In response to Mr. James Smith, Judith Hayes and Raymond Smith:

Lets put this into perspective. In 100 AD 80% or more of the population were illiterate. There was no news service. There was no public media of any kind. It was spread by word of mouth or proclamations read in public squares. The Roman leaders were not fools. They controlled the masses by keeping them ignorant and illiterate. The literate population were the rich and powerful and they wanted to keep it that way. They ignored Christians simply because they either didn't know about them or they were too unimportant to even think about.

Lets examine the name Jesus. Which Jesus? We think of this name as uncommon or unique but in the first century it was a common name. This is why we refer to Jesus as “Jesus the Christ” or “Christ Jesus” which makes it distinct. Why? Read Acts 2:32, Acts 2:36, Acts 6:14 and Acts 17:3. I follow “this Jesus” not that one or that one or even that one. So is it Jesus of Galilee? Jesus of Nazareth? Jesus of Jerusalem? Jesus of Judea? Depends on what was written about “that Jesus” so you can determine if it was “this Jesus.” Everything needs context.

The Jews were expecting a Messiah. A King that would lead them. But as usual they were thinking in human terms and not spiritual. God does things His way not the way we normally think. So when a poor carpenter from Galilee claims to be the Messiah it's going to be viewed with some skepticism by the majority of Jews and especially those in charge. Why? Because His teachings along with those of John the Baptist undermined their man made authority.

As far as the majority of these authors, why would they write anything about an obscure religious fanatic from a back water place like Galilee? Are you saying all of them are less reasonable than you are? Of course not. If you were a Jew at that time and even heard of Jesus you would either believe in Him or not. If you believed then you would write about Him and His message. If you didn't then why give credence to His message? You would ignore it and hope that it would go away. See Acts 5:38-40. Either that or be like you and actively write against Him. Look up the literacy rate for the Roman Empire in 100 AD. The majority of the people below were from rich families and considered themselves better than the masses. These are the elite writers of their time. How many writers (no news or media) write about less than 1% of our population today?

I have a question for you: How many 3^rd or 4^th generation Americans (both parents in all generations were born in the USA) do you think have English as a second language?

San Francisco, California has a Chinese population of approximately 172,181. This is 21.4 of the cities population. The vast majority speak Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) as their primary language. I know this from personal experience as I lived 34 years in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Also using your argument, not one of the New Testament authors writes about any of these men below. Why is that? Did they really exist? Of the authors you gave me (40) two don't appear to exist. Cannot find them on the Web, so you either got them wrong or spelled them incorrectly. Some did not live during the period, i.e. were not contemporaries of Jesus and/or the Apostles. Some were not adults during Jesus life but based on the document only these men, who were adults, could have been in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus death (9): Apollonius of Tyana , Lucius, Petronius, Phaedrus, Philo-Judaeus, Quintius Curtius, Seneca, Valerius Flaccus and Valerius Maximus. I can find no proof that any of them were there between 30 AD and 33 AD which are the crucial dates in question. Please supply the proof and cite your sources.