[Recrudesce (OP)]

As we know more about the body and how it works, could a mistake have been made ? could Jesus have lapsed into a coma, after suffering horrendous brutality, then when rested for a day or two, legged it on the advice of his friends, who covered for him by telling the priests, "he was taken up ". hence giving Jesus time to to nip out of the country as someone else 

[Bored chemist]

Give or take the lack of evidence for any single "Jesus" in the first place, it's as plausible a story as any.

[RD]

JC would need a claw-hammer before he could leg it ...


https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/12/08/this-bone-provides-the-only-skeletal-evidence-for-crucifixion-in-the-ancient-world/#3ca58d87476d

[Recrudesce (OP)]

Obviously, he legged it after he was taken down from the cross, but, given a couple of days to rest in a cool place, could he have come out of the coma and thought "me" im lucky to be alive, better go see the lads and have a beer and a last bit of supper, ( see where im going with this ? ) then quietly slipped away, taking Mary M, and a fast donkey out of the province, and spreading the culture of hair and beards to the west coast of the Americas.
Understanding the physiology of the body a bit better these days, could he have appeared to "die", then come back to life, never going to know for sure, but boy did he start something !

[syhprum]

It is difficult to sort myth from evidence but it seems that he was not on the cross very long and as Christians always go on about his pieced hands so he must have had support as he could have been hanging by his arms.
The myth makers have added the bit about  the stabbing to make out he was dead.
It seems that his feet could not have been nailed to the cross as he was reported to be walking three days later.
As those who did conducted  the cruxifiction did not take much care for hygene I think he died about three months later from blood poisining  as his supporters secretly buried him.
The reasons for his cruxification are rather a puzzle he had upset the religious authorities so he was condemed for  blasphemy  and would normally have been stoned to death did they want him comdemed as a terroist and killed by the civil authorities as he had a lot of popular support ?

[jeffreyH]

In any society the elites will try to prevent two things from happening. The first is the education of the masses to a level comparable to their own. The second is strong communities within the general populace. If a personality comes along that tries to cause one of these two 'problems' to happen then they are usually eliminated.

[alancalverd]

Did Jesus die on the cross? It's a fairly efficient way of torturing people to death in a few hours at most, though it's mostly done nowadays by stress hanging - less carpentry involved than in a public spectacle.

The whole story is a bit weird. Whilst nailing a carpenter to a cross has a certain irony, crucifixion was a Roman tradition, not a Jewish one, and occupying powers don't generally leave the execution of a revolutionary folk hero to the natives, nor encourage their soldiers to attend executions ordered by the locals.

Another neat bit of irony by the Roman authorities: Offered the choice of releasing one prisoner, the crowd apparently yelled "Bar Abbas" - the Son of the Father, and they got some scumbag called Barabbas instead.

The resurrection is obvious bunkum. If you can move a stone from A to B, you can move it from B to A by muscle, not magic. Why would anyone set a guard over a tomb unless there was a strong likelihood that someone would break in and steal a body? Even if the body evaporated by magic, how come the guard never saw the stone move from B to A? And if it was magic, why move the stone at all?

The real mystery of human stupidity is how the death of one rabbi became a pretext for the murder of untold hundreds more, and their congregations, long after the Roman empire collapsed..

[jeffreyH]

The christian elites did have an uneducated and superstitious populace that they could manipulate and threaten into becoming murderous crusaders.

[PmbPhy]

People witnessed Jesus being crucified two millennia ago and thus had a different understanding of life and death than we do now. The OP made this point and it was a good one.

A good movie which tells an interesting story which I recommend watching is The Man from Earth which is online for free at: https://123movieshub.to/film/the-man-from-earth-10773/

It tells the story of an immortal man who identifies himself as many well-know figures in history, including Jesus. In the movie he said that he didn't die on the cross but through his studies with the Buddha he was able to change his life signs so that he appeared to be dead. A similar thing could have happened with Jesus. He might have actually died for a few short minutes but the jostling of his body buy those taking him down could have revived him but no to the point of being notable to others. 

There's also a story in the bible where a child is brought back to life from a (cold state as I recall) when a man covered the boys body with his and breathed into him. This is basically what it means to resuscitate a person who died.

I know about this event because I keep an open mind and as such read the Bible cover to cover twice. Had I not then I'd never have known about this important piece of information which is of historical significance.

[syhprum]

I notice that artists that depict "Christ being taken down from the cross" never pay much attention to removing the nails which would require special tools in the case of criminals or terrorists this would not be a problem a they would simply be left to rot or the limbs lopped of but when a resurrection is contemplated too much damage should not be done.
Although Christ was addressed as rabbi by his supporters I do not believe he had any formal religious education and was simply a lay preacher inspired by John the Baptist

[alancalverd]

A special memory from my schooldays. The Reverend J Leo Kay taught us maths, cricket and scripture. One morning I asked him why, there being on record at least seventeen crucified saviour gods born of virgins, he only taught us about one. He said "I'm only paid to teach you about one". There may be other honest priests about, but I've not met many who could match that.

[evan_au]

The Romans were pretty well practised at killing people, both on and off the battlefield.

[alancalverd]

Although Christ was addressed as rabbi by his supporters I do not believe he had any formal religious education and was simply a lay preacher inspired by John the Baptist

One aspect of Judaism that irritates dictators is the inherent resilience of a community where authority and key rituals are distributed to family level: the synagogue is more a place of study than worship, literacy is the norm, and argument and dissent are admired rather than suppressed. "Rabbi" means teacher more than anything, and ordination is considered "usual" rather than essential, so formal training is less important than local recognition of wisdom and judgement.

The resultant factionalism was nicely mocked in The Life of Brian, but after 6000 years of persecution, a regular toast is "we're still here".

[Bored chemist]

The Romans were pretty well practised at killing people, both on and off the battlefield.

Which is another way of saying it only needs a 0.0001% failure rate for some lucky soul to survive.

[syhprum]

In the Philippines religious nutters are great ones for getting themselves crucified I think the death rate is very low.
 

[PmbPhy]

Although Christ was addressed as rabbi by his supporters I do not believe he had any formal religious education and was simply a lay preacher inspired by John the Baptist

In those days a rabbit learned from his master. But all Jews were expected to know scripture and as such Jesus parents and local rabbis taught him the scripture. However its recorded that when Jesus spoke in Synagogues and elsewhere all were amazed. E.g.

Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me." John 7:14-16 NASB

Comments like this make me challenge the claim that Jesus was God in the flesh.

Whether this is all true depend on your belief system. If you're a Christian then its true. If you're an atheist then its false. If you're Pmb then you say "I dunno!"

[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey]

You know how in mainland Europe it is common for people to be buried in graves temporary (usually some years) and then, to make way for the recently deceased, the bodies are dug up and replaced? The logic is that after 15 or 20 or so years the dead person's survivors will likely stop visiting their grave to pay respects, especially if that person was not someone of importance. This happened in Jesus's day, but to a much shorter extent. Bodies were placed in caves for a little bit, sometimes just a few days, and people would come to pay respects and so on and so forth. Recent research shows that bodies were commonly removed from their cave crypts after a few days and placed somewhere less showy. (Think of the stench of the unembalmed bodies). Maybe that is what happened to his body? Assuming Jesus was in fact a real person. While alive Jesus would not have been anywhere near as famous as he became in "death", therefore his body would have been treated like any other person's. I think in those times (in the both East and West) 99.9% of bodies were burned a few days after their funerary services.

[PmbPhy]

Recent research shows that bodies were commonly removed from their cave crypts after a few days and placed somewhere less showy.

No. The Pharisees went to Pilate and requested the tomb be secured until the third day because Jesus said he'd rise from the dead. So Pilate gave them guards. Jesus was resurrected on the dawn of the first day and the guards saw him resurrected. Matthew 28: 4 says "And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men." Some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests what happened. Here's how the story goes. From Matthew 27: 62-66

62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Assuming Jesus was in fact a real person.

There's no real doubt that Jesus was a real person.

While alive Jesus would not have been anywhere near as famous as he became in "death", ...

On the contrary, he was very famous. So famous in fact that the Jewish leaders wanted him dead.

One of my most favorite Einstein quotes is

I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene….No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus.

Hmmmmm .... all those hours studying the Bible and other religious material is paying off.

[Bored chemist]

There's no real doubt that Jesus was a real person.

Guess again.

[syhprum]

Christianity was invented by St Paul (almost certainly a real person) about 30 years after the death of jesus.
There was a Christ supporting movement amongst  Jewish believers  who were still allowed in the synagogue before Paul codified and separated the supporters  of Jesus from the jewish religion proper allowing many pagan elements such as virgin birth and resurrection of the dead to creap in and even the uncircumcised as members.