Blind faith

The gospels mention, countless times, the great multitude that apparently followed Jesus and the crowds of people who congregated to hear him.

So crowded had some of these gatherings grown, that Luke 12:1 alleges that an "innumerable multitude of people... trod one upon another."

Luke 5:15 says that there grew "a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear..."

The persecution of Jesus in Jerusalem drew so much attention that all the chief priests and scribes, including the high priest Caiaphas, not only knew about him but helped in his alleged crucifixion. (see Matt 21:15-23, 26:3, Luke 19:47)

...and yet not one person records his existence during his lifetime.

Not a single historian, philosopher, scribe or follower who lived before or during the alleged time of Jesus ever mentions him!

Regarding the momentous earth shattering events surrounding the crucifixion -

According to Luke 23:44-45, there occurred "about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour, and the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst."

Yet again not a single mention of such a three hour ecliptic event got recorded by anyone, including the astronomers and astrologers, anywhere in the world, including Pliny the Elder and Seneca who both recorded eclipses from other dates.

Matthew 2 describes Herod and all of Jerusalem as troubled by the worship of the infant Jesus.

Herod then had all of the children of Bethlehem slain.

If such extraordinary infanticides of this magnitude had occurred, why didn't anyone write about it?

The area in and surrounding Jerusalem served as the center of education and record keeping for the Jewish people.

The Romans, of course, also kept many records.

Moreover, the gospels mention scribes many times. There also lived plenty of historians at the time who had the capacity and capability to record, not only insignificant gossip, but significant events, especially from a religious sect who drew so much popular attention through an allegedly famous and infamous Jesus.

Take, for example, the works of Philo Judaeus who's birth occurred in 20 B.C.E. and died 50 C.E. He lived as the greatest Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher and historian of the time and lived in the area of Jerusalem during the alleged life of Jesus.

He wrote detailed accounts of the Jewish events that occurred in the surrounding area. Yet not once, in all of his volumes of writings, do we read a single account of a Jesus "the Christ." Nor do we find any mention of Jesus in Seneca's (4? B.C.E. - 65 C.E.) writings, nor from the historian Pliny the Elder (23? - 79 C.E.).

If, indeed, such a well known Jesus existed, as the gospels allege, does any reader here think it reasonable that, at the very least, the fame of Jesus would not have reached the ears of one of these men?

Amazingly, we have not one Jewish, Greek, or Roman writer, even those who lived in the Middle East, much less anywhere else on the earth, who ever mention him during his supposed life time.

Does anyone have a reasonable explanation for this?

Photograph taken today in Bradford using iPhone