Here I continue my reflections on how stories about Jesus were floating around the Mediterranean world *before* the Gospel writers wrote their accounts (based on these stories).  I pick up here with the final paragraph of yesterday’s post, again taken from my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016).

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In other words, a story does not have to be written in the newspaper or broadcast on the evening news or even on modern social media to get around, very widely and very quickly.  Moreover, the vast majority of the people telling the story – just within three days – are people who were not eyewitnesses and did not get their information from eyewitnesses.   What do you suppose happens to stories when they are told, remembered, retold, and then remembered again, just within three days?  Or three years?   Or, as in the case of Jesus, 40-65 years?   How many changes would be made in them?

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