If you liked this video, you might also enjoy another we did doing a deep dive into how one actually became a Spartan Warrior and how their society really worked, which isn't exactly what popular media usually depicts. Check it out here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jKmWfa2Z38jHp30.html

I will always remember one of my teachers once saying ‘Oh Jesus definitely existed, its whether he was actually the son of god or not is the question"

I’m sure this is going to be a lovely comment section 😂

As soon as my time machine is finished I'll go back and let you all know

"Do you even know who my dad is???" - Some dude wearing a robe and birkenstocks in his early 30s

I just like the fact that the first photo you used of Jesus was actually Obi-wan Kenobi

The real question is whether Simon Whistler exists or is he just an elaborate AI...?

"I'm sure this is going to be a lovely comment section" "Obi wan Kenobi"

Jesus is real, he mows my lawn every two weeks. 😇🙌🏼

When the Jewish people of Judea/Palestine were under Roman Occupation, a lot of Zealots, or Messianic figures, rose to challenge the Romans and were inevitably crucified, the common punishment for Sedition. Notable insurgencies were The Judean People's Front, The People's Front of Judea and The Judean Popular People's Front.

My favorite part of the Bible was when Jesus said "It's over, Pilate! I have the high ground!"

Jesus' most useful idea is that we should care about one another. We shouldn't nurse hatred or treat each other cruellly. Instead, we should put aside resentments and be courteous, positive and understanding where possible. We also shouldn't act superior: we have our faults just like other people do. We should avoid racism, snobbery and exploitation.

I don't seriously doubt that the historical Jesus of Nazareth, also known as the Christ, did exist, but I do seriously question the accounts of his life. Of the four canonical Gospels, there are many contradictions and inconsistencies in the narratives (not to mention with the non-canonical gospels), and we can even see examples and evidence of editing that happened over time. We also know that these gospels were written long after Jesus' death (believed to be sometime after 70 CE for Mark and sometime after 90 CE for John, though the oldest fragments are from much later points). We also suspect that at least half of the Pauline epistles in the Bible are likely forgeries. The veracity of claims about who Jesus was, when he lived, and what he said that we now have recorded is questionable. Moreover, we can look to cults for information about human behaviour in relation to charismatic leaders. We can see how cult leaders can grow to messianic proportions in their own lifetime, let alone after their death. It's not hard to see how this could happen in the case of Jesus. So while I do not have serious doubts that Jesus of Nazareth did exist, I have very serious doubts as to the veracity of any claims that have been made about him.

The fact that the editor used a picture of Ewan McGregor to introduce Jesus is so 👌😂

The most interesting part of this to me is just how little evidence there is for most historical figures from this era and earlier. Even if we're getting it right 99% of the time, that still leaves a significant number of historical figures who didn't actually exist.

The life of Brian is the most true to life biblical story you could ever watch

"Also im a kickassdancer" caught me by surprise 😂😂

I worked with a Jesus from Guadalajara. He was an awesome guy, I'm pretty sure they're all real.

The picture of Ewan McGregor on the mantle as Jesus killed me 😂

I'm a Christian, just wanna say good job on explaining the historicity of Jesus without poking fun at Christians like most would.

Whether Jesus actially existed is not nearly as important as whether someone accepts the teachings that are attributed to him and lives accordingly. A lot of people call themselves Christian but don't live according to his teachings.

I'm an atheist, but I also went to a Bible college and studied the original Greek and Hebrew. Super fascinating, and while I may not believe in a deity the evidence that Jesus was an actual human is impossible to ignore. Thanks for the incredibly well researched video!

If Odin didn’t exist, then why aren’t there any frost giants?

Have to say, after watching and/or reading many critiques on this subject, that this is probably the most intelligent and inclusive treatment of the subject I've seen. Bravo!

i want notifications love your stuff so valuable

I love how Simon acknowledges the fact that people find it funny that he runs so many channels and he made a joke about it with AI

"You talk to God, you’re religious; God talks to you, you’re psychotic.” - House MD

The Dr. Emmitt Brown reference was gold!

As jesus said, "only a sith deals in absolutes"

The neutral, respectful and professional way this was presented is refreshing, thank you

Considering we can't agree on things that happened on film less than 5 years ago. It's all but impossible to prove a story predicted for centuries prior it allegedly occuring and that is completely beyond the realm of possibility.

I heard a documentary about Jesus, which studied the writings of Josephus. It used the idea that there was an effort at the time by the Romans to promote the ideas of Jesus as a man of peace who said things like "render onto Ceasar what is Caesar's". At the time the Judeans were waiting for a Messiah who was a military leader who would lead a revolution to give them freedom. And Jesus ' message of turning the other cheek and feeding the poor fit in with what the Romans wanted, at least as to how they wanted in Judea. But later the religion was carried on and spread through the Empire and the Romans then came out against it.

I had no idea that Jesus looked so much like Obi-Wan Kenobi

If he did…then he probably didn’t look like Ewan McGregor 🤣

Not gonna lie. I’ve always been sceptical. But that was probably the most succinct and convincing explanation I’ve ever heard. Thanks. 🙏🏼

Jesus was a Jedi Master. That explains a lot.

Pontius Pilate may have existed, but it's extremely unlikely that he ever said he would welease wodger.....

One thing I thought might have got a mention… He was most likely called Joshua (well, Yeshua) which was then transliterated into Greek as Iesus (or something similar) then romanised into Jesus.

I am an Atheist. When I was in school, I did a double major in Classical Studies and Religious Studies, so am well educated in both the time period as well as the topic. Did Jesus exist? There's a very high likelihood that he did. My favourite argument against the Mythicist position was put forth by Christopher Hitchens, that the New Testament writers went to such extreme lengths to have Jesus of Nazareth be born in Bethlehem, to fulfill prophecies, that if you were creating a fictional character from whole cloth, it would have just been easier to create Jesus of Bethlehem. That said, your comparison with Socrates as a way of suggesting that we have as good an idea of what Jesus said as what Socrates said is erroneous. None of the writers of any book in the NT actually met or knew Jesus. Paul is the earliest writer, and apparently met Peter and James. So he is at the "friend of a friend" level, 30 years after Jesus' death. Plato was Socrates' student. He not only met Socrates, he knew him very well and studied at his feet, so to speak. There is a clear distinction in level of familiarity and access between the two situations.

I'm reminded of a question regarding the death penalty that was in primary school. I argued that the death penalty needed to exist, but I didn't have any strong evidence for being sure enough to apply the death penalty, because I'd watched far too many shows where people had gotten the evidence wrong. Honour thy father and thy mother needs to be translated as 'Do not piss your mother and father off, because they are your only references to your good character, and will kill you and ruin your reputation if they are of a mind to'. This is good practice from here to later life, and any public speaker needs to keep this in mind, bearing in mind the example of Jesus.

I absolutely love how y'all kept using a picture of Obi-Wan.

I feel confident in saying that if I had you as my teacher growing up, u could’ve avoided a lifetime of ADHD medication. But as it were, I constantly have to rewind your videos for missed information because I get so distracted at how cartoonishly fluid and effortless and natural your lectures are. And I don’t mind it at all. Man am I glad that I found this channel.

Hey dude, this sounds like a wonderful opportunity to set up a debate with richard carrier and bart ehrman (sp?--sorry im multitasking and cant research or spellcheck rn, best wishes all)

@2:20 - If that's the rubric being used (referring to the total lack of evidence that some shmo existed)... wrong... we would not have to conclude that no-one existed bla bla bla.... the rational conclusion is that 'we do not have sufficient reason to believe that xxx person existed'. stating that the 'lack of evidence' is 'what you would expect for some random street preacher in 1st century judea' is fine; but that cannot be considered 'evidence' that he did in fact exist: because we would expect the exact same lack of evidence to exist for someone that didn't exist at all.

I think the important point here is not whether he existed, but whether the stories about him are true. As you said, the name was fairly common, and given the political situation the existence of a rebellious preacher is not an extraordinary claim. But if he couldn't heal the sick with a touch and a prayer, multiply a picnic basket to feed a mob, and recover from being tortured to death, then the biblical character is still a fiction. Those are the claims that demand more rigorous examination.

Although I am now an Atheist, I was once a devout Christian and earned a master's degree in Christian Apologetics from a Baptist Seminary where I studied this topic extensively from both sides. I say all that to preface that this is EXTREMELY well researched and representative of the academic consensus on the existence of Jesus. Although I no longer believe in Christianity, I find it utterly appalling that I have to defend the existence of the historical figure of Jesus to other atheists who oppose it like it's some sort of evidence for the faith. The existence of Jesus does just as much to prove Christianity as the existence of Muhammad proves Islam or the existence of Barbara Streisand proves Judaism. Thank you for presenting a fair video on the topic that represents the historical data and academic consensus over the contemporary dribble of ignorant, reactionary atheists scared of the existence of a man who has been dead for two millenia.

Picture of Ewan McGregor in the background was a awesome touch 😂😅🤣😁🙈

I think I should take a nap and try to watch this again

So my Grandma was a Catholic Catholic, Church and Bible study twice a week. But I would always ask her questions about God and religion. And one day I came to the conclusion that Mother Mary (Jesus Mom) was probably just a young girl who probably just got knocked up and didn't know who the dad was or was ashamed of it happening. So I ask my Grandma and she was like, "yeah I could see that happening you can believe what you like. Just live a good life and treat others with kindness is all God asks of you." She would study the Bible but would always say "men wrote this not God." RiP RiP Granny...

Love the Ewan McGregor as Ben Kenobi as Jesus photo in the lead intro, lol.

I would think that the fact that the skies got dark, the curtain in the church was torn, and he rose from the dead would have been reported by the historians of the time. But it wasnt reported. Why not? Because it most likely did not happen.

Just found another Simon channel lol makes like 5-6 I’m subscribed to now . 😂😅

I love that Simon has finally acknowledged that he could very well be an AI image

The only reason i clicked on this video is for the comment section

you would be surprised how many "intellectuals" love to claim that Jesus the man (not even talking about the claims of deity) did not exist.

I've never seen Jesus or Obi-Wan Kenobi in the same room together. Coincidence? I think not

I struggle with the fact that, the disciples were, supposedly, fishermen yet come across as well learned. Writing wasn’t exactly a requirement for a fisherman in those days. In fact, reading and writing were highly specialised skills 2000 years ago.

"He's not the Messiah, He's a very naughty boy !" - Brian's mum.

6:42 You wouldn’t make up a weak messiah? You would if He didn’t immediately win out against his enemies and you were forced to put off the so called “Final Battle”.

It wouldn't have been "Jesus" but something closer to "Joshua" before the Greeks and Romans stepped in.

It would be fun to see videos like this on other major religious figures. Especially from religions that weren't common in Europe. In America, at least where I was, history classes growing up had woefully incomplete coverage of anything that wasn't Europe. Especially anything related to religions, outside of when they came into existence.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." -Upton Sinclair

I’m kindof mind blown that the historical fact of Jesus’s existence isn’t more well-known. Until watching this video I had assumed that there was scant evidence outside of the Bible that Jesus existed (which makes it much easier to just assume the whole Bible is a made up story that you either believe in or don’t). I’m sitting here in shock that none of my teachers in school or anyone else ever deigned to mention this (likely because they, too, were unaware). Thanks for making this!

Good to see that some people actually swiped past all the religious talk and went on the search for hard evidence.

"How the hell does he have all those KZfaq channels?" 😂😂😂

@26:15 "I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates when he said...I drank what?" -Chris Knight, philosohper

I recognize that picture of Ewan McGregor. This was a picture taken by a young man visiting his grandmother in Mexico I think. She had this photo of what she thought was Jesus on her wall, and he told her that it was Obi- wan.

I didn't know Simon held Ewan MacGregor's portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi in such high regard.

Whether a person named Clark Kent ever existed is rather mundane, unless you can demonstrate he was bullet proof and could fly.

Wow !! Very interesting video and I am loving the comments. Now for the next video - is there any evidence that there is a god ?

I don't trust anyone who says they know for a fact what happened that long ago I don't even want to hear the reasoning

I'm so used to watching Brain Blaze that I forgot how calm and scary Simon can be when he's not all fired up from torturing Danny and Sam in his basement. Allegedly.

Simon, I want you to know that in less than 28 minutes, you have caused me to open my mind to a topic I had previously passed judgement upon. I learned more about this topic in 30 minutes than I have in 30 years.

Hi ! Can you find someone for french subtitles ? I want to show this video to my mother !

It was actually Bart Ehrman's book _Did Jesus Exist?_ that convinced me he must not have (other than as a revelatory figure as described by Paul). The book is full of repeated fallacious appeals and no actual evidence. Yet, we should take this on faith anyway, despite the evidence we do have pointing to a purely revelatory figure that was only much later _euhemerized._

Funny, how “older” religions like Greece, Rome, or Egypt are now myths.

Given that he's been in more KZfaq content than anyone could watch in an entire lifetime, I'm not sure Simon Whistler exists.

The "criterion of embarrassment" is completely nonsensical. There are several problems trying to use such a concept as an argument in this context. For starters, the vast majority of hero myths in antiquity did not shy away from attributing flaws and defeat to the heroes in question. This very much applied to the stories of the scriptures, which the author(s) of the Gospels knew very well: Pious prophets and servants of God suffering at the hands of the enemies of God, martyring themselves. Your archetypal martyr story, which shows how wicked and evil the enemy is, and how the hero of the story suffers at their hands, even becoming a martyr. In the context of Jesus in particular, a martyr story, rather than a "conquering hero" story, would have made significantly more sense: For starters, the Romans were still in power, so everybody knew that there couldn't possibly have been some kind of Messiah who defeated the oppressors and liberated his people. Everybody could see it in their own very lives: The oppressors, the Romans, were still there, very much in power. Nobody had defeated them. Who would have believed a story of a Messiah who came and was victorious against them? Everybody could see with their own eyes that wasn't the case. A story of a Messiah who came and was martyred by the oppressors, somewhere in some city far away, like a century ago, is much more believable. There was very little reason for people not to believe it, when they were told the story with enough conviction. The writer(s) of the Gospels knew this perfectly well, and likewise knew perfectly well of the prophecies of the scriptures about a suffering Messiah who is martyred at the hands of the enemy. On top of that, what better story to tell when you want to rally people to raise up against the oppressors, the Romans? "Our Messiah came to save us, he was a great teacher, and the perfect Son of God, and he suffered and was martyred at the hands of our enemies, who ignominiously killed him, a completely innocent person who had done nothing wrong." This kind of story does not elicit embarrassment in the audience: It elicits empathy and anger. The entire concept of "criterion of embarrassment" is completely asinine and doesn't make any sense, especially in this particular context.

This is not the first time this has been asked. I first heard it asked 24 years ago. And it was presented in a book with hundreds of footnotes. The answer is no.

Jesus is definitely real, he fixed my air conditioning the other day. And his cousin Reynaldo fixed my toilet a few weeks before that. Good people.

I wish I could have Simon Whistler as a dinner party entertainer holding a scotch and cigar talking about everything from all his videos while we all are enchanted by his suave explanations from his Mega Projects about a WW2 aircraft all the way to Harley Davidson microculture. I don’t know if he’s actually made a video about that, but I would watch it. My wife would complain about this dinner party because her husband would be giving more of his undivided attention to his favorite KZfaqr more than his wife.

Thanks for the balanced and research approached take on Jesus

Don't know much exceot that Jesus saved but Beckham scored on the rebound. ⚽️

My thought has always been that Jesus’s disciples must have really believed he was the Son of God, or else they all wouldn’t have been quite so willing to go out preaching His word knowing that it would, in all probability, lead to their persecutions & deaths. They happily went to their deaths one by one & never chose to walk away. That takes great strength & great belief in what they saw & heard while they were with Him. So though I have never doubted He existed & that He was a great teacher, I have to wonder, was He truly the Son of God, or simply a very charismatic man?

"Short answer "Yes" with an "if", Long answer "No" with a "but" " - Rev Lovejoy

I was watching a video about some roman historical documents that mentioned Jesus during the same time the Scriptures mentioned Him. Could that be coincidence?

I found all of the information fascinating and logically presented. I once considered myself Christian, now an Agnostic. So, I found this information thought-provoking. However, I also found the presentation to be exhausting from the rapid fire delivery, i.e., your rapid speech was a distraction for me.

I made someone so angry discussing how Yeshua was a common name used for Jesus back in the day. But it basically translates to Joshua so he’s just some guy named Josh …

The photo of Obi-wan as Jesus, reminds me of that one time a woman thought she has a small statue of buddha turns out to be shrek, she has been praying to it for a long time.

The "Donald Duck" mythos is based on a historical duck. Walt D. had a neighbor with a pet duck named Donald. When he created the character of Donald Duck, he based it on the delightful interactions he had with that duck.... and of course, he embellished a little with his characterization... but that is to be expected... When it's all said and done, there would be NO Donald Duck if it weren't for Disney's neighbor's pet duck. The "myth", the "duck"... where does one begin and the other end? So, the historicity of Donald Duck is authentic and verifiable... But we CAN'T say the same about Scrooge Macduck... The accounts depicted about his life are still considered apocryphal, but the research continues.

I definitely don't think this is settled and would like more scholarly debate on it more in the future. The Jesus described in the Bible never existed in any case,even if there was a person who these stories latched onto.

It‘s not to be questioned if Kim Jong-Il ever existed. It‘s to be questioned if he really hit 11 hole-in-ones on a 18-hole golf course, the very first time he played golf.

Please tell me you guys were intentionally trolling us with a picture of Obiwan for 30 seconds. lol XD

He was a little dark skin bloke with short black hair

More importantly, for the Monty Python fans, did Brian actually exist.

The Historicity of Jesus Wikipedia article, most of the sources were written by people from bible colleges. Any Christian who pays for and goes through bible college would naturally say "well duh, of course Jesus existed". If they didn't think he existed then they wouldn't be Christians and they wouldn't attend bible college.

Very nice that Christians usually don't worry about getting offended about such a subject. Let's do one on Mohammed. Go Simon!

You had me until you said Josephus is the strongest evidence - that would be classified as hearsay in any court.

I’ve studied apologetics for over 40 years. I have seen nothing that compares to 21st century science on the shroud of Turin that saying something when you consider the anthropic cosmological principal.

Best new testament moment is Nathaniel being told the Messiah has come from Nazareth and Galilee, to which he replies "how can anything good come from Nazareth and Galilee?" Jesus responds himself: "this man speaks no lies." Classic.