Religion
In reply to the discussion: Was Jesus even born? [View all]stopbush
(24,395 posts)If Jesus existed (which he didn't), he died around 30CE. Paul's epistles were written around 65 CE. Mark - the earliest Gospel, was most likely written around 95CE. Matthew could have been written as late as 140CE. Of course, the believers like to push those dates as early as possible. To believe that the Gospels are in any way eyewitness accounts stretches credulity.
The average lifespan in Jesus' day was anywhere from 25-40 years. To imagine eyewitnesses to Jesus earthly life were still around 65 years after his death is silly. To think such people would be able to accurately recall such a life is ludicrous.
Mark is itself a religious allegory, a form that was quite popular in the day. Matthew and Luke are based on Mark, and both are in their ways ham-fisted attempts to churn Mark's allegory into history. These 3 are the syncretic gospels, ie: they "sync" with each other because two of them are based on Mark (and probably the Q). John, of course, is something else again.
As far as text fragments, the very, very earliest text fragments we have that exist for the gospels date to the 4th century - they are copies of copies of copies. To imagine they offer any "proof" of anything is a bit rich.