In my annual holiday special for 2025, I examine discrepancies in the gospels relating to Jesus's lineage and parentage, as well as the gospel authors' use of common biblical tropes, their incorporation of prophecy and philosophy, and early church apologists' embrace of comparisons between Christ and pagan mythology, to demonstrate that, though Jesus was a real person, the gospels are crafted narratives, not the histories that biblical literalists make them out to be.

This episode is sponsored by American History Tellers: The Mayflower and American Scandal: The West Memphis Three. Binge all episodes of both series right now on Wonder+.

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Some music in this episode was licensed under a Blue Dot Sessions blanket license at the time of publication. Tracks include "The Coil Winds," "A Catalog of Seasons," "As Dust Gathers," "Shine and Wither," and "Basketliner."

Additional music, including "Remedy for Melancholy" and "September," by Kai Engel, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Other music: "Waiting," "Calmant," and "Danse Morialta" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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