How many people of non-christian faiths believe in a historical Jesus? (user search)
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  How many people of non-christian faiths believe in a historical Jesus? (search mode)
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Author Topic: How many people of non-christian faiths believe in a historical Jesus?  (Read 3939 times)
anvi
anvikshiki
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« on: October 21, 2010, 03:53:15 PM »

My guess is that the historicity of Jesus is not questioned at all in Islam or Sikhism and is rarely questioned in Judaism.  A lot of Hindus certainly believe that Jesus was a historical person, and some quarters of Hinduism claim that Jesus was an avatar.  I don't think other religious traditions would have any particular reason to question that Jesus was a historical person either.  Indeed, I think the vast majority of academic historians, whether they are religious or not, would say that Jesus was a real historical person (a small, fanatical minority reject it).

There will, of course, be major disagreements among all these groups regarding what Jesus said and did, and what the significance of his life was.  But, I would guess a vast majority of practically all non-Christians believe that Jesus was a historical person.
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anvi
anvikshiki
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« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2010, 10:24:34 PM »

Um...100%. History backs up the fact that there was a man named Jesus, born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. Everything else is foggy, but Jesus was indeed a person.

I wouldn't go this far.  The only other first century texts to affirm the historical existence of Jesus outside of Christian literature were written by the Jewish historian Josephus.  But, even in this case, some scholars have suspected that the passages in Josephus affirming Jesus' existence were later interpolations.  But, I don't think the latter suspicion, even if true, matters much.  The development and flourishing of the Christian community in the first century really would not have been plausible if there weren't a real person who taught, healed, preached and was executed by Roman authorities and attracted so much attention and devotion.  In addition to this, I don't think the relative uniformity of Jesus' sayings, especially as they are recorded in the synoptic gospels, would exist had such sayings not been attributable to a real person.

Bottom line: I think doubting that Jesus was a real historical person is wildly unreasonable, and that is why his existence is not questioned by other religious traditions, and only questioned very rarely and very implausibly by even the most secular of historians.
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