Was Jesus Christ truly the divine Son of God who walked the earth 2,000 years ago? How can we be sure the gospel story is an accurate and infallibly recorded historical account? When the gospels are examined scientifically, can we truthfully uphold them as "inerrant?" Is it possible to assert honestly and ethically that the Bible is the inspired Word of God?
The answers to these questions and many more may surprise and shock you! Is the New Testament a "historical record" or "factual biography" of what really happened, or a tool for the priesthood to lay down doctrines and dogma as they were developed over the centuries?
Was Jesus the Jewish Messiah?
Was Christ the Savior of the World?
Was He a Cynic sage or a political rebel?
Or was Jesus Christ something altogether different?
Subjects in this fascinating "CSI-style" investigation by controversial independent scholar of religious history D.M. Murdock aka "Acharya S" include:
Foreword by Dr. Robert M. Price
The Gospel According to Matthew
The Nativity of Jesus Christ
The Baptism and Temptation
The Calling of the Disciples
The Sermon on the Mount
The Lord's Prayer
Healing of the Sick and Casting out Demons
The Mission of the Twelve
Working on the Sabbath
John the Baptist Beheaded
Walking on Water
The Canaanite Woman
Peter the "Rock"
The Transfiguration
Becoming like Children
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven
Entry into Jerusalem
Driving out the Moneychangers
Cursing the Fig Tree
Signs of the Times/Second Coming
Jesus's Anointment with Oil
The Last Supper
The Garden of Gethsemane
The Betrayal by Judas
Christ's Trial
The Passion and Crucifixion
The Resurrection of the Dead
The Empty Tomb
The Gospel According to Mark
Was Mark First?
Comparison of Matthew and Mark
The Missing Scriptures
The Gospel According to Luke
Chronological Discrepancies
Luke's Tenor
The Gospel According to John
Authentic or Adulterated?
Who Killed Jesus?
Textual Harmonization
Inspired Originals?
Scribal Scalliwags
Error-Filled Copies
Eyewitness Accounts or Compilations?
The Gospel Dates
Anonymous and Pseudonymous Authors
According to Whom?
"Back in the Day..."
The Lukan Prologue
Irenaeus, "Father of the Catholic Canon"
Church Father and Bishop Papias
Justin Martyr
The Rylands Papyrus
Late Dating of the Gospels?
Jesus Outside of the Bible
Titus Flavius Josephus
Pliny the Younger
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
Publius/Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
Thallus, Phlegon and Mara Bar-Serapion, et al.
The Talmud
Gnostic Sources
Extrabiblical Christian Sources
Who are Elijah and Elisha?
Jesus as Fulfillment of Prophecy
Questions about the Gospel Story
Miracles, Impossibilities and Implausibilities
Failed Prophecies
Contradictions and Inconsistencies
Errors in Time and Place
Chronological Problems
Translation Errors and Language Problems
Illogic and Irrationality
Jesus's Character
Repellant Deeds, Sayings and Doctrines
Apology Accepted?
"It Doesn't Matter?"
Four Camera Angles
What Jesus Felt or Thought
History or Propaganda?
A Uniquely Divine Birth?
Salvation is from the Jews?
Son of Joseph?
Massacre or Myth?
Son of God?
The Resurrection of Lazarus?
The Naked Youth
The "Twelve"
The Sacred Meal
The Bloody Sweat
The Trial and Crucifixion
The Sun of Righteousness
The Sacred Spear and The Side-Wounding
The Empty Tomb Redux
The Ascension into Heaven
The Sayings of Jesus?
Conclusion
Terror in the Name of God
Vacuous Christianity?
This detailed but succinct analysis includes quotes from Christian authorities, apologists and evangelists, as well as New Testament scholars, such as:
John Ankerberg
Craig L. Blomberg
F.F. Bruce
William Lane Craig
John Dominic Crossan
Bart Ehrman
Norman Geisler
Gary Habermas
Josh McDowell
John P. Meier
Bruce M. Metzger
J.P. Moreland
Ronald H. Nash
Lee Strobel
Merrill C. Tenney
Ben Witherington
Edwin Yamauchi
Using the Bible itself, as well as the research of these individuals and others, Murdock demonstrates that what you see is not what you get when it comes to Christ and Christianity.
Review
Who Was Jesus? is a fine work, characterized by your unique ability to spot neglected implications and aspects of debates... --Robert M. Price, Ph.D, The Pre-Nicene New Testament
D.M. Murdock, aka "Acharya S," has written a really fine introduction to the problem of the Historical Jesus. She couches everything in the most basic terms, comprehensible to the layman, and lays out the problem and all the issues in a both really readable and digestible form. Her charts are insightful and extremely useful and presented in such a way as to make things immediately plausible to the general reader. I can recommend her work whole-heartedly for anyone on a world-wide basis who really wants to know what is at stake in approaching and coming to terms with the real person behind the literary image provided by those who created the story of "Jesus." --Robert H. Eisenman, Ph.D, The New Testament Code
I loved this book. It is absolutely superb in every way, from the eloquence of the writing to the integrity of the scholarship. This book should be required reading in every American classroom.... Ms. Murdock is one of only a tiny number of scholars with the richly diverse academic background (and the necessary courage) to adequately address the question of whether Jesus Christ truly existed as a walking-talking figure in first-century Palestine. This question, and many others related to New Testament reliability, are directly confronted and satisfyingly answered in Who Was Jesus? My personal recommendation is that Who Was Jesus? should be the first book purchased and studied by anyone, atheist or true believer, who wants to debate Jesus' existence and the Bible's veracity.... You should therefore make this book priority reading even over The God Delusion, God is Not Great and other excellent but, in my opinion, less important books than Murdock's! .... --David Mills, Atheist Universe
I've known people with triple Ph.D's who haven't come close to the scholarship here. I think I've read every popular alternative theory about Jesus that has come down the pike--with Who Was Jesus? I was very impressed. --Pastor David Bruce, M.Div Pastor David Bruce, M.Div Pastor David Bruce, M.Div, HollywoodJesus.com
Thirty years ago, when in divinity school, I might have had second thoughts about becoming an Episcopal priest if a book like D. M. Murdock's Who Was Jesus? had been available to me. Murdock's book, probably the best of this genre - written with clarity, precision, and conviction - unpacks most of the nonsense and mythology surrounding the ancient Hebrew figure called Jesus and presents a compelling picture of a mythological amalgam to counter most of the misinformation and wishful-thinking that passes for Christian apologetics today. -- Bob Semes, Retired Professor of History and Religion
From the Author
Please note that this is a new cover and slightly revised edition of the same book with the light-blue cover and solar flare in the center.
I wrote this book, Who Was Jesus?, after many people asked me to produce a simple and easy-to-read introduction to the problems with the New Testament, both in its creation/history and within the text itself. This book has been deemed "kinder and gentler" by one Christian apologist, as it more-or-less gently leads the reader from a neutral recitation of the gospel story according to Matthew, proceeding through the other gospels and showing how they differ, into the problems with the dating of the canonical gospels, as well as the lack of mention of Jesus Christ, Christians or Christianity in the works of dozens of writers during the first and second centuries, and so on.
This book differs from my others in that it focuses on the Christian texts themselves, mainly limited to the four canonical gospels, with only a few, brief discussions relating some comparative mythology. It contains information that was difficult to find and does not appear in my other works, such as the writings of early Church fathers in which they discuss the creation of the canonical gospels as having taken place during what we now call the second century.
The book is also unique in that it uses the works of many well-respected Christian authorities and apologists, as well as New Testament scholars and theologians, revealing a strain of critical scholarship that few laymen are familiar with.
Many people have found it useful to provide copies of Who Was Jesus? to their Christian friends and family members, so they too can learn about the problems with the New Testament that scholars have addressed over the past several centuries into the most modern times.
Description:
Was Jesus Christ truly the divine Son of God who walked the earth 2,000 years ago? How can we be sure the gospel story is an accurate and infallibly recorded historical account? When the gospels are examined scientifically, can we truthfully uphold them as "inerrant?" Is it possible to assert honestly and ethically that the Bible is the inspired Word of God?
The answers to these questions and many more may surprise and shock you! Is the New Testament a "historical record" or "factual biography" of what really happened, or a tool for the priesthood to lay down doctrines and dogma as they were developed over the centuries?
Subjects in this fascinating "CSI-style" investigation by controversial independent scholar of religious history D.M. Murdock aka "Acharya S" include:
This detailed but succinct analysis includes quotes from Christian authorities, apologists and evangelists, as well as New Testament scholars, such as:
Using the Bible itself, as well as the research of these individuals and others, Murdock demonstrates that what you see is not what you get when it comes to Christ and Christianity.
Review
Who Was Jesus? is a fine work, characterized by your unique ability to spot neglected implications and aspects of debates... --Robert M. Price, Ph.D, The Pre-Nicene New Testament
D.M. Murdock, aka "Acharya S," has written a really fine introduction to the problem of the Historical Jesus. She couches everything in the most basic terms, comprehensible to the layman, and lays out the problem and all the issues in a both really readable and digestible form. Her charts are insightful and extremely useful and presented in such a way as to make things immediately plausible to the general reader. I can recommend her work whole-heartedly for anyone on a world-wide basis who really wants to know what is at stake in approaching and coming to terms with the real person behind the literary image provided by those who created the story of "Jesus." --Robert H. Eisenman, Ph.D, The New Testament Code
I loved this book. It is absolutely superb in every way, from the eloquence of the writing to the integrity of the scholarship. This book should be required reading in every American classroom.... Ms. Murdock is one of only a tiny number of scholars with the richly diverse academic background (and the necessary courage) to adequately address the question of whether Jesus Christ truly existed as a walking-talking figure in first-century Palestine. This question, and many others related to New Testament reliability, are directly confronted and satisfyingly answered in Who Was Jesus? My personal recommendation is that Who Was Jesus? should be the first book purchased and studied by anyone, atheist or true believer, who wants to debate Jesus' existence and the Bible's veracity.... You should therefore make this book priority reading even over The God Delusion, God is Not Great and other excellent but, in my opinion, less important books than Murdock's! .... --David Mills, Atheist Universe
I've known people with triple Ph.D's who haven't come close to the scholarship here. I think I've read every popular alternative theory about Jesus that has come down the pike--with Who Was Jesus? I was very impressed. --Pastor David Bruce, M.Div Pastor David Bruce, M.Div Pastor David Bruce, M.Div, HollywoodJesus.com
Thirty years ago, when in divinity school, I might have had second thoughts about becoming an Episcopal priest if a book like D. M. Murdock's Who Was Jesus? had been available to me. Murdock's book, probably the best of this genre - written with clarity, precision, and conviction - unpacks most of the nonsense and mythology surrounding the ancient Hebrew figure called Jesus and presents a compelling picture of a mythological amalgam to counter most of the misinformation and wishful-thinking that passes for Christian apologetics today. -- Bob Semes, Retired Professor of History and Religion
From the Author
Please note that this is a new cover and slightly revised edition of the same book with the light-blue cover and solar flare in the center.
I wrote this book, Who Was Jesus?, after many people asked me to produce a simple and easy-to-read introduction to the problems with the New Testament, both in its creation/history and within the text itself. This book has been deemed "kinder and gentler" by one Christian apologist, as it more-or-less gently leads the reader from a neutral recitation of the gospel story according to Matthew, proceeding through the other gospels and showing how they differ, into the problems with the dating of the canonical gospels, as well as the lack of mention of Jesus Christ, Christians or Christianity in the works of dozens of writers during the first and second centuries, and so on.
This book differs from my others in that it focuses on the Christian texts themselves, mainly limited to the four canonical gospels, with only a few, brief discussions relating some comparative mythology. It contains information that was difficult to find and does not appear in my other works, such as the writings of early Church fathers in which they discuss the creation of the canonical gospels as having taken place during what we now call the second century.
The book is also unique in that it uses the works of many well-respected Christian authorities and apologists, as well as New Testament scholars and theologians, revealing a strain of critical scholarship that few laymen are familiar with.
Many people have found it useful to provide copies of Who Was Jesus? to their Christian friends and family members, so they too can learn about the problems with the New Testament that scholars have addressed over the past several centuries into the most modern times.