General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: do you believe there was a historical figure the Jesus story was built on? [View all]KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)The Old Testament is ancient Jewish text. It is full of genealogy, one person "begatting" another in long chains. Ancient people were even more obsessed with recording who was a direct descendant of whom than we are. Some claim now to be able to trace Jewish families back to Moses and further. Written languages have existed for at least 6,000 years. People wrote stuff down and some of that original writing is still in existence.
The Romans kept records also. There is not special consideration for Jesus as he is one of many that were persecuted for a variety of transgressions to Roman law but he's there. An Oxford professor detailed the case for Jesus being persecuted because his religion was viewed as intolerant of other religions. In a nutshell (over simplified): the Romans assimilated conquered lands by making the conquered aspire to be Roman. Since the Romans were pantheists they did not put many limits on what kind of religion one could practice (as long as you assimilate) but the early group which Jesus assembled were considered to be trouble makers (for Rome) because their views on religion were divisive. Long after Jesus death at their hands, they decided that Christianity was a way to codify their culture and it went from outlawed religion to the official religion of Rome. When the military empire collapsed, the Holy Roman Empire lived on and helped control the hearts and minds of those in the formerly conquered lands.
There is ample historical record (outside the Bible) to establish the existence of Jesus and to establish the timeline of his life from birth to 13, and from age 30 to crucifixion. The records of rabbis and Roman authorities firmly establish the existence of Jesus -- they don't document miracles or the resurrection but they establish the person from birth to death.