# What's the skeptical explanation for the events after the death of Jesus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 23, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-skeptical-explanation-for-the-events-after-the-death-of-jesus/565233 "2010-12-23T23:24:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-skeptical-explanation-for-the-events-after-the-death-of-jesus/565233/61 "2010-12-29T05:16:40Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Sure they knew it, which was why Mark had to contrive the “Joseph of Arimathea” gag (possibly taken from a story told by Josephus) as a means to get his hero into an honourable tomb. **Sage Rat** is right that no such place as Aramathea even existed. The name means “Best Disciple Town” in Greek. 😕 I realize people back then were pretty gullible, but this seems too outlandish even for illiterate first century romans to accept! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-skeptical-explanation-for-the-events-after-the-death-of-jesus/565233/62 "2010-12-29T05:54:33Z")
Which part? ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-skeptical-explanation-for-the-events-after-the-death-of-jesus/565233/63 "2010-12-29T06:18:24Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Which part? Joseph of Best Disciple Town. I’m surprised that the author of Mark would claim he came from that fictitious town. It seems like the sort of thing that would raise some eyebrows, and it would have been infinitely more plausible to potential converts to just claim that Joseph came from an actual town. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-skeptical-explanation-for-the-events-after-the-death-of-jesus/565233/64 "2010-12-29T06:27:38Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > Joseph of Best Disciple Town. I’m surprised that the author of Mark would claim he came from that fictitious town. It seems like the sort of thing that would raise some eyebrows, and it would have been infinitely more plausible to potential converts to just claim that Joseph came from an actual town. He was talking to a non-Palestinian audience that wouldn’t know the difference. If he’d had an audience that knew anything about Palestinian geography, they could have called him on a lot more egregious errors than that (Mark has some whoppers), but you’re talking about a time and place when people didn’t care about journalistic accuracy anyway. And speaking of implausibilities, Mark was already claiming this dude was responsible for dozens of miracles including walking on water and rising (in some fashion) from the dead. Jumping on a fictional name for a town is straining at gnats after swallowing elephants. The fact is that Arimathea didn’t exist and that it means “Best Disciple Town” in Koine Greek. Are you disputing either one of those things? ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-skeptical-explanation-for-the-events-after-the-death-of-jesus/565233/65 "2010-12-29T07:01:13Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The fact is that Arimathea didn’t exist and that it means “Best Disciple Town” in Koine Greek. Are you disputing either one of those things? Nope. ---
**Author:** ![justhetruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@justhetruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justhetruth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-skeptical-explanation-for-the-events-after-the-death-of-jesus/565233/66 "2010-12-29T18:11:31Z")
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Yet up until now, there is no historical proof that Jesus has ever existed, nor is it imminent. The Jesus story noticeably assimilated basic fundamentals from the stories of other deities recorded in an extensive area. Jesus’ story mirrors many of the succeeding world saviors and sons of God, most or all of whom preexist the Christian myth, and a number of whom were crucified, executed or suffered otherwise, among other parallels to the gospel story. For centuries after gaining power during the time of Constantine, Christians went on a suppression rampage that led to the fundamental illiteracy of the ancient Western world and safeguarded that their secret would be concealed from the masses. The reason these assortment religions are so alike, with a god man who is killed, or crucified and resurrected, who does miracles and has 12 companions or disciples, is because these stories were founded on the movements of the sun through the heavens, an astrotheological expansion that can be found all over the world because the sun and the 12 zodiac signs can be observed around the globe. In other words, Jesus Christ and others on whom this character is based are representations of the sun, and the gospel legend is in large part simply a rework of a mythological blueprint revolving around the movements of the sun through the heavens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-skeptical-explanation-for-the-events-after-the-death-of-jesus/565233.md?page=3)