What archaeology is telling us about the real Jesus

The Historicity of Jesus is such an interesting topic.

There almost certainly was a man from Nazareth named Jesus (we have pretty good unbiased sources there).

However, unless you are a follower of his (or potentially some related religions), there are obviously mystical things associated with him that you likely do not believe to actually have happened. Even followers disagree about the veracity of certain stories.

So where does that leave us? There is undoubtedly a “real” Jesus, but was he anything like the person we think we know? 2000 years of being one of the most famous people ever is certain to leave a skewed perception of who you are. Hell, we don’t even know the true story of celebrities and religious figures today.

Unfortunately, much of the discourse about this seems to be heavily biased, cloistered (literally), or commercial (Nat Geo and History seem to butter their bread with this topic each spring).

And ultimately does it matter? How many of the attributes stories would need to be proven false to make Jesus seem “not real”?

that's why the first comment was an archive link, where you don't.

TLDR; jesus was a real guy. His disciples were certainly convinced of his very Godness. Most of the creeds that are the basis for the religion are very early.

If you want an athiest take on it, checkout the popsci historian Bart Erhman

Besides the bible what other source is there?

Maybe Josephus? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

I'm not a historian but it says most accept the authenticity of the name mentioned and being persecuted but that it's been manipulated over time.

At best you can argue Jesus existed. So what? At the time there were a number of apocalyptic preachers, hence the format of the book of Revelation.

I'm shocked that a religion didn't form around this guy

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_bar_Kokhb

Who actually formed a sorta Jewish state for three years after beating the romans.

I wonder if his story isn't as good because he created the promise land but failed to maintain it. Almost like it's better to be vague like Jesus and avoid doing anything that you could end up losing. Though they could have just said it was on purpose, like Jesus.

People talk about the actions of Jesus and quotes as if it's historical certainty because of how long and how many people believe