Just like to note that no academic of value doubts if Jesus lived or not.
Question everything, within reason. Any academic of values should take reasonable arguments (for and against something) into consideration. Boxing someone off against a hard-line of “values” projects bigotry. (I don’t want to say that was your intent, but that can be a downstream effect.)
For example, I personally believe chiropractors practice pseudoscience. However, there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence suggesting chiropractic care has value. So, in my opinion, it’s possible that chiropractic treatments do something, but it more likely to be a placebo.
I say as an academic that it is our job to question everything and to find the answers. If academic consensus cannot be relied upon, then nothing can. Why would you think academics do not take reasonable arguments into consideration? (this is a rhetorical question) Stating that no academic of value doubts the existence of Jesus is a fact grounded in reality. This is not a religious statement but an acknowledgment of historical evidence. If we cannot agree on basic facts, then meaningful discussion becomes impossible, and societies like America will continue to descend into anti-intellectualism.
For example, I personally believe chiropractors practice pseudoscience. However, there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence suggesting chiropractic care has value. So, in my opinion, it’s possible that chiropractic treatments do something, but it more likely to be a placebo.
This analogy is not applicable to a factual statement about someone’s existence. The existence of a historical figure like Jesus is supported by evidence and scholarly consensus, whereas the efficacy of chiropractic care is not comparable to established historical facts.
Well, you could probably get detailed listings online fairly easy, so I’m not digging them up; this will stay general purpose and casual.
That being said, yeah, Jesus was one blasphemous motherfucker. He was claiming to not only be the son of God, but “his” equal. There’s like a half dozen or so examples of that in the gospels (don’t quote me on that number, I ain’t been Christian since I was in elementary school, and haven’t read the Bible since the nineties), though it’s important to note than what is and isn’t blasphemy changes over time, and depends on what religion is the frame of reference
Jesus claiming to essentially be god isn’t blasphemy to a Christian (at least, none of the denominations I’m aware of), but it was to Judaism in the era
To the Romans, they essentially didn’t give a fuck about blasphemy afaik. There’s no biblical mentions of it that I can recall anyway, but I’m no expert, so maybe someone will come along that’s more definitive about that. And criticizing rome wasn’t a religious issue either.
My hot take is that Jesus was intentionally blasphemous, as a choice. He, biblically, was a shit stirrer with the goal of changing religion and maximizing the effects of his cult. Blasphemy is a powerful tool to challenge a religious edifice, and the stories in the bible that I can remember are very deliberate looking.
The best example of that was Jesus forgiving sins. He was doing his healing, and there was some drama, and he ends up “forgiving” one of his patients. By doing so, he was directly staking a claim of being god, since only god can grant forgiveness within the framework of the era. That’s either someone that’s batshit crazy, or someone declaring war. It’s such a giant slap in the face that there’s no way for it to be ignored as stories of it would spread.
While it is debatable exactly how crazy Jesus was or wasn’t, he was consistent about how he attacked the establishment, imo. So I doubt laying claim to godhood was a random decision in the moment. It’s certainly possible, but I find it inconsistent with the rest of the gospels. All of that is with the assumption that, regardless of belief in the religions, that there was probably a person that was Jesus, or whatever the name night have actually been. Since I’ve yet to run across a historian that is willing to categorically say there wasn’t such a person, I can’t see a point in addressing this kind of question without that assumption in place.
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Pretty sure “my God why have you forsaken me?” counts.
Just a note: this line is in a Aramaic in John. Most of the gospels are in Greek, but select lines are in Aramaic. Jesus probably spoke Aramaic as his main, everyday language.
