The Jesus Legend [Paperback]

George Albert Wells (Author), R. Joseph Hoffman (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1996

Did Jesus actually exist as a historical personage roughly corresponding to the various stories given in the four New Testament gospels and other Christian documents? Was he really born in Bethlehem and crucified by Pilate?

In The Jesus Legend, G.A. Wells shows how the story of Jesus developed through telling and re-telling, from an early version in the letters of Paul (who does not mention Jesus in connection with any specific time or place) to the more elaborate and detailed picture later presented in the gospels.

"G.A. Wells knows thoroughly the works of those scholars who, like himself, have devoted much of their lives to asking, 'Who is Jesus Christ?'. In The Jesus Legend, he once again exemplifies first-rate historical investigation and praiseworthy biblical scholarship. I know of no author who has shed more light on the question of how Christianity came into being". -- J.E. Barnhart University of North Texas

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this forcefully argued book, Wells (What's in a Name, Open Court, 1993) presents evidence for the thesis that the New Testament writings form a part of a developing legendary tradition concerning the earthly life of Jesus. The written tradition, he argues, begins from the Pauline letters and early Christian epistles, develops through later epistles such as 1 Corinthians, continues in the full descriptions of Jesus' appearances, and culminates in descriptions of the resurrection itself. Besides evaluating the reliability of the documentary evidence and manuscript traditions and the role of anti-Semitism in the Gospels, Wells engages incisively the works of the most ardent critics of the mythicist view of Jesus, e.g., J. Redford, J.P. Meier, and J.W. Montgomery. Not all readers will agree with the scheme of dating the New Testament writings on which Well's thesis depends, but his critical treatment is nothing less than exemplary. For theological research libraries and readers of popular religious books.
Robert H. O'Connell, Denver, Col.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The Jesus Legend shows how the story of Jesus developed through telling and re-telling, from an early version in the letters of Paul (who does not mention Jesus in connection with any specific time or place) to the more elaborate and detailed picture later presented in the gospels. Professor Wells discusses the earliest Pagan and Jewish references to Jesus, the dating of the various New Testament documents and the contradictions among them, the authorship of documents as indicated by stylometric analysis, the influence of antisemitism in early Christianity, and the various stratagems resorted to by apologists to deflect historical criticism. Wells also develops his argument by giving detailed answers to recent critics of the mythicist view of Jesus. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company (November 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812693345
• ISBN-13: 978-0812693348
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,457,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched, well-written, fair, repetitious, July 29, 2003

By 

Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jesus Legend (Paperback)

Once you have read one of Professor Well's books you have read them all. They are like a Symphony in which every movement is a variation of the same theme. That being said, each is a good reads.
The author knows the details of the Gospels better than 99% of most preachers. He also knows the historical setting, the language and cultural landscape. While I may or may not agree that a historical person existed from whom a religion emanated, I will agree that there is no evidence (besides the Bible) that a "God" lived in Palestine, rose from the dead and ascended to his new home in the clouds.

Wells has made the same arguments numerous times - Paul wrote before the Gospels and knew nothing of a historical Jesus, the Gospels began the biography of the Messiah and each succeeding Gospel not only grew more elaborate but started further in the past. Mark opened with the Baptism of the adult man, Mathew and Luke at the birth and John at the beginning of time ("In the Beginning was the Word..."). There are no verifiable historical documents on this person which seems strange if folks were raised from the dead or made to walk or 5,000 people were fed from a small lunch.

I should add that Wells is extremely fair and even empathetic to his scholastic foes. He is always respectful, never crude or angry. He even allows them to speak in their own words before demolishing their argument. Get one of the books and enjoy.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Obvious scholarship, but not for the non-theologian, July 31, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jesus Legend (Paperback)

I'll open with the caveat that it is clear that this book is prime intellectual material; however, if you don't know the whos, wheres, and why nots of Christianity and Judaism, including the complete biblical vocabulary, then this might not be the book for you. I purchased The Jesus Legend hoping to learn an objective lesson about the life and times of Jesus and the creation of the church. Unfortunately for me, and I would assume anyone without a substantial grounding in theology and the history of Christianity, it quickly becomes obscure. Don't try to read it on an airplane without a dictionary, for example. Furthermore, the author spends a great deal of time defending his earlier works and counter attacking his critics, so it isn't a good first entry into an understanding of the historical Jesus. I would appreciate any emailed suggestions from other interested secular surfers on what that book might be.

47 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A serious study of how the christian beliefs were developed, July 23, 1999

By 

Ricardo Madeira (Portugal) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jesus Legend (Paperback)

Professor Wells exposes quite persuasively the sham made by some catholic and protestant Bible comentators in order to hide the historical unreliability of the New Testament and their characters. People tend to believe that something which everybody is familiar with has to be true, but even at the end of last century people and scholars satirized Darwin because of his unbiblical version of the creation of man - well, nowadays, people don't think still that Adam and Eve were real historical characters. Scholars of every scientific field have shown the Bible to be innacurate in several ways, including in History, yet the christian Churches still resist to give up some pieces of our History which were written exclusively on the Bible and that have no sort of consistency whatsoever. I think that the historical pursuit of thr real Jesus or the legend that was built around a purely mythical Christ will have a meaning so great in the field of History, as the discoveries of Galileo and Darwin had in the field of Science. Wells builds his argument about how the legend of Jesus developed by trying to see the implications of the theological evolution seen if we put the early epistles of Paul, the sayings attributed to the Q gospel, the synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John in their correct chronological order (as I have ordered them). Then we can see how the notion of the existence of Jesus Christ changed in this short period of 50 or 60 years: from a supernatural risen Christ with no specific historical existence in Paul and a kind of Cynic teacher in Q appeared several inconsistent stories about a Son of God cruxified by Pilate. The writers of the gospels weren't ancient historians as many people believe - their writings reflected the problems of their small community and the theological goals of their leaders: for every problem which aroused a christian prophet built a saying of Jesus or a miracle made by him which supported his own point of view on the issue. And so appeared so many contradictory sayings of Jesus with no specific chronogical order or geographical background in the gospels. If we believe that the gospels show us the real teachings of Jesus, then we had to say that Jesus at the very same time was: a Jewish who obeyed the Law, an anti-Semitic leader, a miracle-worker who acted for the crouds and at the same time a man who tried to act anonimous (but how can a great miracle-worker who acts for the crouds be anonimous?). Also, the writers of the gospels show us a group of 12 incredibly stupid apostles and don't date the Passion at the same time. Many of the events described in the New Testament appear to be things just build to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies. Yet, I think that there were several things forgotten by Wells: the inconsistent dating made by the gospels of Jesus supernatural birth and the inconsistency of the Passion events in the Roman world background: Pilate was a cruel man and wouldn't defend a man accused of social disorder; also, Pilate wouldn't deliver Jesus to Antipas, the lord of Galilea, because he had no kind of power in Jerusalem. Also, Wells should have given some further discussion of the thesis made around the Dead Sea Scrolls and the book can, perhaps, confuse a reader somewhat less informed in this matter because of its many citations of other scholars and the several critics made to their books. Wells finishes his book criticizing the distortion of the Scriptures made by christian Bible commentators for support of their conservative ethics: they only pick up some epic phrases, get rid of some complicated sayings by explaing that they're only methaphorical or with no significant meaning and convince others of a great, uniformal moral written on the Bible. Yet, there is no uniformal moral on the many books of the Bible, because they were written by several different people, in many different backgrounds and in the course of many centuries. However, we have to resist this view of the great morals given by the Bible, because the teachings of Jesus and the Jewish prophets are not as pacific as they say: in the Old Testament God says to Moses to kill all the homossexuals, the worshippers of idols, the adulterous and maim the criminals, then God tells David to massacre every living person of the unjewish population in the land of Israel - including women and children; finally, Jesus prohibits the divorce between christians and says he is the only way to God and that the Jews will all be condemned to Hell - some epistles even say that everyone who doesn't worship Jesus Christ is a son of the Devil. Clearly, the precepts of the equality of all men in God's eyes were only meant to christian believers and not to unbelievers (who are described as the assassins of Christ and sons of the Devil). I believe that most people never read one piece of the Bible, because if people did so they wouldn't still think that Jesus was a peaceful man and that the Bible teaches only good things which can be applied in our real lives.

Carlos madeira 20th of July of 1999