Francis to faithful: Give up your riches to help the poor

[Act_of_Reparation]

64. In what way does this support your baseless claim?

You claim there is more evidence for an historical Jesus than there is for Alexander the Great.

Let's go through this line, by line, shall we?

More than twenty contemporaries wrote books on Alexander and not one of them survives.

And how many contemporaries wrote books on Jesus?

None.

They are known by quotations from later authors, not one of whom preserved the original wording;

Did the Evangelists cite their sources?

No.

these later authors are themselves only known from the manuscripts of even later copyists and in the four main sources these manuscripts are not complete.

Well, the New Testament certainly has this, and more.

Such as obvious contradictions between the four Gospels, and even more contradictions from Gospels not considered canon.

I would wager, that when put up against the historical "evidence" for Jesus, these four, incomplete copies are more consistent narratives.

The more detailed history goes back to only one manuscript, whose text cannot be checked; another, much used, has often been copied illegibly.

Are our oldest surviving copies of the Gospels complete or legible?

No.

Alexander left no informal letter which is genuine beyond dispute and the two known extracts from his formal documents both concern points of politics

How many documents, formal or otherwise, accepted or supposed, were left behind by Jesus?

None.

On the enemy side his name survives in a Lysian grave inscription, in Babylonian tablets on building work and astronomy and in Egyptian captions to temple dedications.

Alexander's name has been found in Anatolia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Did any of Jesus' contemporaries bother to carve his name on a rock?

It would appear not.


Certainly, the specifics of Alexander's life are shrouded in myth and embellishment (and shitty Oliver Stone movies), but the actions ascribed to him left an indelible, measurable impact across multiple ancient civilizations. We know Phillip II of Macedon established the Hellenic League, and that the Hellenes overthrew the Persian and Babylonian Empires shortly after his death. Whether Philip's son was named Alexander or Bojangles is completely and utterly beside the point. Persia fell to the Greeks, under the command of somebody. Babylon fell to the Greeks, under the command of somebody. The Greeks marched to India, under the command of somebody.

These are measurable events, attributed to a man we know very little about.

Can the same be sad for the events described in the Gospels? Do we know Jesus walked on water like we know the Greeks defeated Darius III? Do we know Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, as we know the Greeks built a causeway of massive stones by which to lay siege to Tyre?

The specifics of the characters is only half of the issue. The Gospels describe not only an unverifiable person, but also unverifiable events. So, please. Spare us the false equivalencies and tu quoque nonsense.

It's tiresome.