What proof is there that Jesus Christ was once a real man?

Answer 1

The fact that the historicity of Jesus continues to be debated demonstrates that there is some doubt whether Jesus Christ was once a real man. In fact, there is no proof of his existence, and no author or historian contemporary to Jesus ever mentioned him. Even Philo of Alexandria, who wrote of all the Jewish religious movements and would have written about Jesus had he been aware of his existence, never mentioned Jesus. The first clear non-biblical reference to Jesus was written by the Jewish historian Josephus, but this was only in the context that Josephus knew of Christians who believed that Jesus had once lived.

Some scholars suggest that the author of Mark's Gospel created the character of Jesus of Nazareth. If so, he may have modelled his Jesus on the Jesus worshipped by St. Paul. This still leaves the question of who, then, was the Jesus that Paul worshipped. And the answer to that is that some scholars believe that Paul worshipped a purely spiritual Jesus in heaven, who never was a man on earth. This hypothesis is supported by the Book of Hebrews, which talks of Jesus as a high priest in heaven, never suggesting that he ever was a real man on earth.

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For further data on Josephus's references to Jesus, see attached link.