"::::::::::The problem is even the statement ""Jesus is fictional"" has a large range going from the Jesus of the Gospels is a fiction to Jesus is an entire fiction.  Take Sherlock Holmes for example.  While Holmes is a fictional character he is based on a mixture of Dr Joseph Bell and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle two people who undoubtedly lived and there have been several books and TV programs over the years presenting one or the other as the ""real"" Sherlock Holmes.  

Similarly, we know that even in Paul's there were ""other Gospels"" (Galatians 1:6-9) and by the time Irenaeus wrote his Against Heresies (c180 CE) the number of Gospels had definitely increased.  The fact that Irenaeus stated that ""The thirty Æons are not typified by the fact that Christ was baptized in His thirtieth year: He did not suffer in the twelfth month after His baptism, but was more than fifty years old when He died."" (Book II, Chapter 22) is one Joseph Wheless uses with nearly suppressed glee later on going as far as to say ""In the work often cited, Bishop Irenaeus either falsely quotes the Gospel of Mark, or the sacred text has been seriously altered in our present copies"" regarding some other point.  While Wheless' ax grinding does get on the nerves and there are some really flaky interpretations and misreadings he does raise some good points.  If as the Pro Historical Jesus camp state that Jesus was born c4 BCE and died c36 CE (a space of only 39 years) then how could Irenaeus expressly state Jesus lived at least 11 years longer than this span and that view was ""as the Gospel and all the elders testify""?  One does not need to be a scholar to realize something clearly is messed up somewhere.  

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