The Jesus Myth--sources.

[Baruch]

i like Ehrman for his disruption of Christian foundation myth ... but he is captured by main line Protestantism ... and so doesn't go far enough.  He is in the tradition of Albert Schweitzer.  I don't accept what we think we know about Nero, as historically accurate, but he was a real person, even if we don't know him well.  Nero's enemies wrote the book on him.  Similarly Jesus' promoters wrote the book on him.  But if you also read the anti-Christian pagan writers ... you get a fuller view.  Archeologically we know only a little about Nero ... and almost nothing about Jesus ... so there is no independent witness.  One can try to get into the head of people who would want to promote a Jesus story, Paul being the clearest example.  Some of his writings appear genuine ... but I think he is telling a very partial story.  We would need to hear from James the Just, and the anti-Pauline apostles ... but we can't (except for maybe the Epistle of James).  If Jesus is a story ... and all people are ... the question is only a matter of how fictional are they (say the legacy of President Reagan for example) ... then we get to ask, why this story feature instead of a different one .. and what is the actual process of composing such works of the imagination.  The Dead Sea scrolls give a very different view of the period, and are actual artifacts from the period, not 200 years later.