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You could really benefit from a bit of Googling. Roman naming practice: praenomen (given name), nomen (name of the gens or clan) and cognomen (name of a family line within the gens). That Justin (Martyr) was known as just Justin says only that he was not a citizen of Rome, nothing more...

Again, you ignore context. Jesus' context is the Hebrew Bible. And you again capitalize "sons", which changes the meaning. A "son of God" in Jewish context is not divine. Moreover, you use mythological claims about Jesus, claims by later followers, to debunk a historical Jesus — on its face...

In the Hebrew Bible, all men are "sons of God." Funny how capitalizing a word can change the implied meaning! And, still in the Hebrew Bible, being a descendant of Adam, Abraham, or David makes no one divine, nor would it do so in the LXX version. Perhaps you should re-examine the context...

Intellectual excavation and, when possible, physical excavation, as in Crossan and Reed's Amazon.com: Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts (9780060616342): John Dominic Crossan, Jonathan L. Reed: Books

Perhaps you were reading too fast, Operacast agreed with that point. I agree also. The god-man portrayed in the New Testament is a fiction. However, that god-man does not, and should not, be conflated with the historical figure when "doing" history. And that is what I want to tease out, the...

Your points are persuasive, although characterizing Christianity as being "underground" in the time of Origen doesn't help at all.

I notice some other pasted graphics. Perhaps the forum has restrictions on what formats/sizes can be used. There may be something about that in the FAQs.

I was not aware of the three (3!) Josephus-ditto-phrases in Origen. Those are quite important. However, Tacitus, Pliny, et al., can testify only to what Christians believed about Jesus, which of course was that he was a historical figure. With a twist, Celsus also testifies — indirectly — to...

Is there any physical evidence that Gautama or Apollonius of Tyana lived, other than questionable books about them?

Ella, Notice the icon in the lower right corner of the post you're looking at. Try it out. You can always delete what might be irrelevant.

juantoo3: I'm not so sure that's quite accurate... Mens_Sana: Try reading my reply with a minimalist eye. The nice Jewish guy was born into a superstitious Mediterranean world. If his followers weren't fully Hellenized, then the third person they preached to was, and that's when the...

juantoo: What on earth is a nice Jewish guy like Jesus doing in a superstitious wonderland fantasy playground like Paganism to begin with? Mens_Sana: He was born into it. That's what that part of the world was like at the time, not that this world today is altogether different.

AVI: I reject the notion of divine giving of the Torah to the Israelites. I also reject the miracles that are described in the OT. But the wisdom, ethical and moral lessons, philosophy, psychology, and sociology are unmatched in history. How about that from a skeptical scientist / engineer ...

AVI: Lets start with the operational definition. Then we can discuss the issue further. Please tell me if you are in agreement: mens_sana: Try giving me some examples. I would hate to agree to a definition, then find myself boxed in later because I had not thought of an exception.

Baruch Halpern has a couple of good books that speak of history in Judges and after ("The First Historians" and "David's Secret Demons"). I doubt there are many OT scholars who think the books have more history than legend prior to the period of Judges.

Operacast, Thank you for a well reasoned, well written expose of myther thinking.

Unfortunately, the NWT also omits a few names of God, or maybe I just missed them: El, El-Elyôn, El-˓Olām, Shaddai, AbéÆr (Mighty One), Pahad, Elohîm, Baal, Adonai, Sebaoth, and even YHWH. (Freedman, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, V.4, p.1001).

Where does the Great Commission state that you are to preach about sin?

Re: Homosexuality Is It A Sin? I think you have a little problem, because the Great Commandment has no break even point. It doesn't even speak of unrepentant sinners. As far as the Great Commandment is concerned, there are no degrees to the love in play. There are no lines drawn. Oh, there...