Contd.
But what they don't tell you is that the only surviving copies of parts of his works (there are no originals) are extremely late. One historian says "...The source manuscript for all extant copies of "Annals 11-16," come from but one collection (Mediceus II) which was written between 1038 and 1055 at the mountaintop monastery of
Monte Cassino (destroyed in WWII). Yet, few (least of all me) questions most of the truthfullness of his views. This same fact is true of almost all ancient historical documents. Yet, freely admitted, we know what we know today from their evidences.
Yet, many are not willing , at the very least, to attribute the same critical examination of the writings supporting the historicity of Yeshua. In my opinion, only because it deals with the natural outworking of the supernatural. I can almost guarantee that if Tacitus, et al wrote about similar types of occurrences, it would be equally derided by some.
Chakka35 will begin a drumbeat of non-validity of the extant wrtings, and that's OK. Incorrect in my view, but an alternate view adhered to by some misguided souls. We all have our biases, no? But the fact is the writings of the Gospels, Paul, Peter, James, etc., originated quite near, timespan wise. to the events. Evidence, recently uncovered (an still to be verified) indicates a copy of portions of Mark may have been written within 3 to 5 years of the events. We do have (in the British Museum) a verified copy of portions of the Gospels written near AD125. (By the way, the venerable Tacitus mentions Jesus, as do other non-Biblical authors).
Contd.