No. I was simply pointing out that saying that because a piece of text must be factual because it contains a detail such as the one which Alan refers to falls down when you consider novels.
A fictional account could be believed as true and have no consequence, or as in the case have consequences such as the prosecution or acquittal of an innocent or guilty man or survival or death from a medical condition.
A community based on a mythical man is unlikely to have emerged within living memory nor would a member of that community extol new members to seek evidence as Paul did.
The evidence is that this communities beliefs line up with that of the Gospels.
I think Alan is talking about reportage. Parts of the Gospels read like reportage.
CS Lewis talks about the reportage. He was not only a working writer and novelist but a linguist and no mean mythologist either so presumably had experience in distinctions.
It was his conclusion that the early Jewish Christians were galvanised into new forms of writing that was for them unlikely to come from there imagination.
Sources: Mere Christianity,God in the Dock, The Problem of Pain and Surprised by Joy.
