Customer Reviews
Compelling and insightful 
2008-05-21
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.
I wonder how many here would "still" believe 
2008-03-05
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 gospel story of Jesus is a work of dramatic fiction 2007-12-29
"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.
You can use data to arrive at any conclusion 2007-12-13
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.
Quite creditable . . . 2007-10-01
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.
The Jesus Puzzle explored 2007-09-06
(Please see description attached to book on Amazon site under former publisher--in Special Orders category).
Indeed it makes you think 
2007-05-06
The book is well written and every affirmation is addecuately referenced and justified. You can't say, however, that presents a definitive answer to the historicity of Jesus. It presents an innumerable quantity of valid propositions that, however, do not undoubtedly led you to think that Jesus didn't exist... although it could be a possibility.
It is too a great source if you want to read a non-theology influenced book about Christianism.
Great Book 2007-04-07
The author makes some really great points on why he believes the fundamental tenets of Christianity are based on a variety of false premises (this book is a good read for skeptics and people who think they are so sure about their faith). It was hard to put it down once I started reading. Although it would be great if the price was a little cheaper!
An excellent look into the Christ Myth theory 2007-03-28
What a great read. It seems the Jesus Mythers took the subject off track with all the alleged parallels to various pagan gods. Doherty gives a well thought out look into the idea that Paul's Jesus was not from the small town of Nazareth, or a wandering preacher proclaiming the coming kingdom of God through great deeds and miracles. Instead, Paul's Jesus is the cosmic maintainer of the Universe, the wisdom of God, who existed as God's first fruits before creation. Lots of scriptural and early christian evidence is provided in this easy to read book. I admit that I was not of the belief that Jesus of the gospels was myth crafted out of Jewish scriptures using Midrash by the author of the gospel of Mark. But now i'm compelled to take another look into the possibility that Jesus, as described in the gospels, did not exist in first century Palestine.
I recommend this book to anyone seeking a better understanding of Christ Mythicism. It's time for Biblical scholars to take another look at Doherty's thesis.
One of the best explorations of early Christianity I have ever read 2007-02-19
I found this book to be fascinating, well researched and documented. I've read many related books by John Shelby Spong (Sins of the Scriptures, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, A New Christianity for a New World) and they make much sense, but after reading Doherty, a wider view emerges. Spong tries to salvage some of the foundations of the "traditional" (orthodox) religion and recast these into modern terms, by interpreting biblical writings with a perspective of the writers and their times. A very noble and articulate attempt. Doherty goes much farther and proceeds where documentary research actually leads, since he is apparently not constrained by the need to preserve received notions or to bias toward a specific outcome. What Doherty writes provides the best explanation I have ever read accounting for how Christianity most plausibly developed. I'd encourage anyone interested in the period 100 BCE to 300 CE to acquire and read this book, it's a stepping stone to a rational understanding of a most significant influence on the development of Western civilization.
