The Romans were very careful with their records, especially with legal matters but there is no record of Jesus being judged and crucified by Pontius Pilate. Two researchers, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy wrote a book entitled "The Jesus Mysteries." Their purpose was to find the historical Jesus. They titled the seventh chapter, "The Missing Man". They name twenty seven Pagan writers who wrote within a century of when Jesus was supposed to have lived but not one of them refers to Jesus. Then Freke and Gandy examine the Jewish historians Philo and Justus who lived about the same time as Jesus is supposed to have lived. Neither of these authors mentions Jesus. A respected Christian scholar, Origen writing at the beginning of the third century tells us that there is no mention of Jesus in the writings of Josephus. But at the beginning of the fourth century Bishop Eusebius suddenly produced a spurious version of Josephus which included a paragraph about Jesus, as follows:-

"At about this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one might call him a man. For he was one who accomplished surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as are eager for novelties. He won over many of the Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon an indictment brought by the principal men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him from the very first did not cease to be attached to him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the holy prophets had foretold this and myriads of other marvels concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, has to this day still not disappeared."

This addition by Eusebius has often been used as evidence that Jesus was an historical person. No serious scholar believes that this paragraph was written by Josephus. The additions are not in the same writing style and if removed from the text, Josephus' original text runs on in proper sequence.

It should be remembered that there were no copyright laws to protect authors in those days. Anyone who held a manuscript could do what he liked with it. Indeed there is strong evidence that people have tried to up-date the original New Testament documents in conformity with their own beliefs or desires. Many believe that the Jesus stories are fairy tale myths, there are no literal

truths, just fairy tale ideas of fantasy.

To be a believing Christian, we are asked to disregard the immutable laws of the universe such as gravity and the laws of physics. The Christians will expect you to believe that Jesus instantly healed the blind, the lame, the deaf, those with leprosy, fever and the paralytic. But we need to think rationally about magic. Is this fairy tale magic? Did Jesus really feed five thousand people on five loaves of bread and two small fishes and afterwards gather up twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread and fish which is a quantity greater than they started with? Then there are deeds of far greater magic, the turning of water into wine, the turning of a raging storm into a dead calm with a word of command by Jesus. Did he really walk on the water without sinking? The fairy story magic increases, Jesus is even said to have restored a dead woman, Jairus' daughter, back to life and his friend Lazarus, dead four days is brought back to life again. (John 11:38-44)

But in Mark's story, Jesus denies that he is divine, he repeatedly calls himself "the son of man" which should be sufficient to cancel' out the idea of a virgin birth. According to the story, Jewish religious leaders and the Roman authorities were not impressed with Jesus. He was condemned to death and crucified. The story says that Jesus was raised to life and disappeared from the tomb. No person witnessed this magical happening. He is said to have talked to his disciples and been seen alive by his followers while he was in the act of ascending to heaven.