Other than a few comments concerning Jesus by the ancient historians Flavius Josephus and Tacitus, we have precious little evidence of the savior of all Christendom. There are the gospels of course, as well as the gnostic texts, but these two sets not only often contradict each other as well as the various gospels they themselves contain, but they were written years after Jesus’ death by people who never knew him.

At first, this lack of knowledge can be off-putting, especially when we realize that Jesus was not the only man at that time who claimed or was believed to be the messiah, nor was he the only crucified and resurrected figure worshipped. On the basis of these last two facts alone, the elevation of him and his teachings into a global religion may seem surprising and even unwarranted…but not so fast, as they say.

Before we get to the caveat, however, let’s take a look at some of the other would-be messiahs and miracle workers I mentioned.  Well known by theologians, but not so familiar to church-goers or even ministers, is the fact that wandering preachers, healers, exorcists, and spiritualists abounded during Jesus’ time period. Like him, each of them had his own coterie of disciples.

As National Geographic writer Don Belt put it:

“A sampling of these men of deeds includes Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa, a Galilean healer who claimed to intercede with God over his patients’ lives or deaths; Apollonius of Tyana, who purportedly healed the lame, the blind, and the sick, and raised a girl from the dead; Honi the Circle Drawer, who during a long drought drew a circle in the dust and stood inside it, arguing with God, until it began to rain; and the mysterious figure known as the Egyptian prophet, a self-proclaimed king of the Jews who was all set, like Joshua at Jericho, to command the city walls of Jerusalem to tumble down, when a force of Roman soldiers arrived and massacred his followers. “

To add insult to injury, not even Jesus’ death and resurrection story was unique.

James Frazer brought this to light in his book The Golden Bough, in which he associated fertility rites connected to the seasons with a death and resurrection motif found in the pagan myths that both predated and co-existed with Jesus. (Pagans in those days basically meant everyone except the Jews—so this included the Romans.) Frazer cited, for instance, Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, Dionysus, and also, of course, Jesus, as being revered on the basis of their resurrection after death, which mimicked the seasons.  His book, predictably, has been both vilified and lauded—and more often than not along Christian and atheist lines. Nonetheless, some of the resurrection stories are remarkably similar to Jesus’ own.

For instance, in the “The Descent of Inanna”, which dates back to 2100 BC. , when the god Tammuz dies, his wife Ishtar follows him to the underworld where she is killed and her body hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility and life grinds to a halt. After three days, the other gods sprinkle the essence of life on her, and she is resurrected.

And in Heather McDougal’s article “The Pagan Roots of Easter,” she writes, “In an ironic twist, the Cybele cult flourished on today’s Vatican Hill. Cybele’s lover Attis was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, then rose to a crescendo after three days (when they rejoiced over the resurrection). There was violent conflict on Vatican Hill in the early days of Christianity between the Jesus worshippers and pagans who quarreled over whose God was the true, and whose the imitation.”

So not only does the commonality of the resurrection motif and the presence of rival messiahs & miracle workers cause one to pause—for they seem to diminish Jesus’ singularity, but most theologians have with good reason dismissed major chunks of Jesus’ life story. These include Herod’s killing of children, Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem and the wise men’s visit, as well as John the Baptist’s status (he was probably Jesus’ teacher, and probably the more famous of the two), and Pontius Pilate’s washing of hands & asking of the crowd whom to kill. And there are many, many more contested sections. In fact, the only events universally accepted are Jesus’ baptism by John and his crucifixion.

So, what are we to make of all this? How are we to regard Jesus? It would be easy to dismiss Jesus’ divinity altogether, if it were not for one thing—the effect of his purported resurrection on his followers. If you’ll remember, the disciples were pretty quick to vanish at the first sign of trouble, and they remained absent throughout Jesus’ execution (although in John’s account, one remains). Upon encountering Jesus’ resurrected presence, however, they changed from a small, scared band to a fervent and outspoken one—despite the very real danger in doing so.  In fact, most of them were executed for their faith– and often very cruelly, very painfully. Bartholomew, for instance, was flayed alive before being crucified.

It seems then, that these men were convinced that a post-crucified Jesus really had manifested before them. Their testimony was convincing enough to convert many others—all of whom risked their own and their families’ lives in so doing. And others, like Paul, had visions that were strong enough and convincing enough to flip their lives upside down.

So this is what we’re left with: a conundrum. Many solve it by choosing to believe despite the contradictions and scanty evidence, and in so doing, imbue their lives with meaning. Others remain skeptical, and search for meaning elsewhere, often in other religions or through private, spiritual practices, such as meditation.

I’m not sure anything we experience in life is black and white. There are nuances that evoke doubt, shades that invite imagination or delusion, and complexities that defy definition.  So, whatever your own religion or spiritual practice, I hope you find solace in it, and that you can also accept others’ faith systems, understanding they’ve made a choice to believe for private reasons. They probably realize the uncertainties inherent within their choice, but have accepted them as being part of a package whose whole they very much value.

I want to end this by apologizing for the length of this post; I’ll try to do this as infrequently as possible– and also by wishing a joyful Easter to the Christians among my readers. I hope the weekend brings you both solace and strength.