The Historical Evidence for Jesus (Paperback)

by G. A. Wells (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In this thoroughly researched study, G A Wells has squarely faced the question of whether a man named Jesus lived, preached, healed, and died in Palestine during the early years of the first century of the Christian era - or indeed, at any time. Building on the biblical studies of Christian theologians, Dr. Wells soberly demonstrates that we have no reliable eyewitnesses to the events depicted in the New Testament. He publicises a fact known to theological scholars but little-known in the average Christian congregation: that the order of books of the New Testament is not an accurate chronological arrangement. Indeed, Paul, who never saw Jesus, wrote his epistles to early Christian congregations before the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John were written. It may come as a great surprise to Christians and other monotheists, to agnostics, atheists, and humanists alike, that 'the earliest references to the historical Jesus are so vague that it is not necessary to hold that he ever existed; the rise of Christianity can, from the undoubtedly historical antecedents, be explained quite well without him; and, reasons can be given to show why, from about A.D. 80 or 90, Christians began to suppose that he had lived in Palestine about fifty years earlier'. "The Historical Evidence for Jesus" is not a frontal attack on Christians per se; rather it is an easily understood but scholarly examination of the evidence for many long-accepted notions about the 'biography' of the man called Jesus. This book takes up and quotes extensively from the Epistles and the Gospels of the New Testament, thus letting the evidence speak for itself in words familiar to every Bible reader. For example, Wells closely compares what Paul said about Jesus with what the author of Matthew, who lived later, wrote of him. Then he explains why these discrepancies apparently exist. Startling indeed is his proof that 'earlier writers sometimes make statements which positively exclude the idea that Jesus worked miracles, delivered certain teachings, or suffered under Pilate'. There is also interesting material on the topics of Jesus' supposed family, the so-called Shroud of Turin, and the myth-making that even today surrounds the figure of Jesus. Dr Wells does not, however, attempt to demolish belief in God or the ethical precepts held by Christians. His presentation is always fair and couched in moderate tones.

Product Details

• Paperback: 265 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (January 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087975429X
• ISBN-13: 978-0879754297
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #560,446 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly, but difficult to read, April 11, 2006

By	Dr. James Gardner (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Professor Wells was a professor of German at Birkbeck College in London and produced several books on the life of Jesus (The Jesus of the Early Christians in 1971, Did Jesus Exist in 1975, The Jesus Myth 1999), of which this book is the 3rd and perhaps best known. Obviously a bright scholar, his writing style tends toward the academic, with endless summaries of other people's opinions along with the appropriate citations. This can be extremely valuable to researchers, but it makes for difficult reading. In this particular case, the poor quality of the book adds to the difficulties.

Laying aside the aesthetics and writing style, Wells provides an excellent description of the difficulties in using New Testament material for biographical purposes. From there he proceeds to identify the Jesus of Paul and other first Century pre-Gospel writers, who is very different from the Jesus of the Gospels. Wells tends to believe that there is little we can really know about the historical Jesus, and he goes to great lengths to explain the reasons why it is unlikely that Jesus performed miracles, had brothers and sisters, spoke in parables, etc.

Wells is excruciatingly fair in his approach, usually giving both sides of the argument, and explaining his own position.

In summary, this is a scholarly book that has good material, but it suffers from an academic penchant to spend too much time offering other people's research. Were Professor Wells able to take his enormous knowledge and advance his own theory, this book would offer a greater contribution.

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Researched, Original, Daring, February 26, 2003

By	Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Religious faith is probably the single most important idea in the Western world. It has compelled people to travel to distant lands, to help those less needy, to give up fortunes to those in need and to dedicated one's life to service and/or study of a higher power. Wells does not contest this. More refreshingly, he does not address the issue with the anger, scorn or vicious condescension often found in works like this. (Don't authors who engage in this invective realize how they sabotage whatever hope there was of making a point?)

Wells has been "preaching" the Gospel of a Christianity without a historical Jesus for some time. His series on this subject contains brilliant insights though the themes are repetitive. To wit, there is no external documented record of the man "Jesus" (besides an interpolated Josephus), Paul seems never to have heard of a Jesus of history, the Christ story is like others of that time, Paul was either mixed up or refining a philosophy involving the ancient "Wisdom" doctrines, etc...

What bothers me about his conclusions is that for some reason a group of people believed in "Someone" enough to die for this belief. This in itself is not radical: There are numerous incidents of apparently rational people defending to the death such ideologies as fascism, communism, racism and tribalism. The actions of the first Christians make sense only if they truly believed that their Savior was a real person at one time. The weakness in Well's thesis is explaining how early believers totally misconstrued Paul's message in an amazingly twisted act of interpretation. Even more, how did the whole idea of Jesus story get started?

Wells is best at using scholarship to highlight obvious changes or additions to the text, to point out contradictions or more revealingly - how the life of Jesus became more detailed as one moved further from the date he lived. Paul seems to have matched "someone" with several unrelated prophecies in the Old Testament and arrived at a new theology. He seems totally unaware of a historical "Jesus" - only a risen "Christ". This is reminiscent of the modern German school of Bibical criticism that accepts a Jesus of faith if not a Jesus of history - a preposterous viewpoint in my opinion.

Not only is Wells fair, he is also just, quoting scholars with differing opinions and admitting the possibility of truth to their ideas. The book contains numerous footnotes, references to hosts of scholarly works and an excellent bibliography. This is an excellent book sure to provoke discussion.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to bible study for non-christians, January 6, 2000

By A Customer

The book reviews existing evidence about the dates and derivations of most of the books of the new testament. Very rationally presented, a little verbose at times but solid.