A growing number of skeptics are proposing the greatest religious conspiracy theory of all time: Jesus was made-up, an invention of the early Christian Church. And in fact it doesn’t seem so implausible. With no eyewitness accounts of his existence, no records written by non-Christians, no documents of his birth or death, and no credible physical evidence, why not? Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the case that Jesus did exist, by going back to the original sources of the New Testament.

Bart Ehrman, author of "Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth"

 

In mid-March, an Israeli judge acquitted an Israeli collector of forging ancient artifacts. Among them was a two-thousand-year-old old burial box said to contain the bones of James, brother of Jesus. If real, it would be the first archaeological evidence for the existence of Jesus – physically linking Jesus to another human being. Though the collector, Oded Golan, was cleared of the forgery charge in court, many scholars are still asking questions.

 

Nina Burleigh, author of "Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land" 

Coptic Christians are in mourning.  Their leader of 40 years, Pope Shenouda III, died in mid-March at the age of 88.  He led his Coptic Christian minority in Egypt through turbulent times, including the recent Arab spring. We find out what this might mean for religious pluralism in the new Egypt.

 

Joseph Grieboski, founder and chair of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy

 

For fifty years, a former monk bled constantly from open wounds on his hands – said to be the holy marks of Jesus’ crucifixion, the stigmata. He was canonized in 2002 and became Italy’s most popular saint. But now a new book suggests Padre Pio's miraculous wounds may have been a hoax, created with the help of carbolic acid.

 

Sergio Luzzatto, author of "Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age"