Ben Witherington III raises some important questions in his book “What Have They Done with Jesus?”
What is it about our culture that makes us prone to listen to sensational claims about Jesus and his earliest followers, even when there is little or no hard evidence to support such conjectures? Why are we especially prone to this when it comes to the origins of Christianity? Why would a poorly researched but a readable thriller like The Da Vinci Code, which claims to reveal startling new truths about Jesus and his life, create such a sensation in our culture?
Those were very good questions. Why indeed?
About a month ago, Joseph Atwill boldly announced in London his recent findings that Jesus, according to him, was actually just a character made up by the Romans and that the New Testament was written by the Roman aristocrats.
Yawn. We’ve heard this many times before it’s not even original. JT Eberhard over at Patheos blogged about his initial reactions.
Atwill reminds me of Prof. Karen King’s claim that Jesus had a wife back in 2012. Turns out she was wrong; her papyrus was a fake and once again, the Bible was proven to be reasonably reliable.
