> But stories have a way of propagating, and changing drastically over time. Perhaps the more literal stories of this man changed over time into something more fantastic. And since, at the time, he was just Yet Another Messiah, the factual truth of what he did was never written down. But the *legend* grows out of all proportion, until you end up with people who honestly and faithfully believe the stories they've heard about this man, and record them as they "know" them to be.
>

I wish I had a copy of Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ with me right now, as he devotes a full chapter to this. (It's an excellent book, by the way, good reading for anyone, Christian or not.) But from what I remember, here is some of what he said -

First, the legend. It takes quite a while for legends to appear in communities like the one we had Christianity appearing in. Some people imagine it's rather like a game of telephone, where what emerges in the other end is mangled from what was there originally. Actually, the analogy in cultures like that is more as if, while playing telephone, every few people someone had to ask the ORIGINAL story-teller "Wait, is this right?" and then correct it if it wasn't before passing it on to the next person.

It takes a while for legends to grow, usually a very long time, but the stories in the Bible were written within the lifetime of people who had seen the events described there happen. If anything incorrect was written, the eyewitnesses, those who *saw it happen* would have strenuous objections. I believe Strobel uses the Nicean Creed as an example of a clear assertion of Jesus' ressurection that is dated to within 20 years of Jesus' death. 20 years is not long enough for a legend to spring up. It is WELL within the lifespan of eyewitnesses.

Also, compare to other historical documents - many documents and histories were written centuries after the events described in them occured, but historians still regard them as being accurate. (I can't remember any specific examples here, unfortunately...) With the Biblical accounts, we have not centuries but decades; again, not long enough for legends to develop.

Anyway, I know there are lots of historical references outside of Biblical writing, and I'd strongly encourage you to check out The Case for Christ, because it can say all of the above and more much better than I can. :) I'm not trying to convert anyone here, but it's definetely a very good book at the logical thought behind what Christians believe. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Sosi"The Case for Faith is good too"qui