Pericles has missed droves of evidence.

As of 1990, there were 5,366 manuscripts or portions of manuscripts of the New Testament (NT). Some of these are dated from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The most famous book from ancient Greece is Homer's Iliad, for which there are only 643 copies.

Who would doubt the textual accuracy of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars (ca. 50BC). There are only 10 copies, the earliest being about 900 years after its writing. Only 35 of Livy's (59BC-AD17) 142 books of Roman history survive. Of Tacitus's (AD 55-117) 14 books on Roman history, there are only 4.5 books in 20 manuscripts. Compare that with the array of NT copies, some dating within 70 years of their writing.

Of course there are copyist errors (variants) among the NT manuscripts. Norman Geisler & Ron Brooks conclude that
"there are less than 40 places in the New Testament where we are really not certain which reading is original, but not one of these has any effect on a central doctrine of the faith. . . We have 100 percent of the New Testament and we are sure about 99.5 percent of it.
"But even if we did not have such good manuscript evidence, we could actually reconstruct almost the entire New Testament from quotations in the church fathers of the second and third centuries. Only eleven verses are mission, mostly from 2 and 3 John" (When Skeptics Ask, Victor Books, 1990, p. 160).

Philo's claim has considerable support: >>There is more historical evidence and implication from the life of Jesus than there is for Julius Caesar<<. But it takes an openness to evidence to accept what Philo and I are writing. Openness!

Pericles wrote: "No contemporary wrote about him, there are no contemporary pictures or likenesses. Have I missed anything?" Yep! Droves of evidence! I suggest a read of Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus (College Press 1996).

However, one needs to be aware of all of the evidence to come to an informed decision.

Look at your 2006 calender and see that it is the date that we all should know of as Jesus Christ's birthday. No joke !

I'm glad The Da Vinci Code was written, because it is an awesome read. But I think the problem with it - as has already been suggested - is that many people who read it cannot understand that it is fiction. This is probably why the Church is getting a bit hot under the collar - not because they don't have faith in their beliefs, but because other people are leaping on the Brown bandwagon and accepting his words as truth. His 'fact' section at the beginning of the book doesn't help.

Who knows? Maybe it IS true, and the rest of the world has been duped for a long time. But I doubt it. I don't have any chinks in my faith as a result of the book, but I do get tired of friends (who I thought were intelligent and well-educated) heckling me with only The Da Vinci Code as evidence of their claims.

err..Bosky.. point of order mate

JOSEPHUS
"Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]"

The reference to Jesus son of Damnius is totally unrelated to both the James or Jesus reference.. please read more carefully.
This reference to James does not depend one iota on the former challenged section, and in any case, that section is included in an Arabic version of Josephus in such a way that one gets the impression it was 'filtered' for Islamic political correctness.. so..*prod*

SCOUT your reference to a link which declares Pauls writings much earlier than the gospels is MOST welcome. One has to ask therefore, why the gospels do not reflect PAULS theology, rather than the biographical narratives and different themes than of Paul ? Hmmm maybe because they were... original ? :)

PERICLES can you give us the documentary history of the version of De Bello Gallico you read ? I mean,.. can you give us the primary and secondary sources ?

As for the DaVinci code.....I'm not exactly trembling in my socks over this.. written as a speculative work of fiction..sure.. then view is as such. I don't think its worth protesting over, it opens us to the charge 'point weak, shout'.

Given that what we regard as history is mostly untrue, or tainted at best, and that we are being actively lied to by politicians and the media every day, it's reasonable to assume that the state of the world is not quite as we believe it to be.

To suggest that a collection of stories, some over 3000 years old and none actually first-hand accounts, could stand the test of time and arrive in the 21st century completely unsullied - is a big ask!

Likewise, to suggest that some some amateur sleuth and plagiarist could deduce some ancient mystery a couple of millennia after the event is equally doubtful.

A lot of everyday sayings and practices have their basis in ancient superstitions - long forgotten but their residue remains.

This DVC controversy will pass but it's interesting to see how people can feel so personally threatened and affronted by a piece of fiction.

This debate reminds me of a bunch of Trekkies at a Star Trek Convention aguing over which TV series better represents the future.

Dear Rache... yes.. it IS a big ask... without question.

Have you noticed that Jesus often taught with 'parables' these are little word pictures that etch their way into your brain.... and stay there.
I wonder why he did this ? :)

Consider Islam not as an option for faith..heaven forbid, but as an example of oral tradition. The Hadith is quite fascinating. They have a lot of sayings, purely hearsay, handed down over a number of generations.. and while in this case there are some noticable ommissions (understandable as a chain of narrators left bits out) by and large the sayings passed down through diverse chains of indivuals are quite remarkably well preserved. (even the references to Mohammeds cruelty and torture etc)....

The Bible has much more going for it. I refer you to ff bruce for a discussion. (conservative orientation)
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/ffbruce/ntdocrli/ntdocont.htm

Then, there is the body of evidence from Paul, already given strength here, though unintended, by the link provided by Scout.

Blessings.