How 'bout this?

 A Thought Experiment:

You’re standing on the road in first century Antioch and a passer-by starts going on about a guy who can heal the sick and walk on water. He’s from a podunk town in Galilee and does miracles all the time – fish and bread for thousands this one time, they say.

 

You hear this and more about this Jeshua guy from Galilee and what do you think? 
Gossipy nonsense? 
Twaddle?
Tell me more? 
Do you put any credibility to the story you later heard about this same guy from Nazareth coming back from the dead? 

Recovering from crucifixion? 

Ascending into heaven?

What would you think? 

WTF?  

 

For about half a century, the tales of a healer and magic worker were exchanged by word of mouth. (So were the tales of Simon Magus and Apollonius of Tyana, by the by.)

 

It wasn’t until sometime after Saul had his conversion and name change that anyone wrote anything about this guy. What Saul/Paul wrote tells nothing about the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

 

‘Mark’ was next, writing his Gospel circa 70~80 C.E. (in Greek!) The other canonical Gospels came even later. Until that time, the words and actions of Jesus were the stuff of gossip and anecdote.

How much credence would you assign to gossip and anecdote?