Even if the flawed translations are right, the apparently impressive cluster of names is actually statistically unremarkable. All of these names were common at the time. ibid.
The Talpiut tomb is buried beneath this concrete slab in a suburb on the edge of Jerusalem. ibid.
If a crucified man was buried at Talpiut, the signs would have been hard to miss. ibid.
The most famous human being in all of history was a first century Jewish revolutionary. His name was Jesus. Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and on the third day, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. But for 2,000 years there have been those who’ve challenged the truth of this Biblical story. And some have died for expressing those doubts. Jesus Was a Buddhist Monk, BBC 2011
Did Jesus really die on the cross? ibid.
Also the most famous event in history: the Crucifixion. ibid.
Would a man die after only six hours on the Cross? ibid.
The idea that Jesus rose from the dead: the Resurrection. ibid.
What is historical fact? What is the evidence? ibid.
Modern Biblical scholars cannot be actually sure who really wrote them. ibid.
The description of Jesus’ death in all of them is brutal. ibid.
Christians in the Philippines re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus. They actually volunteer to be crucified ... they do use real nails. ibid.
He dies surprisingly by suffocation. ibid.
Death from crucifixion takes much longer. Often several days. ibid.
The Gospels all agree that Jesus died after only three to six hours. ibid.
Only Christians believe he rose from the dead. ibid.
It’s had to find hard historical evidence. ibid.
An extraordinary psychological tool to bring in new converts. ibid.
Some people find it hard to believe in the literal truth of the miracles, let alone the miracle of the Resurrection. ibid.
Week after week congregations gather in Christian churches. ibid.
All Christians affirm their belief in the Resurrection. ibid.
So it is possible Jesus survived? ibid.
The herbs which Jesus of Arimathea took into the tomb with the body of Jesus were aloes – these are healing, not embalming herbs. ibid.
The Disciples saw Jesus as if he were alive. ibid.
A miracle called Ascension: Jesus is taken bodily into heaven. ibid.
The Ascension doesn’t appear in the original form of the Gospels. ibid.
Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene was a very special one. ibid.
The cult of the Magdalene. ibid.
Esa came to India at the age of 14 where he learned the laws of Buddhism before returning to Israel at the age of 29. ibid.
Was the story really new? Now a tablet called the Jeselsohn Stone, named after antiquities collector David Jeselsohn, has recently surfaced. The Jeselsohn Stone threatens to destroy the claim that Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection were unique. The Real Jesus?
Islam and Christianity have been portrayed as mortal enemies for 1,400 years. Melvyn Bragg, The Muslim Jesus, BBC 2007
Both called messiah but in very different ways – Jesus. ibid.
He is a key figure in Islam. ibid.
Muslims learn about Jesus from the Koran. ibid.
Above all – no Joseph. ibid.
The only woman mentioned by name in the Koran - Mary. ibid.
As in the Bible an angel tells Mary she is pregnant even though she’s a virgin. ibid.
Both Muslims and Christians agree that Jesus will return to defeat the Anti-Christ. But whereas the Bible used metaphorical language to describe the event, Islamic tradition gives a blow by blow account of exactly what will happen when Jesus comes back. ibid.
When we look back at this earlier time there was no golden age of Jesus. There was no day or decade or century in which everyone agreed in the Church. And that’s very much like today in which we have different sects. Professor Kirsti Copeland, Stanford University
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that. I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – rock-n--roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me. John Lennon
There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that he believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those people who would not listen to his preaching – an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative excellence. You do not, for instance find that attitude in Socrates. You find him quite bland and urbane toward the people who would not listen to him; and it is, to my mind, far more worthy of a sage to take that line than to take the line of indignation. Bertrand Russell, lecture ‘Why I am Not a Christian’
He [Constantine] summoned the Bishops because bitter theological disputes about Jesus and the extent to which he was God were unsettling the hard-won stability of his empire. Ian Wilson, Jesus: The Evidence I, Channel 4 1984
Did the Church get its historical facts about Jesus right? Were the doctrines voted on in the highly charged atmosphere of Nicaea and later councils an accurate reflection of the historical Jesus? ibid.
For some reason Jesus seems preoccupied with secrecy. ibid.
The lack of conclusive evidence about Jesus. ibid.
The Scrolls make no reference to Jesus or early Christianity. Ian Wilson, Jesus: The Evidence II
Why was Jesus crucified? There’s no clear answer. ibid.
He was not the messiah most of his compatriots were expecting but he may have sought to change those expectations. Ian Wilson, Jesus: The Evidence III
There’s no evidence that he ever intended to establish a new religion or that anyone saw him in his lifetime as divine. ibid.
Nowhere does he [Paul] mention the empty tomb. ibid.
Right from the beginning Christianity was split between different factions vying for supremacy. ibid.
James was the brother of Jesus. The cult of the virgin grew at the same time as the first Christian histories were written, hence their tendency to suppress the role played by James and other member of Jesus’ family. ibid.
There once existed a third major strand of Christianity. They were called Gnostic Christians. ibid.
Three main strands had emerged: Jewish Christianity centred on Jerusalem, Gentile Christianity in Asia Minor and Greece, and Gnostic Christianity in Egypt and parts of Syria. ibid.
Somehow, Gnosticism lost the battle. ibid.
After several weeks Constantine lost his patience and imposed his own compromise. ibid.
Every Sunday in every corner of the world people gather to hear a story. From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians I, PBS 1998
Jesus was born a subject of the Roman empire. ibid.
The Kingdom of God – an enigma Jesus did not attempt to simplify. ibid.
By the time Paul arrived in Corinth pilgrims had been worshipping for centuries at local shrines. From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians II
According to the Book of Acts, Christianity began at a single place at a single moment in time. Fifty days after the death of Jesus, now known as Pentecost, a miraculous event took place. ibid.
The Jesus Movement found a following in some synagogues. ibid.
In Mark what does set Jesus apart is that he is a peculiar kind of miracle worker. In one case he has to attempt the miracle twice to get it right. And at another time he can’t perform miracles at all. From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians III
Mark was the first to write the story of the life of Jesus. He took disparate elements of early tradition and a few written sources. ibid.
Mark is challenging the pre-war image of Jesus as an apocalyptic figure. ibid.
The Jesus in Mark’s Gospel both reveals and conceals his true identity. A paradox scholars call the Messianic Secret. ibid.