Inventions of the Gospels

Previously this blog featured the historical-critical view of "heaven" and "hell" appearing in Ehrman's Jesus Interrupted. The earliest christians, such as Paul, expected Jesus to return, and usher in the "kingdom of god" here on Earth. The "second coming" was thought to be imminent. But by the late first century the kingdom had failed to materialize. To deal with this embarrassment, christian writers, notably the author of John, invented "heaven" and "hell." Instead of an earthly kingdom, which never came and was hence easily disproven, the later christians conjured up invisible realms of eternal reward or punishment, which could not be disproven.
"Heaven" and "hell" are far from the only concocted fables. The New Testament contains a number of them, besides those in Ehrman's book. Like "heaven" and "hell," these tales were intended to bolster faith against the inevitable criticism of christian claims.
When christian missionaries told their stories of how Jesus vanished from the tomb, skeptics pointed out that the body could've been removed from the tomb by any number of people. To make this appear impossible, the gospel of Matthew conjured up a Roman guard at the tomb. Such a guard would've deterred or prevented any removal of the body. But it is an absurd story inasmuch as the corpse of Jesus would've been of no interest to the Romans. The earliest gospel, Mark, doesn't mention the guard. None was there. It was thought up by Matthew (or whoever the real writer was) to quash suggestions that someone took Jesus away.
Naturally, the resurrection story also incurred skepticism. Critics could point to at least one instance, known to us, in which a person survived crucifixion. To counter claims that Jesus actually survived, and was revived, the gospel of John includes a highly dubious story. According to this fable, the excecution squad had to hasten the death of Jesus (and the alleged two thieves) to avoid "profanation" of the sabbath, which began at nightfall that Friday. The soldiers broke the legs of the thieves. This was "hardly necessary," however, in the case of Jesus, who already appeared dead. But just to make sure, one of the Romans drove his lance into the body of Jesus, all the way to his heart.
It is remarkable that only the last-to-be-written canonical gospel, that of John, mentions the putative coup de grace. It doesn't appear in any of the synoptics. The gospel of Mark, for example, doesn't include it even though it emphasized the suffering of Jesus and even mentioned a trivial incident in which he was given sour wine. The coup de grace with the lance was obviously a later christian invention to make survival on the cross appear impossible, hence the "miracle" of resurrection certain..