The Mythicist Jesus and Mythical Posters Here at the Forum

[Secret Alias]

Examples of sock puppets in antiquity:

1. pseudepigrapha - modern equivalent Golb Jr impersonating Schiffman
2. outright invention - modern equivalent the existence of a person with a real sounding name at the forum with a real sounding back history who doesn't exist

[Jax]

At least concerning Paul, I don't get the opinion when reading his letters that he is making up a "Jesus" whole cloth, but rather that he is horning into someone else's action.

[Secret Alias]

Well of course you are reading the orthodox recension of the gospel and the writings of Paul. Pity we don't have Marcion's recension of both.

It would be highly ironic if posters at this forum who deny even the possibility of an ahistorical Jesus were engaging a wholly fictitious person at the forum for years assuming he was A, B and C when this person had no reality at all. It would even be more ironic if the sock puppet was working on behalf of someone who publicly affirmed that Jesus 'certainly' was historical. I would kiss that persons feet. Irony like that is almost divinely inspired. You know what Nietzsche says, criminals are the only real artists hence Bullets Over Broadway.

[Jax]

Examples of sock puppets in antiquity:

1. pseudepigrapha - modern equivalent Golb Jr impersonating Schiffman
2. outright invention - modern equivalent the existence of a person with a real sounding name at the forum with a real sounding back history who doesn't exist

Again. Who cares if a poster actually exists or not?

I could be a bot for all you know. Or care. Is the content of my posts worth reading? If yes, then all good.

End of story.

[Secret Alias]

But Jax isn't a real sounding name. We get that you aren't a real person. If Paul had named Jesus 'Jax' the fiction would be revealed. If it was an invention he named his main character the Jewish equivalent of 'John C Smith' for a deliberate purpose.

[Jax]

Well of course you are reading the orthodox recension of the gospel and the writings of Paul. Pity we don't have Marcion's recension of both.

Agreed.

[Secret Alias]

'Stuart' signed one of his more recent posts as an acronym - sgw I think. My guess is that he is a real person named Stuart who has some academic background probably on the West Coast, probably published or nearly published something on Marcion. It's a parlor game just as the 'historical Jesus' question should be a parlor game. We shouldn't go back to earnest seriousness just because Carrier has been defeated. What was it that Oscar Wilde said 'every thing in moderation even moderation.'

[Secret Alias]

It's our seriousness that infused Jesus's existence with certainty. Carrier's book was too serious. Trying to invent a new myth to replace the old. Make Jesus's historicity a parlor game, a beer drinking game. Wasn't there a Star Trek episode where the crew has to defeat an enemy by laughing at him? It's the same thing with historical Jesus studies.

[Jax]

But Jax isn't a real sounding name. We get that you aren't a real person. If Paul had named Jesus 'Jax' the fiction would be revealed. If it was an invention he named his main character the Jewish equivalent of 'John C Smith' for a deliberate purpose.

Actually, Jax stands for "Jesus as X". And really "Jesus Christ" is a fictitious name.

[Secret Alias]

It might be. It might not. Who knows. I'll die without certainty because I despise certainty. I probably will doubt my own death as its happening.