Journal

However, the problem with Jesus is that he...

...keeps transforming into a theological entity in front of our very eyes [because] the main sources on which we base our reconstructions present him in a theological entity in the first place. Whether Jesus himself existed as a historical figure or not, the gospels that tell of him are unquestionably mythic texts.. . The Gospel of Mark, for example, is a narrative that includes a cast of characters comprising, intra alia, God, a son of God, angels, the devil, demons, holy spirits, evil spirits, and what seem to be the ghosts of Moses and Elijah. It is a story that features miraculous healing and exorcism, as well as walking on water, feeding thousands of people with a handful of loaves and fishes (twice!), face-to-face conversations between people who lived centuries apart, spooky prognostications, trees withering at Jesus’ command, a sun darkening in the middle of the day, and a temple curtain miraculously tearing itself in half....In seeking the real, historical person behind these narratives, we are using these texts as sources for a figure that they themselves show no interest in at all. Just as the myths and legends about Herakles are simply not about a historical person, so also the gospels are not about the historical Jesus (William Arnal, The Symbolic Jesus [2005], 75-76).