The Bible’s “Made Up”? Jesus “Never Existed”? Let’s Talk About That.

Every so often, somebody drops into the comments like they’ve cracked the cosmic code and declares:

• “The Bible is totally made up.”

• “Jesus never even existed.”

Said with a straight face, like it’s checkmate. 

But here’s the thing: those claims don’t come from scholarship, they come from internet echo chambers. And if we actually care about truth (even uncomfortable truth) we’ve got to do better than meme-level history.

The Bible: Messy, Yes. Fully Fake? No.

Look, if you open the Bible expecting a modern history textbook, you’re already in the wrong section of the library. 

The Bible’s not a book, it’s a library. Some parts are poetry, some are law codes, some are fiery sermons, some are ancient biographies. It’s humanity wrestling with Love, power, and empire.

• Multiple Voices. Moses didn’t sit down with a quill and bang out Genesis to Deuteronomy. The Torah is a collage of voices stitched together over centuries. Same with Isaiah (multiple authors across different time periods). The Gospels? Each one is written decades after Jesus, shaped by communities telling their story. That’s not fraud — that’s how ancient writing worked.

• Where It Anchors. Not everything in there “happened” in a literal sense. Noah’s Ark? Symbolic. Jonah in the fish? Satire. But then you hit places like the Babylonian exile (attested in Babylonian records), the decree of Cyrus (confirmed in archaeology), or Rome’s crucifixions (we’ve got plenty of records). That’s history, interpreted through a theological lens.

• Living Texts. Yes, scribes tinkered. The longer ending of Mark? A later add-on. The “woman caught in adultery” in John? Same. But the fact that we can trace those insertions actually proves how carefully these texts were handled and debated, not that they’re “all fake.”

So no, the Bible isn’t perfect. 

But calling it all made up is like saying small towns don’t exist because everybody at the diner tells the same story three different ways. The truth is in the mix.

Jesus: History’s Stubborn Fact

Now to Jesus. Here’s where the myth claim totally falls apart.

• Scholarly Agreement. Bart Ehrman (agnostic), Paula Fredriksen (Jewish), John Meier (Catholic) — pick your worldview, the consensus is the same: Jesus existed. He was a first-century Galilean Jew who taught, gathered followers, and was executed by Rome.

• Independent Sources. Josephus, a Jewish historian, mentions him. Tacitus, a Roman historian, confirms the crucifixion under Pilate. These aren’t fanboys — they’re outside witnesses.

• The Crucifixion Problem. If you were inventing a messiah, you wouldn’t write “and then Rome crushed him with the most humiliating punishment possible.” That’s like inventing a superhero whose origin story ends with them face-planting. It only makes sense if it actually happened.

• Letters in Real Time. Paul’s undisputed letters date to the 50s CE, within a generation of Jesus’ death. People who knew his brother James and his disciple Peter were still alive. You don’t invent an entire figure under those conditions and get away with it.

What’s historically secure: Jesus was baptized by John, preached about God’s reign, told parables, ticked off the authorities, and was crucified under Pilate. 

Scholars debate the rest (miracles, self-identity, resurrection). But the man himself? He’s as real as the Roman crosses that killed him.

What the Real Debate Is

The big scholarly fight isn’t over whether Jesus existed, but what kind of person he was. 

Prophet? Teacher? Revolutionary? Apocalyptic visionary? 
Probably some mix of all that. 

But the point is: the debates only make sense because there was a person to debate.

Why It Matters

Here’s the heart of it: you don’t have to believe the Bible is inerrant. You don’t have to believe Jesus was divine. But if we’re going to be honest with history, we can’t just throw up our hands and shout “it’s all fake.” 

That’s not intellectual honesty, that’s drunk-uncle-at-Thanksgiving theology.

The Bible is a messy, multivocal library. 

Jesus was a flesh-and-blood person whose life and death ignited a movement that reshaped history. 

You can argue about the meaning. 
You can even reject the theology. 
But erasing the history altogether? 

That’s just lazy.

Final Word

The Bible isn’t “fully made up.” 
It’s a mix of myth, memory, and history. 

And Jesus?
Scholars across the spectrum agree: he lived, he taught, and Rome crucified him.

The mic-drop isn’t “Bible’s fake, Jesus never lived.” 
The mic-drop is this: even with all the mess, 
these stories and this person still changed the world.