How many of yall believe in a historical Jesus? And why?
There may have been a more balanced and philosophical person(s) around at the year 30AD (Approx) but he's missing from contemporary texts from other sources. If he was such a dude I would have thought he might have a left a bigger mark than hearsay and gossip.
Jesus’s greatest miracle was turning water into wine, truly a beneficial act if there ever was one!
It think it's a combination. Historically, there may have been a rabbi or charismatic philosopher, at that time, who gained enough celebrity status to make the Pharisees feel threatened, but messiahs have always been a dime a dozen, so the character in the scriptures could also be a compilation of several real people. Obviously the miracle tropes attributed to the character are fiction.
That's my take too.
Not so simple but no, Jesus is the Latinized version of the Greek Yesu which is the Greek version of the Hebrew Joshua , the Christians use this convention so as not to confuse him with other Joshuas. Nazereth was a pretty small place but still probably had a few Joshuas and maybe even a few Joshuas ben Josephs. Without a demonstrable birth record including birthday there isn't. JoeBob from Dallas probably exists but which JoeBob is the son of Zeus?
Jesus is not a name it is a title, meaning a Joshua, a common epithet for those claiming to be the foretold messiah, Jesus is just the Latin term.
At least nine people around the supposed time of the carpenter of Nazareth used the title, and some of their exploits are weaved in to the Biblical Jesus myth.
Two of them are mentioned in the scriptures, those being Jesus Barabbas and "John" the baptist for who there is a lot more historical evidence but none of it relating to a Jesus of Nazareth, however several historical non biblical stories attributed to the Baptist are in the gospels attributed to The Nazarene.
The church of John still exists in the form of the Iraqi Mandaeans and in the more controversial claims of of the Alpha Galates organisation and several of its many schisms.