!
Jesus Christ: Myth or Genuine History?

Let's read this part again:


Here was a man who served the Roman government for ten years in one of the political hotspots of the empire. He himself was embroiled repeatedly in controversy.
And yet, there is not a solitary Roman archival document that so much as mentions his name!


If nothing is written about Pontius Pilate -

why then should we expect anything written about the son of a carpenter - from some obscure town called Nazareth (which must be the "trailer park" of the time - John 1:46) - who goes around preaching religion - and, who must've been even considered by some as a nut case?
 
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tosca1

Member
No no I know there are apologetics around today? You mentioned historians from the actual 1st century, so I'm saying there are no outside attestations of Christianity being true from people around at the time Jesus would have been around?!

Sorry, but I really have to pound you on this. Still on Pontius Pilate.

Stop. Here's something for you to mull:

If there is not even a single Roman archival document about a prominent man, Pontius Pilate - the only mention of Pontius Pilate is written in the Bible - which is confirmed by archeology -

isn't that proof of the reliable historicity of the Bible?


Enough said.
 
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lukethethird

unknown member
Sorry, but I really have to pound you on this. Still on Pontius Pilate.

Stop. Here's something for you to mull:

If there is not even a single Roman archival document about a prominent man, Pontius Pilate - the only mention of Pontius Pilate is written in the Bible - which is confirmed by archeology -

isn't that proof of the reliable historicity of the Bible?


Enough said.
Philo wrote about Pontius Pilate during Pilate's time, so we do have written material on Pilate, there are also some artifacts that confirm his existence.
 

lukethethird

unknown member
Believe whatever you want. I'm not going to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to debate someone who is in denial of the historical Jesus - and someone who has been shown the early references that confirm the traditional Gospel authors, etc. And still you harp that the Gospel authors are "anonymous". That's hogwash. You're in denial and I'm not going to entertain another forty or so posts of that nonsense.



Why does it matter if Christianity began with a mythical Christ rather than an historical Jesus? If Paul was OK with a heavenly Christ that was crucified by demons, what's the problem?
 

tosca1

Member
Philo wrote about Pontius Pilate during Pilate's time, so we do have written material on Pilate, there are also some artifacts that confirm his existence.

Pilate was a prominent man - and he was involved in controvesies too - so, it's only understandable that there would be written things about him. However, apparently not a single ROMAN archival document exist about him.

So I'm asking.....


....why then should we expect anything written about the son of a carpenter (during His lifetime) - from some obscure town called Nazareth (which must be the "trailer park" of the time - John 1:46) - who goes around preaching religion - and, who must've been even considered by some as a nut case?

Christianity exploded in the region only AFTER the Resurrection - thus, what's written about Jesus or Christians mostly pertains to the ways of Christianity or treatment of Christians. In other words, that's when they started getting attention!
 

lukethethird

unknown member
Pilate was a prominent man - and he was involved in controvesies too - so, it's only understandable that there would be written things about him. However, apparently not a single ROMAN archival document exist about him.

So I'm asking.....


....why then should we expect anything written about the son of a carpenter (during His lifetime) - from some obscure town called Nazareth (which must be the "trailer park" of the time - John 1:46) - who goes around preaching religion - and, who must've been even considered by some as a nut case?

Christianity exploded in the region only AFTER the Resurrection - thus, what's written about Jesus or Christians mostly pertains to the ways of Christianity or treatment of Christians. In other words, that's when they started getting attention!


We have a contemporary for Pilate, Philo of Alexandria was in Jerusalem at the time of Pilate, he wrote about Pilate, offering facts and opinions about him. We don't have anything like that for Jesus, in fact no one that ever wrote about Jesus ever met the dude. We don't have sources for the original Jesus so we can't say anything about him with any degree of certainty.
 

tosca1

Member
We have a contemporary for Pilate, Philo of Alexandria was in Jerusalem at the time of Pilate, he wrote about Pilate, offering facts and opinions about him. We don't have anything like that for Jesus, in fact no one that ever wrote about Jesus ever met the dude. We don't have sources for the original Jesus so we can't say anything about him with any degree of certainty.


The Bible is a good source about Him! Apostles not only met Him - they practically were together all the time! But of course, the non-believers doesn't accept the Bible.

There were some mention of Him and Christianity outside the Bible, and what were written does not negate what was said about Him in the Bible.

There is no comparison between Jesus and Pilate - as to who they were at the time.
Being the governor, we know Pilate was an important man.
Jesus, on the other hand was known as the son of a carpenter from Nazareth though He had His followers (a lot of whom had left Him due to His teachings). Don't forget that even His own apostles did not really understand what He was on about.

It's also only rational to assume that the hearsays about Him and His miracles were most likely dismissed by many as well.

It was only AFTER His Resurrection that Christianity caught, and spread like wildfire in the region - because of the many witnesses to His coming back from the dead - and the movement had gotten much attention (which resulted in persecutions).
 

Spartan

Well-Known Member
Why does it matter if Christianity began with a mythical Christ rather than an historical Jesus? If Paul was OK with a heavenly Christ that was crucified by demons, what's the problem?

If Jesus isn't real like the Gospels and Epistles record, then people are dead in their sins and hell bound.
 

lukethethird

unknown member
The Bible is a good source about Him! Apostles not only met Him - they practically were together all the time! But of course, the non-believers doesn't accept the Bible.

There were some mention of Him and Christianity outside the Bible, and what were written does not negate what was said about Him in the Bible.

There is no comparison between Jesus and Pilate - as to who they were at the time.
Being the governor, we know Pilate was an important man.
Jesus, on the other hand was known as the son of a carpenter from Nazareth though He had His followers (a lot of whom had left Him due to His teachings). Don't forget that even His own apostles did not really understand what He was on about.

It's also only rational to assume that the hearsays about Him and His miracles were most likely dismissed by many as well.

It was only AFTER His Resurrection that Christianity caught, and spread like wildfire in the region - because of the many witnesses to His coming back from the dead - and the movement had gotten much attention (which resulted in persecutions).
The gospels are not a good source for the historical Jesus, there may have been an itinerant preacher that inspired the unknown author of Mark to write his fantasy novel but we can't know anything with any certainty at all about an historical Jesus from reading the gospels.
 

tosca1

Member
The gospels are not a good source for the historical Jesus, there may have been an itinerant preacher that inspired the unknown author of Mark to write his fantasy novel but we can't know anything with any certainty at all about an historical Jesus from reading the gospels.

Red-flagged term that gives you away: you are biased against the Bible. Yours isn't in any way an objective argument.



Whether the author is known or unknown..... is irrelevant.


Why wouldn't be the Bible be any good as any ancient writing that talked about.......Babylon, as an example?

Credibility-wise, I think the Bible racks up point when it comes to reafirmation from science and archeology. And, Philosophy! Quite impressive for a single book!

Just because authors are known, doesn't mean they are credible in everything they write about. An example would be Herodotus.

The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about Babylon in the fifth century B.C.
A number of inconsistencies in his account have led many scholars to believe that he never traveled there and that his text may be closer to hearsay than historical fact.
Beautiful Babylon: Jewel of the Ancient World

So, there you go. :shrug:
 
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