Easter Questions

[Thorne]

Even the romand cannot decide when a person dies. But it is curious that is was so short, giving ideas that maybe he was not, in fact, dead.

They may not have been perfect, but the Romans were pretty damned good at killing people. That was the purpose of the spear in the side, to make sure the person was dead.

There is also Jesphus, the jewish historian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

Josephus' text was written some 60 years or more after the death of Jesus, and would have relied heavily upon Christian documents. Some of the writings of Josephus regarding Jesus have been questioned, since they don't seem to be of the same quality of writing that he used.

But you are of course right, in that it is hard to know anything for ceratain. The whole discussion is on the basis of if it happened - then what happended? As well as what is Chrisitanity about, really?

That's the easy part! Christianity is the idea that Jesus died on the cross in payment for our sins so that our souls could be taken into heaven when we die to be with God for eternity. A very simplistic concept, really. But the devil's in the details!

[thir]

They may not have been perfect, but the Romans were pretty damned good at killing people. That was the purpose of the spear in the side, to make sure the person was dead.

Then maybe they did in fact make sure that he died quickly - maybe to get it over with and avoid any more riots than neccesary.

Josephus' text was written some 60 years or more after the death of Jesus, and would have relied heavily upon Christian documents.

Why? he was a historian, simply, not a religious person.

[quote]
Some of the writings of Josephus regarding Jesus have been questioned, since they don't seem to be of the same quality of writing that he used.
[/quite]

I am not sure what you mean by 'quality'? But it seems to be just a short notice, anyway.

[Thorne]

Then maybe they did in fact make sure that he died quickly - maybe to get it over with and avoid any more riots than neccesary.

What riots? This was a man selected by the Jewish people to be executed. Why would they riot about it? And killing him quickly negates the whole purpose of crucifixion, which was to humiliate and torture the victim for as long as possible, as an example. No, from an historical perspective, the whole story makes little sense.

Why? he was a historian, simply, not a religious person.

Yes, but he was also Jewish. He would have relied on any documents, especially those coming from Jewish sources, and as near as we can tell, the only documents which referenced Jesus came from those Jews who were his followers, the first Christians.

I am not sure what you mean by 'quality'? But it seems to be just a short notice, anyway.

Quality is probably not the right word. Experts can usually tell if something was written by a person, especially one as prolific as Josephus. They have many examples of his works, but those short bits which reference Jesus don't seem to fit his style. And they are only one or two short comments, something similar to an historian referencing someone like King Arthur, or Paul Bunyan.