Reply #10: Remember also that the Odyssey wasn't written by Homer

[pw]

but by another greek of the same name.

The problem with "proof" in a case like this is what you're trying to prove. Even if, say, you prove that there was a preacher named Y'shua (or whatever the aramaic form might be) and that he was crucified, that's a long way from "proof" that there was a virgin birth and miracles and more miracles and resurrections and that whole megilla (um).

On the other hand, even if there isn't a single word about Jesus and his followers in the contemporary historical record, that doesn't really mean diddly either. There are, for example, dozens of shipwrecks littering the floor of the mediterranean, but is there a specific identifiable reference to the loss of any of those ships, crews or cargos in the surviving written records of the roman empire? nuh-uh.