I was watching this interview with mythicists Robert Price on the MythVision Podcast.
There is much I could comment on in this video. I could talk about the problems with the “Dying and Rising” gods or claims about the New Testament teaching an angelic Christ.
But what actually stood out for me was the comments by both individuals that it would take some kind of letter, not theological but an offhand comment about Jesus’ activity, by just some random person from first century Galilee/Judea to convince them.
Does that sound reasonable?
At first it may, but we need to understand the kind of texts that we do have from that time and place. We just do not have such random notes about what some person saw or heard.
The Gospels have been copied and shared because they were of use to the church. Most likely other things were written but they were not copied and shared.
This is not just a defence of Jesus. We do not have what they are asking for anyone else at that time and place. The environment does not allow for the arrival of such texts.
The closest we have to these kind of informal notes are in Egypt, which has a much drier climate. It is only at the Dead Sea that we have surviving texts from the approximate same time.
But there is another telling comment in this video. Robert Price reminds us that even if we found such a text, it could very well be a fake.
So what would it take to convince some mythicists that Jesus existed? For some, there is no reasonable amount of evidence that could prove that Jesus existed. Not even reminding them that we do not demand such a high standard for other ancient figures will change some minds.
