Gideon, you're probably familiar with talmud.faithweb.com/articles/jesusnarr.html

He says Pandira lived 80 BCE and was well connected with the government (which doesn't fit the Jsus story).

Also the GT as we know it today is far, far younger than 300 CE.

B. Ehrmans book - The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Chrstological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195102797/qid=1097780593/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-9210063-4478228

Quote:
"The evidence suggests that during the earliest period of its transmission the (GT) text was in a state of flux, that it came to be more or less standardized in some regions by the fourth century. . .

. . .because scribes occasionally changed their texts in meaningful ways, it is possible to conceptualize their activities as a kind of hermeneutical process. Reproducing a text is in some ways analogous to interpreting it. . . .



Today's GT are based on the codexes Vaticanus and Sinaticus which date to around the 4th century CE.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, et al
Quote:

The oldest manu*****s of the *****ures, including the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus, do not have the present ending to Mark.


Just FYI. BTW I tend to agree with you that Pandira and perhaps ben Strada are a part of the man who grew into the myth of Jsus (rather than thinking that there was never a Jsus and he was entirely fictional). I have nothing on which to base this thought and could easily be persuaded the other way.

And everything that Sarah tells you, listen to her voice. Genesis, 21:12