Commenting on "What Jesus Said"
Your charge of credulity in the Christian belief of the Scriptures I find unfounded. The fact you do not accept the historical evidence of Jesus does not make the evidence invalid. The fact you do not accept the historical evidence the Scriptures were written by the original authors does not make the evidence invalid. It simply means you do not accept the evidence, that's all. The fact you suggest the words of Jesus could not be remembered accurately is not surprising, for you do not accept anything supernatural, therefore you would not accept John 14:26 ESV
(26) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The very existence of God demands an element of supernatural, which you do not allow for, therefore, your reason is only acceptable to an unbeliever, and they are already most likely in agreement with you, so it is mostly a useless argument.
The fact that Jesus existed as a historical person is very well documented, you just don't accept the documentation as reliable, the fact you do not accept it does not make it unreliable. Even the most skeptical liberal historians have admitted that Jesus was a real person.
As far as the writings of Scripture themselves, they are to most reliable ancient documents in the world by any standard documents of antiquity are judged. To discredit them one must of necessity discredit all documents of antiquity.
Consider Caesar Augustus (Octavius) who died in 14 AD having reigned since 27 BC, and The Roman epic and elegiac poet and satirist Ovid who lived from 43 BC to 18 AD. Seneca the Younger, Stoic philosopher, statesman, born 4 BC died 65 AD, Livy 59 BC - 12 AD who was a Roman historian, also Pliny the Elder AD 23–79 Writer and natural philosopher, then Apollonius of Tyana AD 15–100. Greek orator, philosopher, and mathematician, Strabo, Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian. 64BC -24 AD, Philo of Alexandria, Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, 20 BC - 50 AD, and Hero of Alexandria, engineer and mathematician 10–70 AD. According to your reasoning, we cannot be sure any of these people really lived, yet we accept they lived based upon far less historical record than what we have for Jesus.
Your argument is only meaningful to those who are already in agreement with you, there is nothing persuasive in your argument to change the mind of one who has already considered history in its context.
I am responding to David's comments about my essay, "What Jesus Said."
David makes a number of assertions that are simply false.
He said, "The fact that Jesus existed as a historical person is very well documented." That is simply not true and I challenge him to provide the very well-documented historical facts of Jesus. He will not be able to because there is none. Unless he uses the Bible and the Bible is not a source of historical text. There are no contemporary accounts of Jesus, his Sermon on the Mond, or his miracles.
He said, "The very existence of God demands an element of supernatural." An element of the supernatural? Everything about his God is supernatural. He claims his God exists but cannot provide any evidence that he does exist.
He said, "Your argument is only meaningful to those who are already in agreement with you." That may be true but then that would also apply to his claims and arguments about God and Jesus.
He said, "There is nothing persuasive in your argument to change the mind of one who has already considered history in its context." History in its context? I do not know what he means by that. Jesus is not a historical figure. None of his so-called miracles are recorded historical events, except in the Bible.
My essay wasn't an argument about the words of Jesus. It was an essay asking legitimate questions about the authenticity of the words of Jesus in the Bible. He failed to answer those questions.
I have written a more in-depth response to David's comments in an essay titled "What David Said." That essay will be in my new book about God and religion that I hope to release this summer.