This is one of those debates that can go around and around forever. There definitely was a historical Jesus, but in his lifetime he only had local appeal among some sectors of the lower classes in Palestine. He was not much more than a mendicant preacher, reformer, and holy man. There were many such men like him, before his time, and after him.
But by some accident of history, he just happened to be born at the right time when the revolutionary ferment in Palestine at the time was about to explode.
The only reference to Jesus by a pre-Christian author is found in Tacitus (Annales 15.44). It's not a flattering reference. See what he says:
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."
Basically, Jesus was viewed as an upstart trouble maker by the Hebrew and Roman authorities, and they moved swiftly to get rid of him before he became a bigger nuisance. But it just happened that, after his death, all the conditions were right for a mass movement to take off. Other men (especially Paul) turned him into a major prophet, and transformed the legend into a deity. But so what? This is how all religions take off....all religions need a symbol.
There are even more interesting passages in the letters of Pliny the Younger to the Emperor Trajan in which he asks for advice on how to deal with Christian fanatics. He asks for guidance how how to interrogate them, and under what conditions they should be executed. These letters make for amazing reading, and if anyone's interested I can quote them. The gist is that Pliny, and educated and urbane Roman, was shocked at how ignorant and fanatical these early "Christians" were.
True history is almost always stranger than fiction...
But by some accident of history, he just happened to be born at the right time when the revolutionary ferment in Palestine at the time was about to explode.
The only reference to Jesus by a pre-Christian author is found in Tacitus (Annales 15.44). It's not a flattering reference. See what he says:
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."
Basically, Jesus was viewed as an upstart trouble maker by the Hebrew and Roman authorities, and they moved swiftly to get rid of him before he became a bigger nuisance. But it just happened that, after his death, all the conditions were right for a mass movement to take off. Other men (especially Paul) turned him into a major prophet, and transformed the legend into a deity. But so what? This is how all religions take off....all religions need a symbol.
There are even more interesting passages in the letters of Pliny the Younger to the Emperor Trajan in which he asks for advice on how to deal with Christian fanatics. He asks for guidance how how to interrogate them, and under what conditions they should be executed. These letters make for amazing reading, and if anyone's interested I can quote them. The gist is that Pliny, and educated and urbane Roman, was shocked at how ignorant and fanatical these early "Christians" were.
True history is almost always stranger than fiction...