The Age of Reason: Examination of the Prophecies [Paperback]

Thomas Paine (Author), Frank R. Zindler (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1993

Until the publication of this annotated edition, Thomas Paine's third part of "The Age Of Reason" was extremely rare and almost unknown. Titled "Examination of the Prophecies," the book examines all the supposed prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament alleged by the evangelists of the New Testament. With great wit and penetrating logic, Paine showed that not one of the Old Testament passages cited had anything to do with the Christian's would-be Messiah. Paine appears to have been the first writer in English to suggest that Jesus was not an historical figure.

Frank R. Zindler's marginal notes and commentary examine the Greek and Hebrew texts of the verses being discussed. They show that Paine, who knew no ancient languages and knew of none of the important biblical manuscripts that would be discovered after his death, was astonishingly correct in his critique.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The "filthy little atheist" whose memory Theodore Roosevelt reviled was no less than the man who first uttered and printed the name "The United States of America." The object of Roosevelt's scorn was Citizen Thomas Paine — born an Englishman at Thetford, on January 29, 1737, died an American on June 8, 1809. His three-part "The Age of Reason" had the purpose of liberating the human mind from the bonds of servitude in which priestcraft had held it since the dawn of civilization.

Frank R. Zindler, formerly a professor of biology and geology in the SUNY system, has been the managing editor of American Atheist Press since the brutal murder in 1995 of American Atheists' founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her family. His most recent book is "The Jesus the Jews Never Knew," which demonstrates that the ancient Jews never heard of Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, they had never heard of Nazareth either.

Product Details

• Paperback: 95 pages
• Publisher: American Atheist Press (December 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0910309701
• ISBN-13: 978-0910309707
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,225,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prophecies, September 5, 2001

By 

Doug King (Blaine WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Age of Reason: Examination of the Prophecies (Paperback)

This book is a excellent antidote to books like "Evidence that Demands a Verdict" that fool unsuspecting readers into the validity of the Bible. Paine's work "Examination of Prophecies Age of Reason" examines one by one, each alledged prophecy and compares them to the Old Testament to determine if the texts where prophecies or not. It's a superb work on the NT but really belongs with a Christian, he needs to read it much more than a non-believer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A look at out-of-context prophecies., June 4, 2000

By 

"lanceomatic" (Piscataway, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Age of Reason: Examination of the Prophecies (Paperback)

Many Christians cite Old Testament passages as prophecies of Jesus that appear in the New Testament. In this work, Thomas Paine exposes all of the so-called prophecies as either irrelevant or taken out of context from the original Old Testament passages. This is the Third Section of his masterwork "The Age Of Reason" which does not make all editions, due to its' content, yet it is probably the most vital section. This particular edition is made even all the more valued by the footnotes of American Atheist scholar and writer Frank Zindler. He does an excellent job in clarifying the Greek and Hebrew grammar problems and also in making certain chronologies clearer. This is an excellent book for the debunker of Biblical claims.