can agree with you on that; but see below about the crucifixion details in the last paragraph.
Routine crucifixion had to be a most shocking and one the cruelest punishment at the time ...yet the Romans rarely used nails preferring to tie their victims to crosses . But more could be said regarding Nazereth itself & the Nazerene .
He was called Jesus of Nazareth in all four Gospels, as well as in Acts 9 in the vision of Saul and in chapter 10 by Peter and by Paul in Acts 26. In Matthew 13:55-56 He is called the carpenter’s son and His mother is called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and His sisters, "are they not all with us," say the locals. This narrows it to a unique small town and a large family within it.
Nazareth is not mentioned even once in the entire Old Testament. The Talmud, although it names 63 Galilean towns, knows nothing of Nazareth, nor does early rabbinic literature. St Paul knows nothing of 'Nazareth'. Rabbi Saul's s epistles mention Jesus 221 times, Nazareth not at all. In his histories, Josephus has a lot to say about Galilee (an area of barely 900 square miles). During the first Jewish war, in the 60s AD, Josephus led a military campaigns back and forth across this tiny province. Josephus mentions 45 cities and villages of Galilee ....yet Nazareth not at all ?
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For ancient writings to be as prolific as these are about any individual seems very unlikely to me.
For extensive early writings we can go back 3000yrs if we like to finding clay tablets of the code of Hamurabai & the heroic narative of Gilgamesh which we find the flood ....and follow that with much of the Egyptian stories of prominent Gods & Goddesses with the those of the Goddess Isis are found to be most prominent at that time from which the Virgin Birth & the template for the "Virgin Mary" was found/taken/incorporated . There was a large following of Isis throughout the Roman Empire & the Mediterranean in that time , reaching as from Rome to as far as Gaul in those first few centuries we refer to as "ACE". Since the story of the Virgin birth was already famous and known for centuries before we can infer that it was a universally loved and cherished story .
Later but also ancient you have a wealth of the Greek epic narratives that were so sweeping they were incorporated into the religious lexicon of the Romans , and were spread down into Egypt, Palestine/Israel and comingled to as far as India early on with the movements of Alexander the Macedon armies . But more to the point of prolific writings , so much more could be said of the documentation of literally hundreds of known human beings throughout that time and human networks , of which truely exists a bounty of information , but for the Nazerene it is scant ...(well what was allowed to survive )
There are other Goddesses that were as well loved , ie Demeter and the eternal rebirth of her daughter Persephone in the spring . Other shepherd sons of God from the Persian myths out of Zoroastrianism teaching the worship of Ahura Mazda in the context of a universal struggle between the forces of light and of darkness, also ancient .Also brotherly love and compassion had been taught by the Greek and Roman Stoics for centuries and this is well documented . |
