Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I

markm reviewed Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I by David Fitzgerald

Review of 'Jesus' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The author (whom we know from Nailed) is referred to as a writer and historical researcher. The book is fascinating, but it does sometimes seem a little disorganized and it has long quotes from the academic workers in this field that can be distracting (you may ask yourself, why don't I just read Dr. Carrier?). For the same reason, I think this could have been published as one volume. Fitzgerald does do a nice job of summarizing a lot of work on this topic and presenting it in an easily digestible form. I think I may hold off on volumes II and III, since I was convinced long ago that Hercules was not a real person and that if someone starts telling you about a haunted house, the eyewitness will usually be their cousin's friend.

arensb reviewed Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I by David Fitzgerald

Review of 'Jesus' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Fitzgerald is not a Bible scholar, so take this book with a grain (but only a grain) of salt, the same way you'd read a science book written by someone who's a science popularizer rather than a scientist.
Although the view he presents, that Jesus Christ is entirely mythical, is far from mainstream, it seems defensible.
For one thing, as he takes pains to explain, entire field of Bible studies tends to attract people who already believe that Jesus is real, and is thus biased in that direction. But if scholars like Bart Ehrman, Richard Carrier, and Robert Price can be believed, and I think they can, solid historical evidence is in very short supply.
All in all Fitzgerald does a good job of presenting reasons to think that the gospels have been copied, recopied, edited, and adapted from earlier stories that, once you strip away the myths, exaggerations, and …

Fitzgerald is not a Bible scholar, so take this book with a grain (but only a grain) of salt, the same way you'd read a science book written by someone who's a science popularizer rather than a scientist.
Although the view he presents, that Jesus Christ is entirely mythical, is far from mainstream, it seems defensible.
For one thing, as he takes pains to explain, entire field of Bible studies tends to attract people who already believe that Jesus is real, and is thus biased in that direction. But if scholars like Bart Ehrman, Richard Carrier, and Robert Price can be believed, and I think they can, solid historical evidence is in very short supply.
All in all Fitzgerald does a good job of presenting reasons to think that the gospels have been copied, recopied, edited, and adapted from earlier stories that, once you strip away the myths, exaggerations, and forgeries, there's no real core left.

/dev/tea

rated it

Dec. 4, 2022