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Title: The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus
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Manufacturer: Age of Reason Publications
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| The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus by Age of Reason Publications Compelling and insightful |
Doherty presents a compelling case for the non-historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. From the Pauline epistles to canonical gospels to the gnostic gospels, he explores apologist writings of the time. In addition, he also has thoroughly researched non-Christian historians of the time and finds that they knew nothing of a Jesus of Nazareth.
The name 'Jesus', in its original translation, means 'anointed one'. The original followers of the religion did not know of a Jesus of Nazareth. Their religion was called the Kingdom of God religion and they anointed themselves in oil as part of their ritual. They were thusly called Christians due to this practice. It wasn't until decades later that the gospels were written that anyone ever heard of Jesus of Nazareth, a virgin birth, dying on a cross at Calvary, etc.
The gospels were written in the Jewish tradition of Midrash, which is still in use today. Midrash involves the interpretation of Old Testament scriptures and the use of those scriptures as the basis for more fully developed stories. The resulting stories are not meant to be taken as fact; they are merely meant to help followers understand scripture.
Doherty does an excellent job of reviewing the history of
Christianity and showing readers that there really is no historical evidence that Jesus of Nazareth ever existed.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of this religion and its foundation in folklore and Midrashic traditions. |
| The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus by Age of Reason Publications I wonder how many here would "still" believe |
in Jesus' existence, if the absolute truth of his "Blackness" was confirmed?
Non-Blacks claim to Love Jesus, but I bet my life that all of you would discontinue your "love affair" if and when his true identity is revealed... |
| The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus by Age of Reason Publications The gospel story of Jesus is a work of dramatic fiction |
"The Jesus Puzzle" by Earl Doherty.
This book should be of interest to those who have doubts about divine intervention in human affairs (theism).
Doherty addresses the Jesus Puzzle by tracing the likely ancestry of the books of the New Testament. There are two "traditions". The Jerusalem Tradition, which refers to the "Son of God", and includes the Pauline and other epistles; and the Galilean Tradition, which refers to the "Son of Man", and includes the gospels and a hypothetical collection of sayings known to Biblical scholars as Q.
The epistles, written in the first century CE, refer to Christ as a mythical character and intermediary between God and man; they draw on Old Testament prophesies. But they fail to mention a human Jesus. It is not until the earliest gospel, written by Mark about 90 CE, that Jesus appears in human form, complete with biography. Doherty suggests that if such a person had existed, the epistle writers would have mentioned him, as that would have stregthened their case.
Because the epistles are silent about the biography of Jesus, Doherty infers that no such person existed. Instead, Jesus was created by the author of Mark's gospel, not as an historical person but as a fictional character. Mark's writing used the technique called "midrash" to combine material from the Q document with Old Testament prophesies. The result was a brilliant work of drama which was futher embellished by the other gospel writers. The entire gospel account of Jesus's life and death, says Doherty, is a literary fabrication.
As a non-believer, I found this theory to be quite reassuring, as there is no longer any need to account for the unnatural events in the life and death of Jesus. But in order to appreciate it more fully you would need a more thorough knowledge of the Bible and Christian doctrines. |
| The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus by Age of Reason Publications You can use data to arrive at any conclusion |
| I found this to be an engaging book that had enough material to keep me engrossed. In recent times there has been an abundance of material showing the possibility that the figure of Jesus may have been "derived" from other pagan traditions. The funny thing is that in a novel The Rozabal Line, the pagan stories have been used to indicate that the historical Jesus was himself influenced by these earlier traditions whereas in books such as this one, the cross-tradition commonalities are used as evidence to prove that a historical Jesus never existed. Same material but different conclusions. Let me not prevent you from buying this book because it is definitely worth a read... it's just that I wanted to bring the inherent conflict among various anti-Church positions. |
| The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus by Age of Reason Publications Quite creditable . . . |
Conservatives have frequently portrayed theological liberals as the enemy of "true" Christianity.
But could it be that the liberals were trying their best to save a Christianity that they knew had serious defects?
And could one of these defects have been that the gospel of Mark was a fictional dramatization of a mythological being? Doherty asserts that Paul
preached a Christ of the spiritual realm (who was never a real, earthly person), who, much like Mithras and others, did his soul-saving work in that spiritual realm. He also asserts that the writer of Mark, whoever he was, combined this spiritual, salvationist Christ of Paul with the concept current at that time of a flesh-and-blood soon-coming Messiah who would usher in the kingdom of God and the salvation and dominance of Israel on earth. This would explain Paul's startling silence on the deeds and sayings of the Christ of Mark (or of Matthew and Luke, who drew on Mark and the "kingdom sayings" of the theoretical "Q" document for their gospels).
This book explores this hypothesis and builds some pretty solid ground under it. There is much speculation, but I think it is quite creditable.
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| The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus by Age of Reason Publications Product Description |
| (Please see description attached to book on Amazon site under former publisher--in Special Orders category). |
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