dustyData@lemmy.world 2 days ago
To be fair. A historical Jesus person might have never existed. But, several authors of books in the Bible did. They were probably several con men who realized that they could collaborate to coalesce their respective cults by coopting the prophecies of Jewish religion. Thus gaining more power. The strategy took off and even today Christianity survives by pure syncretism. Absorbing groups and beliefs to stay palatable to the widest audience possible. Same strategy that has proven successful for mormoms, which are basically Christian fanfic.
As the old adage says, the difference between a cult and a religion is the number of members.
Way back I remember reading an essay that had a figure called the Teacher of Light, cult leader in the middle of the desert that taught by allegory. When he died his followers wrote an allegorical autobiography, and who we think of as jesus is just the ToLs character stand-in.
Of course the essay could have been talking out it’s ass, but it makes more sense to me than xtianity.
m0darn@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
That’s possible, but I think it’s far more likely that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John didn’t exist than that Jesus didn’t exist.