Re:Where's the controversy? (Score 1)

Just adding my "Amen!" to the other posters that pointed out that oft-cited "evidence" attributed to Josephus and Tacticus have been roundly discredited. (I've done a bit more research than Google searches, Brother Jfengel.)

It's quite a stretch to dismiss Jesus' conspicuous absence from the historical record as just the fog of time. Solid history serves as witness to many mere mortals who lived centuries before the time Jesus supposedly visited earth. It also does a fairly good job documenting his contemporaries. What's remarkable is his absence from the annals of history.

I'd respectfully suggest that you do a Google search for "The Jesus Seminar". It was a notable effort undertaken by prominent theologians to determine the historicity of Jesus. See for yourself what they concluded after a thorough examination of the "evidence". (And remember, these were scholars who earn their living in the Jesus industry!)

Perhaps you have evidence they've missed. If you do, I would sincerely like to know about it.

If, however the (as you wrote) "best you've got" is the Josephus account, then I will recommend in kind that you raise your standards for evidence.