Martin Bond
Sep 4, 2018 · 1 min read

To say, in the title of this piece, that Jesus was ‘very likely’ a real person is, I think, over egging the pudding. To justify ‘very likely’ you surely need to provide reasonablely strong evidence for his existence.

The story of Jesus is no more verifiable than the story of Robin Hood. On top of which the stories have a lot of similarities. They were both developed by a native population that was dominated by an invader and they both feature a hero who was of ‘noble’ blood and able to perform miracles. There are other similarities. The fact that the Jesus story led to a cult is not, I think, of great relevance. And many people would give you a very wide berth if you went around asserting that Robin Hood was ‘very likely’ a real person.

I think the best you can say is that this leaves open the possibility that Jesus was a real person, which agrees with what almost all of those who doubt the historicity of Jesus already accept.

    Martin Bond

    Written by

    Socialist interested in sexual politics.