Either Jesus followers were all insane to die or even to be fed by hungry lions or they truly find the tomb empty and saw Jesus ressurected. Either Paul was a bit off to change the direction of his mission; instead of imprisoning the people of new faith, he decided to be one of them knowing it would cost his own life.

Well, as a historian and archeologist he deserves credit for his hard work but claiming “the mystery of pantera solved” is not adequate enough.

And again, I felt like that he thinks that cristians believe and follow blindly and none of the things except Panthera thesis and Clophas thesis was new for me, but none of his ideas were backed with adequate evidences.

We know that there were different expectations of a Promised Messiah among different groups.

Furthermore, If the people knew that Jesus was illegitimate they would not follow him, even if he was able to heal them.

We know that Mary was a jew and lived as human being. Either she had her children from Joseph or Tabor’s “Clophas” does not make any difference. They were still her children and Jesus’ brothers and sisters.

Nowhere in the Bible, Mary is exalted as divine or something else.
I am not through yet with the book and make sure to read it through before giving my final opinion.

For now, what I can say is that Tabor was consumed so much with the tomb finding that he wanted all other historians writings, Bible and other excerpts and archealogical findings to fit into his made up theory.

“Would Jesus (knowing that he was illegitimate – as Tabor suggests) dare to consider himself the Jewish Messiah? Would a bastard (pardon my words) dare lay claim to inherit the throne of David? Likewise, would James have the audacity to step in as royal successor to perpetuate the so-called Davidic Dynasty if he too, knows Jesus is an illegitimate child? All these problems make Tabor’s thesis of Jesus’ illegitimacy implausible.”

Crossan’s solution is simple. Jesus didn’t know he was a bastard (pardon me, too). He always believed that his birth was miraculous: his mum, Mary, made sure of that.

However, what Crossan cannot do – thank God – is what many writers like Tabor are shipwrecked at as well: providing a good explanation for the rise of the Christian movement if Jesus hadn’t been resurrected and it was all a conspiracy. Why die for a faith you knew was false? Why write Gospels perpetuating a conspiracy and including dubious narratives about the leaders in these same Gospels? Why couldn’t opponents just point to Jesus’ tomb and/or body and be done with it?

And so on…