Having dabbled in some of the online works regarding Jesus mythicism about a decade ago, but not pursuing it much further, in the last couple of years I’ve rekindled that interest and begun reading both sides of the debate. I decided that prior to reading Dr. Carrier’s magnum opus on the topic (“On the Historicity of Jesus”), that I would first read the book that piqued Dr. Carrier’s interest enough to take on the historicity challenge – Doherty’s book here, “The Jesus Puzzle.”
I’ll grant you, this book is now nearly two decades old, and my review is beyond late. However, the book still seems to have enough interest that I decided to read and review it anyway. I read the 2005 edition, not that that matters.
First, the praise:
Overall, this is a fairly easy to read book. Doherty is not a scholar, and his writing does not get too technical for the average layperson. His scholarship however, is pretty good – not perfect, but better than I expected from someone who is, in fact, not a scholar. I will say though, he doesn’t always identify the scholarship behind the conclusions well enough (I’ll address that below). The book is filled with point after point, building his case, mostly using very sound logic. By the end, the conclusion I reach is that Doherty has presented a very strong case for the ahistoricity of Jesus. While some holes are there, the case is generally very solid and certainly warrants a better, more scholarly response than Ehrman’s “Does Jesus Exist?,” which was unimpressive to say the least (and I say that as an Ehrman fan).
Now, the criticisms:
1) The scholarship. I know I said his scholarship is pretty good, but I mean that in the sense that when checked, much of his interpretations and conclusions do have scholarly support, even if often not consensus scholarship. One problem with this book’s scholarship is the lack of documenting and footnoting it. There were many places where a statement Doherty made is factually correct, or backed by scholarship, but he completely neglects to show the scholarship supporting it. Doherty seems to have a habit of rattling off point after point, or fact after fact, but forgetting to buttress any of it by citing sources or footnoting the scholarship behind it. While reading such presentation makes one want to whip out the highlighter and start marking the book, giving a sense of excitement at “puzzle pieces” not seen together before, the lack of source citing or scholarly justification, often causes critics to dismiss such writing out of hand (though often when checked, one will find he does have support for his interpretations, conclusions, etc.).
2) The Q rabbit hole. Doherty leaves his ever growing case behind for a while, and chases a rabbit down the hole after the Q hypothesis. I personally, do not subscribe to the Q hypothesis, particularly after Mark Goodacre’s excellent book, “The Case Against Q.” Granted, when Doherty first wrote TJP, he did not have Goodacre’s solid case from which to draw, but even in my 2005 edition, 3 years after Goodacre published TCAQ, Doherty did not budge on his Q argument. He admits that “there is no independent evidence for Q” (pg. 144) but understandably (albeit unfortunately) he sides with the consensus toward Q. Yet when he makes statements like, “no suggestion that Jesus is the Christ, no reference to the concept itself, ever surfaces in Q,” (pg. 148) one cannot help but note that he is basing part of his argument on a “factual” claim that something doesn’t exist in a document that itself has no independent evidence that it actually exists. The reality is that Doherty’s trip through Q country only weakens his overall argument. At the very least it does nothing to strengthen his thesis, and in my opinion, clearly weakens it if for no other reason, the ad hocness of the Q hypothesis itself. His book would have been much better if he had either completely dropped the Q leg of the argument, or at least condensed it into a short, single chapter as noteworthy, but not integral to his case.
3) Lastly, the book structure. Related to my previous criticism, Doherty could have made a better presentation by dropping the Q material. He takes up 6 chapters and over 50 pages on this nonessential, even deleterious content, yet he fills appendices and notes at the end with quite pertinent information. I think a far superior presentation of his thesis would have been to eliminate, or drastically reduce the Q material, and to integrate the appendices and notes into the main text. Honestly, the Q material he goes on and on about, being the weakest material in the book, should be relegated to an appendix at best, if not left out altogether. If the book had been structured in that way, I think his case would have continued solidly throughout, but as is, the interruption by the Q diversion opens up a big weak spot right in the middle of his presentation.
In summary, the book is a worthy read. It does end up finishing very strong, despite the weak middle. Doherty presents a very solid case for ahistoricity, but it’s important to note he had built on the work of others – it isn’t his own unique hypothesis. But Doherty has compiled the stronger points of previous mythicism research, while discarding most of the nonsense mythicism, into a very readable and not too lengthy book, that would be a good primer for anyone wanting to begin a trip into the world of Jesus mythicism. I have little doubt that as I work my way through Dr. Carrier’s OHJ, that I will find it far more scholarly and will recommend it as the far superior Jesus mythicism work, but I certainly can also recommend Doherty’s TJP as a worthwhile read that has its flaws, but presents a sound abstract of the ahistoricity case.
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blofeld
Fascinating
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