Was There a Jesus on Earth (or Not)

It does not matter to me whether there was a human Jesus, whether the Jesus of the Bible was an amalgamation of several characters who walked around preaching "the end is near" or whether such a person existed only in myth. It is still fascinating to read the various views and speculate about them. 

I refer often to Bart Ehrman, a professor and public figure. He fits into the circle of academic scholars with what one could call, "high toned academic credentials." These are academics with Ph.D.'s from prestigious universities with departments of ancient literature. Among atheists in this circle the only "acceptable" view is that there was a actual human named Jesus. Ehrman and the majority of others like him do not consider quotes of Jesus nor the stories about him in the Bible to be historical events. 

On the other end of the spectrum is a scholar with "high toned credentials" who considers it unlikely there ever was a human Jesus. This is Richard Carrier. I have visited with Carrier several times. He was in Fargo to give lectures twice. Carrier does not hold a university position but makes a living writing books and giving lectures. Carrier is mostly considered an outlier in the circle of scholars debating the "human Jesus" issue. 

To evaluate the "evidence" of whether there was or was not a historical human Jesus we have to start with the fact that no author in the entire Bible claims to have met the human Jesus. That does not prove the case one way or another, but it is curious that the period of Jesus was one when history was being recorded in written form and passed down through scribes. What we call "pre history" was thousands of years before the time the Bible was written. 

Another fact is we have no written records at all of most of human history. The first writing, cave pictures, date to a mere 60,000 of about 300,000 years since something like humans came into existence. This throws any theory about the historical Jesus into chaos. Was there a history of a Jesus that preceded what the Old Testament prophets or the Gospels claimed and was that history different than the one in the Bible?

This is where Carrier, the outlier who does thinks the probability of an actual Jesus is less than that of an imaginary mythical god, has appeal. He resorts to what I call common sense. In the period leading up to writing the Bible, especially the New Testament, Greek influence and the Greek-speaking population was growing. It seems logical Greek reasoning and thinking would have followed this popularity. Why would not the concept of Greek sky gods not have followed? Greeks gods were always at war with enemies. There was a lot of betrayal and minds games. The story of a Greek god outsmarting hades by being killed then coming back to life already existed. If the Jesus character first appeared as another Greek god would not surprise me. 

The betrayal in Greek myths surely must have reflected what Greek people experienced in their real lives. And what shows up int the tales of Jesus' disciples?  Oh yeah, betrayal.

In the "human Jesus never existed" camp, the Greek mythology mets up with the Jews "there's only one god" concept. The gods dealing with rain, sun and crop yields met the Jew's God that was obsessed with personal sins. The mythical Greek sky god was replaced with the mythical one who "was here but no one saw him." He had to disappear quite quickly and with no trace of physical history or recollections of people who talked with him and wrote down what he said. 

To me it's most likely there never was a human Jesus.