Customer Reviews

The Historical Origin of Christianity

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Thank you to the author for having written such a scholarly work on the true historical account of the christian and catholic faiths. I came from an eastern catholic background and found much of what I had been taught in religous history and theology in this book, only re-told in a different light. The author presents the facts about the counsels of nicea along with the other "great" counsels of the ancient church, and relates to the reader what history teaches about them, AND what really occured. The image of jesus christ is nothing more than the image of Ptolemy I made into a god like icon and forced on a people who refused to accept it, and so history was twisted and perverted over centuries until those who refused to accept the "truth" of the church were gone, or almost non existant, and all that remained were those who believed the story told to them. Thus christianity was born. This book changed my faith, reading it will be an experience not to be missed.

A must read for believers and non-believers of "Jesus". I was extremely impressed with the depth of research and knowledge that went into the writing of this book. From a small child I was never, ever able to believe what I was taught about anything written in the bible. It always sounded too far fetched. For me, this author spells out the simple TRUTH. Thank you Brother Walter Williams.

Every human on earth is affected by religion in some way shape or form. This book lays down the foundation and dismantles a part of the Europeans institution. I recommend this piece of profound scholarship to anyone living in the Afrikan community in America and the world. A great follow-up is "The Historical Origins of Islam". Also read the appendix and the bibliography to any piece of literature that you read instead of simply believing. Read study and learn something that will liberate and free your mind.

Dear African-American truth seeker: Read this book. Read it again until it makes sense. Why? Because Prof. Williams shows you how and why we are in this spiritual wilderness. There are thousands of books written about the "life" of Jesus Christ, but this book singularly supersedes them all. Why? Because it clearly outlines the events that took place in the period of time known as B.C.(before Christ). To NOT know what took place historically (BEFORE CHRIST)is to be ill equipped to speak intelligently about the subject. BELIEF can not stand in the face of facts. For the reviewer that questions Prof Williams' sources - there are ample sources referenced in the bibliography to corroborate what he has written. Unlike religion, you do not need belief to grasp and understand what Prof. Williams has written here. You simply need the ability to study history. Sadly, church has taught(trained) our people to be anti-intellectual and thus unable to read and comprehend anything that is not written in the bible. If you are seeking truth(defined as: THAT which IS) - Prof. Williams has gifted us with it. No magic, no witchcraft - just actual, provable fact.

Those who read and liked this book may be happy to know that there are many other books dealing with and expanding on these themes.

The first one of course is Professor Doane's 1884 classic called Bible Myths which Mr. Williams cited in his bibliography. It talks about the similarity not only between Jesus and Egyptian myths but also myths of India as well.

More recently, Jesus scholar Burton Mack has done a lot of great books dealing with the origins of Christianity. Among them I would include: Who Wrote the New Testament and A Myth of Innocence.

Another recent Jesus scholar to deal with these issues is Thomas Sheehan whose excellent The First Coming laboriously follows the development of the Jesus story through the Pauline letters to four traditional gospels being Mark, Matthew, Luke and John.

As many are aware, a forum of some 200 Jesus scholars collaborated in the mid 90s to produce two excellent works relating to their views of the historical Jesus. Their two books -- The Acts of Jesus and The Gospels of Jesus -- are interesting reading for just how much they discount might have been said or done by a historical Jesus.

Interestingly enough, even if one finds themself in disagreement with Williams on the point that there was no historical Jesus, the works of Mack, Sheehan and the Jesus seminar all testify mightily to the proposition that his historical person may well have been subject to major mythical additions. A more recent example of this process are the mythical but not true stories related to George Washington (that he didn't lie about chopping down the cherry tree, that he threw a silver dollar across the Potomac, etc.).

Obviously, it should go without saying that Williams' more basic point -- that people of African origin should be proud of their heritage -- is an important one. One of the many reasons I feel this way is because recent genetic evidence proves that all humans are descended ultimately from an African origin...and at a time well before the founding of any of the world's now existant religions.

The chains of slavery must be broken, and we as African people must hand back the religions of our oppressors. Even though this book doesn't talk about the total myth of the exsoteric individuals like Jesus/Zeus/Serapis/Jupitar/Thor/Odin/Herakles/Mithra/Dionsyus/Muhammed and etc, it gives you a scope to how all these silly man-made religions were started, and besides all the so-called "saviors" name beforehand are all one and the same created spoofs.

This is an eye opening book with many,many facts that one can find by just dong a little reschearch.

Where are the footnotes? There's a bibliography but where did he get the information for his most 'profound' statements? This is an interesting story but when an author claims to know the intentions of people 2000 years ago he needs to clearly state his sources. Whoever claims that this book seals the deal for them is a person who read this book 'wanting' the 'answers' in this book.

I read this book with an open mind and finished with pages of questions that were raised and not answered. Now I'm rereading it and trying to find and read the books in the bibliography and find out who the authors are and what their agenda was. Everyone has an agenda.

This book is may be a starting point for the quest for truth but should not be an ending point. For a book that is supposed to be so critical to our people, the time should have been taken to carefully document everything.