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Ernest Renan

The Life of Jesus Paperback – January 1, 2007

by Ernest Renan (Author)

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This was the first biography of Jesus to present him as a gifted and spiritual man, but as a man only, who was entirely human. He had wisdom, taught using parables, but being human, the Jesus of Renan was clever and opportunistic in his approach to achieving his aims. As time goes on, Jesus is shown to become increasingly enthusiastic and fanatical in the eyes of the author, to the point of deliberately allowing himself to be killed. Although one cannot prove this book to be more accurate than the traditional story (it is a matter of interpretation and opinion), it does offer a different view of Jesus that has been both criticized and praised. This book will raise interesting questions for those who seriously seek the truth and do so with open minds. It is capable of strengthening one's faith if the views are not agreeable, or it can move people further from it if the ideas make sense to the reader. Renan had studied to be a priest by attending Catholic seminaries, had taken the minor orders of the Roman Church, but in 1845 abandoned the faith. This book sparked a fierce controversy because of Renan's priesthood connection and the book caused him to be dismissed from the Chair of Hebrew at the College de France. It was written during an archaeological mission he was on in Syria in with the tremendous copying help of his devoted sister, Henriette. When both she and Ernest came down with severe attacks of fever it was only Ernest who survived. He went on to write many other books - this being the first in a series of four that were to outline the complete history and formation of the Christian faith. It is considered a classic work to this day and is still widely referenced.

Print length

236 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The Book Tree
Publication date

January 1, 2007
Dimensions

6 x 0.54 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1585092851
ISBN-13

978-1585092857
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Book Tree (January 1, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 236 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1585092851
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1585092857
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.54 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #15,220,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,830 in Agnosticism (Books)
- #11,499 in Christology (Books)
- #46,765 in Christian Church History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
25 ratings

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2 star		5%
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Alan

Not a book for faith

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2016

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As a Christian I love reading about Jesus thru different lenses. Endo's A Life of Jesus, Muggeridge's Jesus, and Dickens' The Life of Our Lord come to mind, along with the many works of T. Austin Sparks. This book is written by one who had started to become a Catholic priest, but then abandoned the priesthood as well as the faith. When he later was appointed a university professor, he used his inaugural talk to denounce the divinity of Christ. His book writes about Jesus as a man, a good man, but regards claims to anything divine as unworthy.

Two quotes:
"For the historian, the life of Jesus finishes with his last sigh. But such was the impression he had left in the heart of his disciples and of a few devoted women that during some weeks more it was as if he were living and consoling them. Had his body been taken away, or did enthusiasm, always credulous, create afterwards the group of narratives by which it was sought to establish faith in the resurrection? In the absence of opposing documents, this can never be ascertained. Let us say, however, that the strong imagination of Mary Magdalene played an important part in this circumstance. Divine power of love! Sacred moments in which the passion of one possessed gave the world a resuscitated God! (pg. 215)

"In him was condensed all that was good and elevated in our nature. He was not sinless; he has conquered the same passions we combat; no angel of God comforted him, except his good conscience; no Satan tempted him, except that which each one bears in his heart. In the same way that many of his great qualities are lost to us, through the fault of the disciples, it is also probable that many of his faults have been concealed." (pg. 227)

This is not a book if you're looking for faith. Writing from a perspective that denies the divine leaves only attempts at explanations that often miss the point of the history he's trying to describe. But such is the power of faith that the reality of Jesus as the Christ is known even as you read only about Jesus as a man.

5 people found this helpful

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Maysnake

Bad quality copy.

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2020

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Very cheap poor primitive black&white copy with copied handwriting and hand marks near text. Almost every page got some letters not printed firmly. No original publisher logo, no copyright and no year. Looks like illegally made.

Helpful

Well researched and excellent reading

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2015

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Informative and very revealing of the life and times of Jesus. In general, this books conforms to the known history of Jesus with critical additional information not previously considered and it does challenge a few conventional beliefs that may be summarized a semantics although interesting. The back cover summary does the book little justice as most Christians will appreciate the book but many yet may still have conflict regarding the immaculate conception, miracles, and resurrection and Renan's stance or point of view. I suppose that in general, these critical points constitute the primary Christian precepts but Renan nevertheless presents a Jesus more exalted, at least in my opinion, than the conventional beliefs.

I will not say I agree with all his points of views but he defends them well and since most hypothesis regarding history as well as theology are more speculative than definitive, as long as the hypothesis conforms to the known facts or that which can be proven, the hypothesis becomes no less plausible or possible than any other.

I believe that all Christians will be enriched by this book which does not force you to accept Renan's stance on the supernatural aspects of Jesus but those who are firm in faith and belief may also "choose" to see this as another dimension that reinforces the "Greatness" of the human side of Jesus, the Christ with the divine aspect firmly rooted in conventional history and theology. I think this book can exist in concert with our common beliefs as it takes nothing away from Jesus and his mission while here on earth.

4 people found this helpful

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Robert Kleinberg

A beautiful work of history

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2014

Who was Jesus?

What were his origins? What was the environment in which he grew up and worked? What and where did he preach? How did his following develop? Why was he arrested and put on trial? What happened during his final days?

Anyone interested in learning answers to these questions will do well to study this outstanding book. Renan was a French scholar of exceptional genius, who knew Greek and Hebrew, studied in depth all available sources, and, in the 1860s, lived and travelled throughout the places where Jesus lived and worked. This is a work of passion and insight, driven by a deep desire to find, understand and describe the truth regarding Jesus and his world-changing life.

Renan opens with a lengthy introduction containing a thorough and brilliant discussion about the source materials. He then proceeds to what is known or reasonably surmised about Jesus's life. He not only describes the social and religious environment of the time, in particular the role and functioning of local Jewish synagogues, but also includes beautiful descriptions of the physical environment of Galilee. It was there that Jesus began his preaching, from village to village. As the story proceeds to its tragic, almost unbearable climax in Jerusalem, Renan maintains his commitment to weigh all the evidence and to stay close to his best judgment of what really occurred. He closes with deep and moving reflections about the true meaning of Jesus's work and beliefs to later generations - emphasizing that Jesus preached no creed or set of specific doctrines: "Jesus was not a founder of dogmas... he introduced into the world a new spirit."

Writing in the nineteenth century, Renan was passionate about the science of historical understanding, but not corrupted by the timidity and political orthodoxies of today's academic writers. He does not hesitate to make bold statements about major issues including the essence of Jesus's teachings, the explanation of miracles, the mindset of followers who "believed in the reality of the ideal", and the power structure of the Jewish priesthood of the time. "A great life", he writes, "is an organic whole which cannot be rendered by the simple agglomeration of small facts."

It's ironic that Renan was condemned for allegedly attacking Christianity. In fact, his book is a moving testament to the life and spirit of Jesus, as expressed in his original teaching and in his supreme act of self sacrifice.

10 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

S. H. Smith

A Jesus Classic - With Limitations

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2017

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This book is a classic example of the nineteenth-century 'Quest of the Historical Jesus', which included scholars such as H.S. Reimarus and David Friedrich Strauss. As Albert Schweitzer showed in 1906, in his summary of the period, these attempted 'lives' of Jesus told us a good deal more about the authors themselves than about Jesus.

Ernest Renan's 'The Life of Jesus' is marvellous entertainment. He writes with typical French expressionism, and the literary quality is impressive. Unfortunately, however, it fails to get us anywhere near the Jesus of history. These days, most scholars have come to realise that the Gospels are not biographies of Jesus and were never meant to be. They are, instead, theological interpretations of Jesus, and it is impossible to reconstruct a pure 'life' as was once thought. Further, Renan's expertise was in Semitic languages rather than in New Testament studies, so he was dabbling in a field with which he was not wholly familiar. He was himself well acquainted with Palestine, so that his scene-painting in his book is convincing, but within that environment he places a largely imaginary Jesus - a Jesus of his own making. Renan was also a rationalist - that is to say, he attempted to explain the supernatural in terms of purely natural occurrences; and here again he misses the point. In all likelihood, the evangelists were more interested in what the life of Jesus meant for the Church - in the Christ of faith rather than in the Jesus of history. The question of whether or not a particular event was natural or supernatural is not one that would have been likely to occur to them - or if it did, it would have been of secondary importance.

Renan's book is certainly a good 'read' and gives one a genuine feel for the time and place, but it tells us little about the historical person of Jesus.

3 people found this helpful

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