Julian Doyle

JESUS, Fact or Fiction Julian Doyle

Was there a charismatic Jew called Jesus functioning in Israel at the time of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who performed miraculous acts of healing, and who was finally captured, tried and crucified by the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, around the year 32 AD? Experts are divided. Some say the Gospel story is true, others that it is a fabrication by a person or persons for various different motives, while others believe that, as the Jesus of the Gospels performs many of the same acts as the mythical Gods of the Mystery religions, like Mithras and Osiris, that Jesus himself must also be a myth. While there are those who admit his existence but say he was just an ordinary man whose ideas created a large following. But there are massive contradictions in the Gospel story, which seem to rule out all these explanations. If it is a fabrication why could they not get the story straight? And similarly most myths have a consistent logic but this one does not. And if he was a real live person, his life should be consistent even if the miracles are exaggerations and the deification a later invention. But the story of Jesus' life is not. There is no way of discovering the truth about Jesus, and which of the four positions is correct, without first exploring these contradictions and then explaining why they exist. And this is not only possible but the process produces the most extraordinary results. The facts are undeniable, the evidence is compelling, but the conclusions are astonishing!