"The Jesus Mysteries" - Part 3

OK, OK. I'm back again.

So I now have my copy of "The Jesus Mysteries" on an inter-library loan...I've read a few pages from it here and there and I can already tell this is going to be a laugh riot!

One example:

On pages 133-134, the authors, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, list 27 Pagan writers that lived within a century of Jesus they feel should have mentioned Jesus in their writings if Jesus did in fact exist: Arrian, Petronius, Seneca, Dion Pruseus, Pliny the Elder, Appian, Juvenal, Theon of Smyrna, Martial, Plutarch, Apollonius, Pausanias, Valerius Flaccus, Florus Lucius, Quintilian, Favorinus, Lucanus, Damis, Silius Italicus, Aulus Gellius, Statius, Columella, Ptolemy, Dio Chrysostom, Hermogeones, Lysias, Valerius Maximus. None of these Pagan writers mentioned Jesus at all, and according to Freke and Gandy, this is evidence that Jesus Christ did not exist.

Of course, there would have to been a reason why these authors should mention Jesus in their writings. I can't think of a single reason why Columella, who wrote about agriculture, should mention an itinerant Jewish wander-preacher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columella

Pliny the Elder wrote about the philosophy of nature. Statius, Silius Italicus, and Gaius Valerius Flaccus were poets. Pausanias was a geographer. Aulus Gellius was a grammarian. Ptolemy was an astronomer and geographer. Theon of Smyrna was a mathematician. Most of the others are historians, yes, but none of them were primarily interested in Judean history.

There is one historian from that era who does mention Jesus, twice in fact. Josephus (37-93 AD) wrote this in his history "The Jewish War":

"At about this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one might call him a man. For he was one who accomplished surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as are eager for novelties. He won over many of the Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon an indictment brought by the principal men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him from the very first did not cease to be attached to him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the holy prophets had foretold this and myriads of other marvels concerning him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has to this day still not disappeared."

This passage is referred to as the "Testimonium Flavianum".

Most Christian scholars dismiss the parts in bold as being later additions by later Christian scribes. So what do Freke and Gandy do with this quote? As other people who believe Jesus was a myth, Freke and Gandy dismiss the entire paragraph as an addition by later Christian scribes. Once again, I recommend JP Holding's take on Josephus, where he states, contrary to Freke and Gandy's claim that most modern scholars reject the passage entirely, that actually most modern scholars accept the passage as genuine with a few additions:

http://www.tektonics.org/jesusexist/josephus.html

A great review (by an atheist) of "The Jesus Mysteries" can be found here:

http://www.skepticwiki.org/wiki/index.php/The_Jesus_Mysteries