Historians Now Question if Jesus Ever Existed

Did God really say he would send his Son to earth as a suffering servant?  Isn’t it possible that the Bible is a fictitious book?  Maybe Jesus is no more real than Hercules or Oedipus?

Jesus’ return must be close because the gloves are coming off as the world seeks to deny Him.

Here:  https://www.jewsnews.co.il/2018/07/31/historians-are-questioning-if-jesus-ever-existed-at-all.html

In the Bible, there is no mention at all of Jesus’ life between the ages of 12 and 30 – a pretty glaring omission for a man who only lived to be 33.

A further problem is that few of the biblical accounts have a real name attached to them – rather an apostle who “signs off” the manuscript. 

Where non-Christian sources exist, even these are problematic. 

Fitzgerald argued that for centuries all serious scholars of Christianity were Christians themselves, and so even secular accounts rely heavily on the religious texts that did the groundwork. They therefore cannot be considered independent sources.

Historian Richard Carrier wrote that even references to Jesus in the work of Josephus were additions done by Christian scribes. He points out that one particular passage, the execution of Jesus under Pilate, was obviously lifted from the Gospel of Luke.

Carrier believes that the character of Christ may have derived from earlier semi-divine beings from Near East mythology. These myths would develop over time into the gospels, he argues.