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Ecce Homo! An Eighteenth Century Life of Jesus (History of Religions in Translation, No. 1)

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Here you have a true, overlooked, ignored, and underappreciated masterpiece. This is a critical edition of the 1799 English translation of Baron d'Holbach's "Histoire critique de Jésus-Christ," the first known biography of Jesus ever produced. While Baron d'Holbach, the reknowned atheistical philosophe, has received credit for this work, the bulk of the work is actually based upon a manuscript produced by a now unknown French deist. Nevertheless, his mark is seen throughout the text, as he made a large number additions and notes to the text, and not to mention the entire text of the preface as well as the final three chapters. Although d'Holbach clearly based the work on the text of someone else, the charge of the editor that he was guilty of plagiarism is clearly unwarranted, as the work was published under a false name, and his involvement in the production of the work, in addition to his others, was always kept tightly concealed.

Regardless, the text itself is basically an analysis of the life and events of Jesus Christ. He begins with the various prophecies relating to the birth of Jesus, and then quickly moves on to such issues as the Virgin birth, his childhood, and so on. Throughout the work, the absurdities, distortions, and dogmas of the New Testament are given no credence. This is especially evident when the many "miracles" performed by Jesus are discussed. These events, quite astutely, are attributed more to the crafty nature of Jesus as well as the extreme credulity of those who he chooses to dupe. In addition to this, he also places the moral doctrines of Jesus under strict scrutiny, ultimately revealing them to be destructive of society as well as contrary to the very nature of man.

Some of his sharpest comments however, are reserved for the death of Jesus and his supposed resurrection. The resurrection is revealed to be a complete sham and myth, utterly unsupported by any reasonable, coherent, or objective documentation. Instead, he holds that it was merely a ploy used by his close inner circle to bring the foolish statements of their deceased leader to their fruition, and thus advance their cause even further. Nonetheless, his most caustic comments are reserved for the last two chapters, in which he reviews his critique of Jesus' life and teachings, and extends his analysis to the history of Christianity following his death. Here he concludes that Christianity is not only destructive in itself, but that its actual application and institutionalisation has caused the world an endless amount of suffering by allowing tyrants both temporal and spritual to oppress, rob, exploit, and enslave the bulk of mankind, while stiffling true learning, science, morality, and progress. His solution, to all of this, is of course the complete renunciation of religion, and the construction of a rational morality based upon the solid foundation of nature. For this, however, one will have to consult his other great works, in particular his great tome, "The System of Nature." This volume, however, is primarily an exercise in destruction. While this is almost certainly too strong a medicine for most "believers," those who have freed their minds from the shackles of faith will find this a welcome addition to their libraries.

As with virtually all other writings attributed to d'Holbach or his editorship, Ecce Homo is an entertaining document from the early days of the critique of religion. Jesus' miracles were staged and his followers naïve; all of Christianity is either fooled or part of a shady conspiracy, which keeps people in mental shackles for the benefit of the few.
D'Holbach's manipulation theory does not really grasp why and how people turn to religion, and the rationalist account of Jesus' life is crude and not a very likely scenario of how Christianity and its myths came into being. The book does its job as a reminder of the contradictions and improbabilities in the Bible,which theologists have spent the past 200 years to gloss over and dissolve into higher nonsense of their day. Also, d'Holbach's and the unknown collaborators' scenario is really entertaining.
Unluckily, the book has been edited by someone taking great offense in criticisms of his religious beliefs. In the preface, d'Holbach is baselessly accused of plagiarism, lying and deceiving. The entire early enlightenment literature is brushed aside as "not represent[ing] any particularly innovative thought" (p. 4). The original translation by George Houston from 1799 is enhanced by adding useless footnotes to the Bible, and modernizing the language so as to adhere to today's standards of gender neutral speech (mankind, man = humanity etc.). The original translator's introduction is omitted.
The book remains great within the limits of its time. The edition is horrible. "Slandering" would be a better definition of it than "critical". A critical edition would be great to have in the future. Until there is one, the Gordon Press reprint of the original remains by far superior to this edition.