Jesus: One Hundred Years Before Christ (Hardcover)

~ Alvar Ellegard (Author) "We start our investigation of earliest Christianity with Paul, whose letters are admitted by all scholars to be the earliest unquestionably Christian writings..." (more)
Key Phrases: physical brother, earliest apostles, other early texts, Old Testament, Teacher of Righteousness, New Testament (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These two books offer an enormous contrast. While Fredriksen provides a balanced, carefully reasoned, scholarly study of the historical Jesus, Ellegard's conclusions can only be described as preposterous. Ellegard (formerly dean, Univ. of G?teburg, Sweden) is clearly familiar with some mainline biblical scholarship, but he always opts for the minority view and stretches it beyond reason. For example, he believes that the Gospels were written in the second century C.E. and traces the origin of Christianity to "a group of pious Jews called the Essenes" (the Dead Sea Scrolls group). Then, based on this highly questionable and twisted "evidence," he leaps to several unjustified conclusions: that Jesus lived long before he was supposed to have and that his disciples had only "ecstatic visions" of him and never knew him in the flesh. The Gospel writers, he suggests, then mistook their visions for real events and created fictitious accounts of Jesus' life. Fredriksen (scripture, Boston Univ.), on the other hand, explores the conundrum of a well-established historical fact--namely, that Jesus was executed by the Roman prefect Pilate as a political insurrectionist while his followers were not. She concludes that it was the volatile mix of excited pilgrims in Jerusalem for Passover and their acclaim of Jesus at a time when Pilate was especially interested in keeping the peace that led to his death. Her balanced, well-written work could serve as a kind of introduction to the content and methodology scholars use in the study of the historical Jesus and is highly recommended for any library. Ellegard's work would only be useful as an example of the false conclusions that result when questionable opinion is stretched beyond reasonable limits.
-David Bourquin, California State Univ., San Bernardino
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Deserves a serious look not just for its ingenuity but also for the questions it raises. -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879517204
• ISBN-13: 978-0879517205
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,021,712 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A fresh look at some familiar material, December 13, 1999

By	Jake Jones "JJ" (USA) - See all my reviews

Alvar Ellegard's book, "JESUS, One Hundred Years before Christ" provides a fresh look at some familiar material. For those who are not familiar, the thesis is that Jesus did not live in Paul's recent past, and that the Gospels are creative fabrications. Professor G.A. Wells has published several excellent books on this subject. Professor Kamil Salabi has written a strange book entitled, "Conspiracy in Jerusalem: The Secret Origins of Jesus". Salabi's unconvincing ideas (that Jesus and Isa of the Koran were two different people)have been resurrected in recent books by Douglas Lockhart. Earl Doherty's website is even stronger. He maintains that Jesus did not exist at all, but developed from a "Theology of the Son". Check that site out! The argument rests on several premises. First is the argument from silence. Because Paul does not mention many biographical detail's of Jesus' life, the details had not yet been invented. This includes an "explaining away" of Pauline verses that indicate otherwise. This effort is aided by limiting the number of epistles genuinely written by Paul. The Gospels and Acts are then dated unusually late, pushing the dates of composition well into the second century. Dean Ellegard's contribution is to date several non-Canonical sources as unusually early. These include "1 Clement", "The Pator of Hermas", "The Teachings of the Apostles", and "Barnabas". These works are dated as early as Paul's epistles, rather than the late second century dates that are more commonly assigned. The point is that these books have few if any biographical details of Jesus' life. Alvar Ellegard then rounds it all out, by identifying the Essene Teacher of Righteousness as the distant historical origin of Jesus.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent study, October 2, 2001

By	Adam Coolich (Flint, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This easy-to-read book is a must for those interested in the historical search for Jesus Christ. Ellegard's method of dating ancient Christian texts is very unique. He puts forth a convincing case for placing the Gospels in the 2nd century AD. He also argues an early date for several non-canonical Christian texts. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Ignatius, a 1st century church leader whose role in Church history was possibly more important than anyone could imagine. However, Ellegard's main thesis of equating Jesus with the Essene Teacher of Righteousness could be better supported. The texts studied in this book can easily support an entirely spiritual Jesus within the realm of the 1st century Platonic universe. But this does not take away from the premise that Christianity could ultimately be based on a myth. Ellegard's book as a whole provides a firm argument against an historical Jesus.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Original research. Worth a close read., April 3, 2004

By	Shachar Link (Douglaston, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Jesus: One Hundred Years Before Christ (Paperback)

I've read several books representing "minority" views on the historical Jesus, and this one seems the most thought-out to me. The others are "The Jesus Mysteries" and "Jesus Christ, Sun of God," both of which are interesting, but more speculative than Ellegard's. Ellegard acknowledges when he is being speculative, but also sets forth in welcome detail the evidence for his ideas. He is deeply aware of counterarguments and deals with them at every turn. His linguistic analysis, while not conclusive (can any evidence about the historical Jesus be conclusive?), is quite convincing in my (amateur) opinion. Perhaps the most fruitful line of study would be some combination of Ellegard's thesis with the "purely mythical Jesus" thesis. Has anyone pursued that?

In any case, if you want solid arguments raising serious doubts about the existence of the 1st century Jesus, and a well-considered and careful hypothesis as to who Paul was actually referring to, Ellegard deserves serious consideration.