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Did Jesus Exist Paperback – March, 1986

by George A. Wells (Author)

3 customer reviews

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Professor Wells argues that there was no historical Jesus, and in thus arguing he deals with the many recent writers who have interpreted the historical Jesus as some kind of political figure in the struggle against Rome, and calls in evidence the many contemporary theologians who agree with some of his arguments about early Christianity. The question at issue is what all the evidence adds up to. Does it establish that Jesus did or did not exist? Professor Wells concludes that the latter is the more likely hypothesis. This challenge to received thinking by both Christians and non-Christians is supported by much documentary evidence, and Professor Wells carefully examines all the relevant problems and answers all the relevant questions. He deliberately avoids polemic and speculation, and sticks so far as possible to the known facts and to rational inferences from the facts.

Product Details

Paperback: 250 pages
Publisher: Prometheus Books; 2 Revised edition (March 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0301860017
ISBN-13: 978-0301860015
Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.5 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,799,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #335876 in Books > Religion & Spirituality

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4.7 out of 5 stars

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44 of 53 people found the following review helpful

A much needed book in a landscape full of speculation

By A Customer on August 24, 2000

Format: Paperback

New Testament scholars, quick to dismiss evangelical leanings toward belief that the Gospels are verbatim accounts by eyewitnesses, should think again if they think they have silenced their critics.
Wells has shown that questioning a few assumptions can lead to vastly different conclusions. The assumption he questions is that the general framework of the gospel accounts is based in fact. His different conclusion is that the Jesus that Christians know and love is mostly or all a legendary character.
Basically, taking Paul's earliest writings (which predate the gospels), Wells examines the growth of a tradition which added more and more on to the idea of Jesus, which is how myths work.
Scholars have turned their nose up to this theory, citing that Wells is not accepted in scholarly circles and that he is just a German professor, instead of providing some reasons that Wells's inference from the known data CAN'T work.
Read and enjoy. Crossan, eat your heart out.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

A REVISION OF THIS BOOK BY THE PRIMARY "JESUS MYTH" ADVOCATE

By Steven H Propp TOP 100 REVIEWER on July 30, 2013

Format: Paperback

George Albert Wells (born 1926) is an Emeritus Professor of German at Birkbeck, University of London. He also wrote books such as The Historical Evidence for Jesus, Who Was Jesus?, The Jesus Legend, etc. This 1986 edition is a revision of his 1975 book.

He wrote in the Introduction, "In my earlier book, The Jesus of the early Christians: A study in Christian origins... my purpose was to show the difficulties and problems which arise when the gospels are interpreted as historical records, and how Christianity could have arisen even had there been no historical Jesus... In the present book I discuss... more fully... the gospel evidence for Jesus' existence... In this present book, I try to indicate more fully what motives led to their [gospels'] composition." (Pg. 2-3)

Of the quotations in Josephus [The Works of Flavius Josephus, Vol. IV], he comments, "In Josephus' entire work the word 'Christ' occurs only in the two passages about Jesus and his brother James. This hardly strengthens the case for their authenticity... The words have the character of a brief marginal gloss, later incorporated innocently into the text.Read more ›

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14 of 35 people found the following review helpful

Awesome

By Nasher on December 15, 1999

Format: Paperback

To make this short, The best book on Jesus using historical facts

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