Thanks Clive, for the idea here.
http://bcharchive.org/2/thearchives/showthread88f9.html
I entered, (thanks, Peter) into the search engine, Clive's suggestion, Astrotheology, and came up with a lovely thread, from five years ago, with interesting points made by Toto and mountainman, and a potentially, even more substantial post, by spin.
My reason for citing this, today, though, despite the intrinsic interest in the topic, and in the search capabilities, is to draw attention to spin's chart, which does not show up, at least, not on my computer.
Perhaps I lack the necessary prerequisite programs on my computer, to be able to read the chart, and observe it, as a chart.
This is what I observe:
[T2]{r:bg=lightgray}{c:bg=slategray;ah=center;b-b=2,solid,black}Type of Jesus
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{c:ah=center;b-b=2,solid,black}Status
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{c:ah=center;b-b=2,solid,black}Characteristics
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{c:ah=center;b-b=2,solid,black}Published Proponents
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{c:bg=#80C0C0}Maximal
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Existed in real world
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The gospels are seen as reliable documentary evidence and record the known events in the life of the man who started the religion.
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Joseph Klausner, Birger Gerhardsson
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{c:bg=#80C0C0;b-b=2,dashed,black}Historical
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Existed in real world
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Literary records--gospels, church fathers and even pagan sources--contain vestiges of real world knowledge of the man who started the religion. The record is problematical, but there is a man behind it.
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Borg, Crossan & Jesus seminar
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{c:bg=#80C0C0;b-b=3,double,black}"Accreted"
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{c:b-b=3,double,black}A core preacher existed
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{c:b-b=3,double,black;bg=#D0E0FF}Jesus was the product of various sources including knowledge of a real person, as can be found in "Q".
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{c:b-b=3,double,black}G.A. Wells
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{c:bg=#B05070;b-b=2,dashed,black}Transformed
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Did not exist
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Jesus was the product of corrupted retelling of events relating to Julius Caesar. Under Vespasian the story was developed into a new religion.
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Francesco Carotta
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{c:bg=#B05070;b-b=2,dashed,black}Fictional
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Authorial invention
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Jesus was the product of purely literary activity. Flavian emperors constructed a new religion with the aid of Josephus in an effort to try to gain control over the Jews.
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{c:b-b=2,dashed,black}Joe Atwill (1, 2)
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{c:bg=#B05070;b-b=3,double,black}Mythological composite
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{c:b-b=3,double,black}Authorial invention
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{c:b-b=3,double,black}Jesus was the product of mainly pagan mythological elements, be they solar myth (Acharya S) or dying & resurrection myths of Osiris/Dionysis (Freke & Gandy).
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{c:b-b=3,double,black}Acharya S, Freke & Gandy
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{c:bg=DarkOrchid;b-b=2,solid,black}Supernatural
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{c:b-b=2,solid,black}Existed in supernatural world
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{c:b-b=2,solid,black}Origin as a purely theological development, Jesus performed his salvific act in the supernatural realm, but later became reified.
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{c:b-b=2,solid,black}Earl Doherty
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{c:bg=RoyalBlue}Traditional
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Unknown (tradition doesn't permit clarification)
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Tradition doesn't distinguish between real and non-real. It merely takes accepted elements ("accepted" -> believed to be real) and passes them on with associated transmission distortions.
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[-]
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{c:bg=RoyalBlue}Jesus agnostic
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Unknown
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Due to the nature of available information there is insufficient evidence to decide on the existence of Jesus.
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Robert M. Price
[/T2]
I congratulate spin, for taking the time and trouble to make this chart, I am sure it must be lovely, wish I could see it as a chart, and wonder, if it is strictly a problem of mine, if so, not to worry, else, if it is also a problem for others, then, maybe there is some magic switch inside the google search engine, which must be thrown, in order to observe charts as charts!!!!
On a more cheerful note, how about spin's reference to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Abonoteichus ?
Wasn't that interesting? I really enjoyed reading the whole thread, but especially this rejoinder, outstanding.
I did not know anything about either Alexander himself, nor of Lucian's hostility to him, nor of the fact that coins were minted, and statues prepared, for this charlatan, in mid second century CE.
Wikipedia wrote:
Lucian admired the works of Epicurus, a eulogy of which concludes the piece, and whether he was the master of fraud and deceit as portrayed by Lucian, he may not have been too different from other oracles of the age, when a great deal of dishonest exploitation occurred in some shrines.
Host of questions now arise: Why didn't Lucian expose the Christians as frauds? Why didn't Lucian write about Paul, and his many churches, surely far more numerous than this chap, Alexander of Abonoteichus???? Should we understand that lucian did not mention them, because the Christians of that era, did not criticize Epicurus? Or were there simply no Christians, and no Paul around, at the time of Lucian?