Comments by "Fumble_ Brewski" (@fumble_brewski5410) on "Let's Talk Religion" channel.

  1. “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.” – Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3 §63 A Roman historian named Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas (A.D. 69 - A.D. 122), who was the chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian and who had access to the imperial records, mentions Jesus in a section he wrote concerning the reign of Emperor Claudius. He refers to Christ using the variant spelling of "Chrestus." "Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he (Claudius) expelled them from the city" (ibid., chapter entitled "Ancient Historians"). Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55-120) is often called the “greatest historian” of ancient Rome. He authored two large works — the Annals and the Histories. Much of what he wrote is now lost to us. Fortunately, there’s one remaining portion which is of interest to this discussion. The portion describes Nero blaming the Christians for the great fire of Rome (AD 64). It reports: "Therefore, to stop the rumor (that he had started the conflagration), Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue." Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61 - A.D. 113), in Letters 10:96, recorded early Christian worship practices including the fact that Christians worshiped Jesus as (a) God and were very ethical, and he includes a reference to the love feast and Lord’s Supper. The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a) confirms Jesus' crucifixion on the eve of Passover and the accusations against Christ of practicing sorcery and encouraging Jewish apostasy. **NOTE: I purposely included references from NON-Christian sources only, sources that would have no vested interest in corroborating the person and life of Jesus of Nazareth. Whatever belief or non-belief people may have concerning Jesus, one option is NOT available to them, that is, to deny his very existence. Cheers.
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  2.  @druidriley3163  "Any non-contemporary source" also includes you yourself. What makes your (supposed) assertions valid just because you expound them so vehemently? Many widely accepted ancient texts were authored by "non-contemporary sources." Does that, per se, make them invalid? I think not. Flavius Josephus was born in 37 A.D., and therefore had direct access to eye witnesses who actually coexisted with Jesus of Nazareth, both followers and enemies of Jesus. Josephus witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple by the Roman general Titus Vespasian in 70 A.D., which would make him around 33 years old at the time of this event. Suetonius never claimed that Jesus personally visited Rome--he obviously did not, as Jesus never stepped foot outside of Palestine (except for his being in Egypt as an infant). What Suetonius was referring to was the commotion and controversy between those Jews who were followers of Jesus and those Jews who opposed him. Due to the tumult caused between these two groups, the emperor Claudius commanded that all Jews leave Rome c. 49 A.D. Tacitus being a non-contemporary is also irrelevant, as this citation only concerned the actions of Nero blaming Christians for the great fire at Rome in A.D. 64. He simply referred to the well-known fact that the founder of the Christian sect was a man named Jesus who was crucified by Pontius Pilate in Judea in c. 30-33 A.D. As for the Jews and the Talmud, they are very careful to ensure historical accuracy when it comes to their sacred writings. They were the enemies of Jesus--therefore if they wished to discredit him, it would be far easier just to deny he ever lived, rather than to acknowledge him through their slanderous diatribes. I could go on and on, but I think that your adamant refusal to acknowledge the mere fact that Jesus was a real person who lived in Palestine during the first 33 years of the first century betrays your agenda to deny the existence of Christ at all costs. Believe what you will about the person and life of Jesus of Nazareth--that's your prerogative. But to deny his very existence is not an option open to anyone. Cheers.
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